Pole Light Electrical Questions

[Charlton John]

Thanks Eddie, (and everyone) You hit the nail right on the head. As I mentioned I am not the best or really at all knowledgable about wiring and lighting and I have seen I am getting a lot of different ideas and not being to knowledgable I dont know what ones are good or bad. I will do as you suggest w/ seeing what else is on the circut and doing the simple math and going from there. I guess I could also just start from scratch and just have a new switch installed somewhere inside and going from there and leaving the existing pole light alone. I do like the light and want to keep it in its current condition/location. Thanks again, this will most likely be a spring time project as we are getting ready for another lovely season of snow in the great north east w/ it starting on Friday according to the current forcast. The pole light is kind of seen in the picture below (its wrapped in a corn stalk for season decorations) by the 2 pumpkins in front of the house, you can see if you maximize the pic. My plan would be to run from here to almost the top of this picture (about another 40 feet) at the top of the driveway.

 

[Western]

You can not just "up" the breaker size without "upping" the wire size as well. Assuming that this is a typical home lighting / outlet circut. It is probaly a 15 amp breaker feeding a 14/2 guage wire (romex ?). To just "up" the breaker to a 20 amp while leaving the wire at 14 guage could potentially overheat the wire, risking a chance of fire.
The same rule stands if the circut in question happens to be a 20 amp breaker feeding a 12/2 romex. You can't just "up" the breaker because you need more amperage.
That was bad advice and suggestion.
Find out what size the current braker and wire size is for the circut in question, do a load calculation on whatever items you have on the circut and see if the circut has the capacity to safely add more load.
You didn't mention how long of a distance you looking at running more lights. There will be some voltage drop but very minimal and you wil most likey never see it.
A 15 amp circut will safely operate quite alot of 60 watt bulbs without an issue, unless there is something like a washing machine or a refigrator on the circut with them.

Sorry guys, as I said, I'm not an electrician.. I should have been more specific but I wasn't since I knew an electrician would chime in. I wasn't posting as "advice" or "suggestion" only variable possibilities, like I said it will probably depend on wire run lenght etr tra..

my bad..

 

[JB4310]

They have all kinds of control options now so what ever you decide you can really customize the way it works. you can have the dusk to dawn, dusk to what ever amount of hours you want them to stay on, motion on, half bright etc.etc.

I've switched to cfl's outside a couple years ago with no problem in sub freezing temps. they do take a minute to warm up, but for a door light that just stays on it's not an issue. I don't like cfl's for a closet that your just in there for a second and out, due to the warm up factor.

 

[nap61]

CJ,
There has been some really good suggestions in this thread but I think Eddie has the best game plan. Also, no body directly answered you question - cfls are "compact florescent lights" (the curly-ques, etc.)

Norm

 

[tommu56]

Is the original light fed with uf direct burial cable?
If so you can get a repair splice kits for it and use to add some wire to make a point to make connections from.

http://multimedia.3m.com/mws/mediawebserver?66666UuZjcFSLXTt4Xf24Xs6EVuQEcuZgVs6EVs6E666666--

tom

 

[MT. Sparky]

Well it looks from the picture that your house is pretty new, so the chances of the circuit having enough capacity to add a couple of new lights is pretty good. The low voltage lights would probaly be the easiest to instlall. I would think that the pole light has UF cable running to it so you could splice it underground with no need for a j box. If you want more help you could pm me. Hope this helps.

 

[ampa]

I bought a 250 watt halogen security light that is fully adjustable and have it set to come on at dusk only... this type gives off plenty of light and is an energy saver...when I drive in the driveway my van will trip the sensor...I have it set to on 1 minute only...it has three settings 1-2-10 minutes...and like Eddie Walker mentioned I used plastic conduct....I was gonna' bury it but I only rent the property so I just have it lying on top the ground..although I bought the solvent to connect the plastic conduct I didn't use it neither...I did buy a conduct box to connect my block heater outlet for my compact tractor....I can pack it all up and use it at another location if I had to move....HF would have these security lights at a reasonable price...I bought mine for around $32 plus tax at Princess Auto here in Ontario Canada....Ampa

 

[veresjwv]

Thanks Eddie, (and everyone) You hit the nail right on the head. As I mentioned I am not the best or really at all knowledgable about wiring and lighting and I have seen I am getting a lot of different ideas and not being to knowledgable I dont know what ones are good or bad. I will do as you suggest w/ seeing what else is on the circut and doing the simple math and going from there. I guess I could also just start from scratch and just have a new switch installed somewhere inside and going from there and leaving the existing pole light alone. I do like the light and want to keep it in its current condition/location. Thanks again, this will most likely be a spring time project as we are getting ready for another lovely season of snow in the great north east w/ it starting on Friday according to the current forcast. The pole light is kind of seen in the picture below (its wrapped in a corn stalk for season decorations) by the 2 pumpkins in front of the house, you can see if you maximize the pic. My plan would be to run from here to almost the top of this picture (about another 40 feet) at the top of the driveway.

I like the idea of leaving the pole light and adding, but it is possible to do it either way. You have recieved some good info but no one has gone all the way with it:
1) Decide what you would really want... what type of lights, how many, and what kind.
2)Decide how you want to control them... Photo control, timer, switch.
3) Research the existing circuit... what size breaker, what size wire, what else is on it..
Here is the important part... 14 gauge wire - 15 amp circuit at 120 volts = 1800 watts x 80% =1440 watts 12 gauge wire - 20 amp circuit at 120 volts = 2400 watts x 80% = 1920 watts
4) The National Electrical code states lighting is to be considered a continuious load so there for you can only us 80% percent of the rated circuit. That is 1440 watts on a 15 amp circuit and 1920 watts on a 20 amp circuit.
If you have access under the house such as a basement then anything you would like to do becomes relatively easy. You need to first make a plan.
Hope this helps

 

[dcyrilc]

Those Solar lights might have to be the better ones. I bought some with the idea of lighting my driveway. Well as most of us knows it rains here in Washington. So the Solar lights don't get much of a charge time. With the daylight being short the solar light only last about 1-2 hours right now. It is not even a month old.

Surely they do better than that? I'm at the other end of the lake in Woodinville. Haven't you seen all the comercials on TV about how great it is around here for solar?

 

[dcyrilc]

I like the idea of leaving the pole light and adding, but it is possible to do it either way. You have recieved some good info but no one has gone all the way with it:
1) Decide what you would really want... what type of lights, how many, and what kind.
2)Decide how you want to control them... Photo control, timer, switch.
3) Research the existing circuit... what size breaker, what size wire, what else is on it..
Here is the important part... 14 gauge wire - 15 amp circuit at 120 volts = 1800 watts x 80% =1440 watts 12 gauge wire - 20 amp circuit at 120 volts = 2400 watts x 80% = 1920 watts
4) The National Electrical code states lighting is to be considered a continuious load so there for you can only us 80% percent of the rated circuit. That is 1440 watts on a 15 amp circuit and 1920 watts on a 20 amp circuit.
If you have access under the house such as a basement then anything you would like to do becomes relatively easy. You need to first make a plan.
Hope this helps

As an electrician specializing in street lighting systems, the only thing I would add to this post, is that you can upsize the wire out to the next lights if you are concerned about voltage drop due to distance. This doesn't allow any upgrade to the amout of wattage available on the circuit, it just help to ensure proper voltage at the end of the run. Since watts=volts x amps, voltage drop will increase the amperage used to produce the wattage.

Most street lighting systems in western Washington use #8 wire om 30A circuits. They are also limited to 4 - 6 city blocks without upping the wire another size.

IMHO, most of the posts here have been pretty good and the few exceptions have been pointed out. Breakers are almost always installed according to the size of the wire they are protecting and cannot be increased in size without increasing the size of the wire. But again, that has already been pointed out.

I agree that determining what is already on the breaker is the best first step, followed by a plan. Once you find the correct breaker, don't forget to check to see if any outlets loose power while the breaker is off. Residentual construction often puts outlets and lighting on the same breaker. (One of my pet peaves. Trip a breaker at night and stumble around in the dark. I know that it's done to keep costs down, but it still drives me nuts.) The need to plug in a vaccume, etc can also determine how many lights you can run.