New garden setup - control box? Help

[cgfw201]

Hi guys,
Have had a load of cheap lights of various types in my garden over the past year, generally look great at nice but all a bit piecemeal with some solar, some on 3032 batteries, some aa and some off 13a plugs.

I want to get some harder wearing outdoor rated fairy lights, festoons and a couple of uplights, but before I spend money on those I want to make sure they're controllable from a central point.

The lighting websites I've been looking at to get the products from don't seem to have "control box" hub kind of things. Apologies don't know the proper name. But just want a nice neat and tidy box I can run all the cables into and turn on/dim all the lights from rather than have 10 different plugs and extension cables lying around the place.

Could someone recommend me the right thing?

I've spoken to a lighting company and they're trying to charge me 3x the price for the same lights so trying to avoid that, although happy to get an electrician in to wire everything up correctly at the end.

[kellys_eye]

Stick with low voltage lighting (12V and under) and you can very easily make your own with a suitable box and a handful of toggle switches - see the various car accessory shops for typical switches and/or ebay for a chinese selection of models.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/174925070089 ... Sw7P9focgn

It's nothing more than drilling holes for the switches and glands (cable entry) and a big enough box could contain the necessary 12V power supply to power them all. If you need weatherproof stuff then look for IP65 rated components i.e. box and glands.

Obviously there will be commercial suppliers but if its kind of 'bespoke' you're looking for the expect to pay £££'s.

[Someone-Else]

cgfw201 Let us breakdown what you are looking for.

Solar
Great idea in principal, but you can't control from central location, and waste of time in winter (No sun)

Outdoor fairy lights
Several brands are available, but most are powered by a "Power supply" (see further down)

Festoon lights
Mains operated are best, since you can usually easily change the lamps, so for example you could have all white lamps during the year, then change to a mixture of coloured lamps at Christmas. Choose carefully, as not all brands of festoon lamp have changeable lamps.

Uplights
Great for highlighting a specific thing, i.e. Tree, bush, building entrance

Now the "fun" part.
Dimming lights, first thing, not all LED lights can be dimmed by just adding a dimmer switch, secondly if the lights are mains operated but infact have a power supply, you can't "dim" most power supplies. You often need specific dimmers. I suggest it would be better to have multiple switches and no dimmers.

12v lights
Using these means you can use "Any cable, bury it where you like and not worry about it" but the problem is cable distance, the further it goes the bigger it has to be to overcome voltage drop.

Mains lights
Mains has to be the way to go, the downside is the cable run to the lights should be in Steel Wire Armoured cable.
This is because SWA is designed to be used outdoors, you can hit it with a shovel and you may just dent it, you can even bury it, but most other cables breakdown over time, but as you are willing to get an electrician, let him/her worry about that part.

Controls / central control
I very much doubt that you will find an "off the shelf" option simply because there are too many options for anyone to make something viable* but you can make your own. (Not as hard as it sounds)
* How many switches, what colour, weatherproof or not, style of switch etc.

My thoughts
"Smart stuff" You can get a little smart switch called "sonoff" (I have a few of them) I can control them via "Alexa" / preset timer. The sonoff units can only turn on or off, they can not dim anything, but you could mount them in a box (within wi-fi range) and connect your lights to them. (I have some for indoor lights and some for outdoor lights)

You can of course have switches indoors to control your lights, it just depends on where you want them.

Planning
I would suggest you have a look in your garden to see what lights you do want, rather than making what you have "fit" The lights in my garden started off as one, then more and more (Solar, been there done that) Once you have decided what you want to light, you can then choose lights that will do what you want i.e. uplighter for that big tree, wall lights for that path etc.
There is also a very decorative 5v option, "Pixels" Colour changing/chasing LEDs

pixels-by-day.jpg (21.48 KiB) Viewed 959 times

pixels-at-night.jpg (19.33 KiB) Viewed 959 times

You can use "Pixels" instead of "fairy lights" believe it or not, they are cheaper than most fairy lights.

Once you have chosen your lights you can then decide where/how you want to switch them (switches are much easier) then you can figure out how to get the cable from the lights to the switches. (I also have some of the lights controlled by PIR's)

Some pictures of my lights for your inspiration.

uplighter-day.jpg (72.28 KiB) Viewed 959 times

uplighter-night.jpg (26.05 KiB) Viewed 959 times

uplight2-day.jpg (67.48 KiB) Viewed 959 times

(paint is an optional extra)

uplight2-night.jpg (8.17 KiB) Viewed 959 times

uplight3-daylight.jpg (59.06 KiB) Viewed 959 times

uplight3-night.jpg (20.14 KiB) Viewed 959 times

festoon-daylight.jpg (51.97 KiB) Viewed 959 times

festoon-night.jpg (18.48 KiB) Viewed 959 times

switches.jpg (14.48 KiB) Viewed 959 times

I have some of the lights controlled by PIR's / sonoff units, so that is why you only see 2 switches

cgfw201, if you have any questions, please ask, if you go ahead please take pictures, and please don't wait another 6 years before you post again.