Garden ground lights tripping earth leakage

[Movo]

I agree that the lights do not need to be on Earth Leakage .

You talk ground lights - Are these the buried type that shine up ?
Is it a sealed unit ? can you post a pic

Thanks for the feedback all. I asked for lights that are waterproof due the old lights having water in them, corrosion and tripping but these can be opened to change the bulb

These lights are brand new and the old lights that these replaced were identical.

For now they are disconnected from the outdoor light circuit. The other lights are on the walls and those are fine. Its only these in ground lights that trip when reconnected.

[GCE]

It would appear that the lights are getting moisture in them

We have found that they only way to keep moisture out of them is to use silicone paste, not silicone sealer, on the rubber seals and gland seals - The paste to rubber is like Dubbin to leather
Silicone sealer tends to shrink when it gets cold and allows water to stream in.

The 2nd thing that needs to be done is to excavate a hole the size of a 5 litre paint can or bigger, depending on the soil, below the uplighters and fill with coarse stone and then fit the uplighters. This allows for any water to soak away and not sit around the light fitting. When a light is on it gets warm and as soon as it is switched off it cools down and sucks water in , how or where is always a mystery - The stone trick generally works but if the soil has a lot of clay you always run the risk of getting water into the fitting .The only way is to have drainage to keep the fittings out of a " pool " of water from underneath.

The look the fittings give in lighting up is always aesthetically pleasing but from a practical point of view a nightmare for installation

[Movo]

Thank you for the advise, I will definitely use this

[Isetech]

Talking about earth leakage, lights, wiring to the lights, installations methods, etc.


6.4.4 Buried cables
6.4.4.1 Unarmoured cables may be buried if they are insulated and sheathed.
If unarmoured insulated cables are buried at a depth of
a) less than 0,5 m, they shall be enclosed in conduit or otherwise
mechanically protected (for example, in the case of paving or concrete)
(see also 6.5), or protected by an earth leakage protection device with a
rated earth leakage tripping current (rated residual current) IΔn not
exceeding 30 mA, or

[Justloadit]

Maybe change the lamps from 230V to 12V and use a transformer at source of the incoming supply.
In this way the moisture issue will not cause the ELU to trip, and 12V as a lower voltage will reduce any residual current flow due to the moisture in the fitting.
Granted a good installation is still recommend to maintain a longer life of the fittings to keep as much water out as possible.