Garden ground lights tripping earth leakage

[Movo]

Hi All

Could really use some advise. Lets paint my situation. I recently had my 220v garden ground lights replaced by an electrician due to the previous lights not working from corrosion and tripping the earth leakage. There are 3 outdoor ground lights in total. These light are also connected to 5 outdoor wall lights. All the lights are fed through a normal plug outlet in my garage. The ground lights were disconnected from the wall lights due to the tripping issue.

After the electrician installed the new ground lights everything worked fine but then after the first rain the lights tripped the earth leakage. The ground lights were encased in concrete and he initially used the original wiring for the ground light. He came back and changed out the cable for the ground light using surfix from flat twin and earth. He also used a waterproof connector for the surfix to ground light cable. The next time it rained it tripped again and I had to disconnect the ground lights again from the wall outside lights.

He now wants to come back and move the feed from the socket outlet in the garage to a light switch that is not on earth leakage.

My question is:

Is it safe to have 220v outdoor ground lights on the light circuit that is not on earth leakage?
If there was a puddle over these ground lights wont i get electrocuted due to the current issue?
Should he not fix the fault that's causing the earth to trip. All the other outdoor lights are fine even in the rain, it's only when the ground lights are connected and it rains then it trips earth.

Thank you very much

[Andrew_van_Zyl]

In my limited experience I would strongly advise against taking any circuit off earth leakage. The tripping is an indication of a problem. I suggest testing the lights one by one and by a process of elimination you will find the culprit. I've seen too many faulty circuits miraculously fixed by simply taking them off earth leakage.

[Movo]

In my limited experience I would strongly advise against taking any circuit off earth leakage. The tripping is an indication of a problem. I suggest testing the lights one by one and by a process of elimination you will find the culprit. I've seen too many faulty circuits miraculously fixed by simply taking them off earth leakage.

I think i know which one it is, one of the light has some condensation inside. Before they installed these new ground lights, i asked them to make 100% sure that the lights are waterproof.

It puzzles me why a licensed electrician would take a shortcut to put these light off earth leakage. Would this pass coc if it had to be done?

[Derlyn]

Lights do NOT need to be on earth leakage.

Plug socket outlets and water heaters must be on earth leakage.

[Isetech]

Lights do NOT need to be on earth leakage.

Plug socket outlets and water heaters must be on earth leakage.

Something to consider, outside lights sometimes require a little trenching.

[Derlyn]

Doesn't matter. I'm going by the book.
Unless there are ceiling fans involved, luminaires do not need to be on earth leakage.

The poster is trying to fault the electrician for wanting to connect the lights to the lighting circuit. Nothing illegal doing that.

[Derlyn]

All the other outdoor lights are fine even in the rain, it's only when the ground lights are connected and it rains then it trips earth.

Thank you very much

That's probably because all the "other" outdoor lights are not on earth leakage. Nothing illegal or wrong with that.

[Movo]

That's probably because all the "other" outdoor lights are not on earth leakage. Nothing illegal or wrong with that.

If you read the post, i said that ALL the outdoor lights are connected on the same plug and did not trip prior. Im not trying to fault anyone, these are ground lights that are directly infront of my garage. I dont want myself or my kids to get electrocuted.

In some countries outdoor lights have to be on a RCD. I want to know if what he is doing is safe not accepted practice. Based on the 1st response i got, i thought he was taking a shorcut, can anyone else confirm becase what i got now is 2 opposing views

[Dave A]

In some countries outdoor lights have to be on a RCD. I want to know if what he is doing is safe not accepted practice. Based on the 1st response i got, i thought he was taking a shorcut, can anyone else confirm becase what i got now is 2 opposing views

Derlyn is correct in that South African standards allow luminaires to not be on RCD/earth leakage protection. From a safety point of view, what will be critical is that any exposed conductive surface (any exposed metal part) is adequately earthed. That way, even if there is a full short between live and the conductive part, there will be sufficient current to trip the overcurrent protection without the part being at an unsafe potential voltage.

[GCE]

If you read the post, i said that ALL the outdoor lights are connected on the same plug and did not trip prior. Im not trying to fault anyone, these are ground lights that are directly infront of my garage. I dont want myself or my kids to get electrocuted.

In some countries outdoor lights have to be on a RCD. I want to know if what he is doing is safe not accepted practice. Based on the 1st response i got, i thought he was taking a shorcut, can anyone else confirm becase what i got now is 2 opposing views

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