Lighting & Home

Check Cable Entry Position When Replacing Lanterns

Check Cable Entry Position When Replacing Lanterns

When the houses on my estate were built nearly twenty years ago, we were all provided with outdoor lights at the front of the house either side of the up & over garage doors – rather amusingly they’re called carriage lanterns.    Well inevitably after a few years, one or both of my garage mounted lights failed and it wasn’t dealt with immediately.   When I finally got around to asking for help on this matter, the lights had in fact been off for some ten years – the cable had become damaged between the fixture and the internal socket.  I called an electrician who inspected the sorry state and packing me off to a trade outlet to get replacement lamps, he set about rectifying the cable problem and putting a safety junction box in place.   My first choice were rejected as the cable entry was in wrong position, requiring additional holes to be drilled – another valuable lesson learned!