We carry out lighting in the barn - practical tips

Determine the installation conditions

Before you conduct the light, you need to find out what a barn in the country is and what it is used for. Now we will consider the main options for household units and briefly talk about what difficulties can arise when installing lighting with your own hands.

1. The room is heated, dry. It’s easiest to bring light to such an outbuilding because You can choose any type of wiring: open or hidden.
2. Humidity is increased or just not a heated barn. Here it is already necessary to draw the lighting line only in pipes that additionally isolate the wiring from moisture.
3. A particularly damp room (usually greenhouses and hotbeds). Necessarily the conductor must have double insulation, the light switch must be moved outside the country house. Luminaires must be waterproof with IP degree of protection 65, and working on a safe voltage of 12 volts.

There is no significant difference between a humid and a particularly wet room in terms of electrical work. In any case, you will have to carry out lighting in the corrugation or metal hose at the same time install a step-down transformer 220/12 V, if the shed is used as a barn or chicken coop. Well, the last of the most important installation conditions is the distance from the private house to the outbuilding. If the distance is small and there are no obstacles (we’ll talk about them a little lower), we advise you to put light into the barn through the air. If before the building a few tens of meters and along the way there are many trees or other obstacles, it is better to lay a cable in the ground at a depth of at least 80 cm, as shown in the diagram.

We prepare materials

So, based on the above conditions, you must prepare materials in order to independently conduct light from a private house to the barn. We recommend that you use VVGng cable (for aerial wiring), moisture-proof junction boxes with hermetic bushings, as well as light switches with a high degree of dust and moisture protection (at least IP44). Also, with the air method of installing the lighting line, we recommend that you additionally buy a special insulated cable, along which a cable will be routed in the corrugation.In addition to the cable, purchase two hooks and special cable clips that will be necessary for further fastening.

If you still decide to draw a lighting line to the shed in the trench, we recommend that you definitely look at the instructions with video examples on installation of electrical wiring underground, which describes all the intricacies of electrical work. As for the cable, its length must be purchased with a margin of 3-4 meters so that there is no strong tension on the electric line and at the same time there is probably enough material from the house to the barn. Do not forget to complete calculation of cable cross-section by power and length. If you are going to connect several bulbs and will not take out an additional outlet from the junction box, the cable section can be safely selected 1.5 mm² (again, if there are no restrictions on the distance from the house).

Be sure to protect the lighting line in the barn with a circuit breaker that will protect the wiring from short circuits, and the utility building itself from fire. About, how to choose a circuit breaker read in the corresponding article.

Electric installation work

So, now let's talk about the most interesting - how to get light into the barn from a private house. In fact, the installation of lighting is much easier to perform than preparatory work. Consider an example of a simpler and at the same time popular installation method - by air in a dry hozblok.

1. Fasten the first hook in a suitable place on the house. You can use the mount on the insulators, as shown in the photo below.
2. Pass the cable through the corrugated pipe, which will additionally protect the lighting line from mechanical damage.
3. Turn off the power at the opening home shield.
4. Drill a hole in the wall of the house to route the cable into it and connect it to the home distribution board at the input.
5. Pass the light to the barn and lead the cable inside the building.
6. At the entrance install circuit breaker.
7. From the machine, withdraw the junction box from which you need run the cable into the corrugation to the right places (where the bulbs will be).
8. You can connect the lamp not only inside the barn, but also at the exit, as shown in the photo. In both cases, it is better to use lamps with waterproof shades for lighting.
9. Install a light switch in a suitable place. To control street and indoor lighting, it is better to use a dual model. Wiring diagram for the two-key light switch we provided in the corresponding article.
10. After all electrical work, turn on the electricity and check how correctly you managed to conduct light in the barn.

That's all you have to do to install the lighting in the barn with your own hands! As you can see, there is nothing complicated, and besides, such work does not take much time. We draw your attention to the fact that if you install a step-down transformer in an unheated utility unit (for example, YAT), you will have an additional outlet, to which you can connect the power tool during the repair. In this case, the cross section of the copper cable that you extend from the cottage should be at least 2.5 mm².

This completes our simple instruction. We hope that now you know how to conduct light into the barn from a private house with your own hands! If your summer cottage often remains without electricity, it is recommended to put a flashlight at the entrance to the outbuilding, which can save the situation at any time.