Decking/Path and outdoor lighting...

[f13ldy]

I have some decking going down tomorrow and I've just noticed that it's going to be dark up that end of the garden without lights (having just been up there).

I have in the near future a path going down as well from foot of decking back to the house.

So I've gathered my options with lighting are a) Solar or b) a cable run sunk into the ground back to feed of the garage electrics?

Is the'b)' option a viable one? The run would be around 60ft to the nearest plug socket in the garage. Would I need a separate RCD for outdoor lighting? Would I need the path foundations dug, get sparky in, finish path?

Anyone have a rough estimate of costs? I'm assuming around 1k. As everything seems to start at that range these days...

I would require some deck lights, a couple of floor standing lamps and some path lights to be run...

[f13ldy]

I think hard wired is definitely my preferred option after reading about solar quality.

So would my process be:

Fit deck,
fit lights,
dig path foundations,
get sparky into wire up,
install lights around path & deck,
check it works,
lay path.

I have a preferred path installer already so getting to dig up then sit tight for a few days shouldn't be a problem hopefully.

[f13ldy]

Thank for the reply nigel.

I have decking measuring about 8m x 6m and the path is around 8m long.

So lights every 2m or so on the decking would be 24 lights.

Then every 2m in pairs on the path so another 8. Total of 32, plus 2 x floor standers so 34 lights.

Jesus that sounds like a airfield.

I only have a double plug socket on the garage and a light switch which is actually a fused spur. The plug works regardless of whether the spur is on or off.