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White Lamp Post With Electrical Outlet

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James-W

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A good friend of mine wants to buy a white outdoor lamp post with an outlet in the post rather than in the light fixture. He has looked around but has not been able to find one in a store or on a web site. Anybody got an idea where he could find one? I suppose he could get a black one and paint it white, that would take care of the color problem, but how would we mount an electrical outlet in a 3 inch round pipe? It would be a lot better if he could find the right thing instead of screwing around trying to make up something that would work.
 
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Norcal

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I don't think it will be easy to find anymore they used to be around but codes changed, GFCI requirements I think did them in.
 
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James-W

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Norcal said:
I don't think it will be easy to find anymore they used to be around but codes changed, GFCI requirements I think did them in.
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You are right, I didn't think about that, he may have to settle for an outlet in the light fixture he puts on top of the lamp post. I have seen those fixtures in stores so I am sure he can get one of those. It isn't what he wanted, but I guess having an outlet in the light fixture would be better than not having one at all. Thanks for the "heads up" on that.
 
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walta

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bczygan

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Mount an outdoor box on the side of the pipe, fed from a GFCI inside. Run wiring that separates light and outlet. Control the light by switch inside and or timer or light sensor outside.

Bill
 
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Marctrees

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I, for myself, would buy a Carlon pvc or Al Bell type FS box... cut out the back and create a correct radius...and attach w little angle brackets, rivets to box, sheet metal screws to post., RTV.

Install a regular recept cause ckt to post would be gfi'd anyway.

Install proper WP cover.

For myself, I would not get an "In use" cover but the opposite old school type.

Again, that's for me, no inspection here, but based on 25 yrs of indust/ comm/ res electric work common sense.

Marc
 
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James-W

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Thanks for all the info guys, I appreciate it.

I will let him know everything you mentioned and let him decide what he wants to do. Well, actually, I think his wife is the one who wants this done, I doubt friend cares all that much one way or the other about it.

One thing I am going to strongly suggest though, is that he replaces the underground wiring. The house was built in the late 70's and I don't know if the builder used wiring rated for underground use. If I do this for him I want to be sure and do it correctly so everything meets the current code. Problem is, I have no idea how to replace the underground wiring without digging up part of his lawn and part of the walkway going to his front door. Well, I guess we will have to worry about that when we get that far, assuming we ever do get that far.
 
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Marctrees

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First off, the old wiring is just totally disconnected and cut on both ends, the rest is abandoned in situ. No need to remove all of it.

You need to confirm this - Last I recall NEC said 12" minimum cover in PVC 20 amp max and protected by GFI on res property under lawn.

Marc
 
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James-W

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Marctrees said:
First off, the old wiring is just totally disconnected and cut on both ends, the rest is abandoned in situ. No need to remove all of it.

You need to confirm this - Last I recall NEC said 12" minimum cover in PVC 20 amp max and protected by GFI on res property under lawn.

Marc
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Whether we remove the old wiring or not isn't really the issue, the point is, we should run a new cable of the proper size and type. But to do that I suspect we will need to dig up at least a portion of his lawn and the cable will need to be run under the walkway going up to his front door. We can leave the old cable in the ground I suppose, but if we dig up the lawn and tear out part of the walkway, we may as well remove the old cable.

How the cable gets into the house I have no idea, we will have to check that out and see how easily accessible it is. I think he has two wall switches to operate the light, one for the light and one for an outlet.

Originally he said that he had a lamp post with an outlet on it as well as a light. But the lamp post got really rusty and he had someone replace it with a PVC pipe, without an outlet. Now his wife wants an outlet out there so she can plug in different things for different seasons of the year. To be quite honest, I am not sure this is something I want to get involved with. But if I do get involved in this, I want to do it correctly.
 
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exranger06

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If you put the receptacle on a different circuit than the light, does the LIGHT still need to be GFCI protected? I know the receptacle needs to be GFCI protected regardless.
 
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Stuart in MN

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