Hi all. I’m looking for a way to power a camera that will be outdoors. I live in an apartment and am not allowed to make holes in the outside walls.
There is an outside light and I’m wondering if there is a way to get USB power from this?
I have seen that in the US there are adaptors that fit between the lbulb socket and the bulb and have a USB breakout socket.
Does anyone know if such a thing exists in the UK? And, ideally, with a bayonet fitting.
Thanks.
Not since the 1980’s when those bayonet fittings were used for Christmas tree lights!
There is a good reason for it too - UK voltage is higher than the US’s common 110v and lighting circuits aren’t usually protected with an RCD, creating a significant risk if the fitting ever become wet or damaged.
Landlords in the UK must undertake an EICR every year to prove electrical safety - this means unless you can negotiate the fitting of (say) a FCU and hard-wired USB power supply, there may well be an issue.
There are options to replace the whole light fitting with a light + camera device in a safe and compliant manner (e.g. Nest offer an expensive but decent floodlight camera), but again, you may well need to negotiate with a landlord.
Many cameras come with a very long lead, solar panels, or just a USB recharging port for just this reason.
Tip: If you must run a low-voltage cable through a window opening (not recommended, but…), add BlueTak to form a triangular seal as uPVC window foam seals won’t form around the cable, causing a draft.
The days of connecting electric irons into BC light fittings went out with Bakelite as it was very unsafe. I’ve seen a BS1363 plug power supply with wires taped to the pins and wired into a mains circuit (no fuse protection), but that was also very unsafe and was quickly defused!
As Ronnie says, domestic circuits supplying sockets are typically protected against overcurrent with an circuit breaker, and also electric shock via an RCD (latterly ELCB or RCBOs) . Lighting circuits may only have overcurrent protection, making them less safe in wet outside areas which is typically fine as you don’t routinely maintain light fittings in a rain storm!