Question about outdoor lights / water protection

Hello!

I hope someone here can help me.

We looked for outdoor lamps in an electrical trade catalog. We found what we were looking for and ordered the outdoor lamps accordingly. When they arrived, we hired our electrical company, which also did everything for our new building, to install these lamps.

Since yesterday, however, these lamps have stopped working and the RCD keeps tripping. I have now called the company and reported this situation. The electrician immediately asked what the IP rating of these lamps is. I checked and it is IP44.

He then said that this could not work either because our lamps are unprotected in the outdoor area and they are the wrong lamps!

Now I am wondering why this company installed exactly these lamps for us at all. And also did not point out that there could be problems! We also specifically looked under "outdoor lighting" in the electrical catalog. As a layperson, we had no idea that there are differences here.

What does the whole thing look like now? We paid about 400 Euros for the installation of the lamps and now the lamps are no longer usable :-(.

I expressly commissioned a professional company with the installation so that something like this would not happen...

Thank you very much for your help in advance!

PS: Of course, an exchange of the lamps is no longer possible now and corresponding drill holes for the outdoor lamps have been made all over the clinker :-(

IP44 initially has nothing to do with your RCD tripping. The majority of all outdoor lamps are equipped with this protection class. It means protection against splashing water from all sides - and is therefore sufficient for most outdoor applications.

Who knows what the wiring looks like or how your electrician connected it.

P.S. Have been using dozens of IP44 outdoor lamps for many years without having a single problem so far.

Hello, we have already installed such lamps ourselves and sealed them to the house wall with silicone. Only left a small gap at the bottom so that any water that might have entered can escape again. Has been running for 6 years...

Some rainwater must have entered the connection chamber of one of the lamps. That’s why the RCD trips. You just have to open all the lamps and check. Then drill a small hole on the underside of the chambers so that water can drain in the future. It's not rocket science. Of course, you can do that yourself as well. In case the installer continues to be uncooperative...

Your electrician probably did not work, let's say, optimally. IP44 is completely sufficient for outdoor lights, meaning protection against splashing water from all sides. As long as the garden hose is not sprayed directly on it, this should not cause any problems!

However, it is not always easy to install various outdoor lamps in a professionally proper way to prevent any water issues.

Nevertheless, you should seriously talk to the electrician about a free-of-charge rework!