Override switch

Can you use a toggle switch and make it manually override the photo cell without out messing up the photocell. Because when you send that switched wire to the light it also energizes the load wire to the photocell.

yes

but if you wanted to avoid that, you could just use a 2 way switch...

Only slightly relevant, I can remember being told of a job another contractor did, two cirucits of outside lighting controlled through a DP contactor switched by photocell and timeclock, with the controls tagged off one of the poles of the contactor, the override ended up tagged off the other (deffo not right, but more common than it should be!) . It got found slightly after handover because the two circuits happened to be on differnt phases....

Nivek134 said:

Can you use a toggle switch and make it manually override the photo cell without out messing up the photocell. Because when you send that switched wire to the light it also energizes the load wire to the photocell.

Click to expand...

 of course you can, just wire the override to bypass the photocell ie direct connect the live in an out,  very useful when trying to check lights during daylight hours when the photcell is high up the side of a block of flats.

binky said:

 of course you can, just wire the override to bypass the photocell ie direct connect the live in an out,  very useful when trying to check lights during daylight hours when the photcell is high up the side of a block of flats.

Click to expand...

EXACTLY,!

I always make the mains/cell/lights joint easily accessible if possible with a keyswitch fitted.

people, who join them all out at the cell/light end should be made to beat them themselves to death with a faeces encrusted stick

just saying

The two-way switch might be the best solution for your criteria. In this way, you can manually override the photocell without messing up the photocell.