We need an outdoor yard light that is always on with an 20 amp outlet on the pole. How do I wiring it?

If I understand this right, you want the light on all the time, even during the day? Everything you need for outside use will have to be in weatherproof-boxes, fittings, a GFCI, etc. Why do you need a 20 AMP outlet? Do you know where a 12 AWG wire is located? you can't put a 20 AMP outlet on a 14AWG wire and do you know the difference? Are you going to have to run this wire from the breaker box? Are you personally going to do this, and have you wired outlets before? Although this is a relatively easy task for an electrician or accomplished handyman, outside wiring is trickier than inside wiring because all of the boxes will have to be grounded properly and you will have to know what side of the GFCI you want to run the light from-line or load. Get back to us with some of the answers to the questions we asked

Hey Ma, I'm going to piggyback this thread so as to give the OP something else to think about...

I understood the question to be a lamp post, probably switched, but with an unswitched outlet.

Anyway, here's what I saw wired in a home I was tiling that I thought was pretty cool idea, but I don't know if it's compliant or not. At the door, there was a 4 gang box, 1 switch was the lamp at the door and post, 1 was the light in the foyer, and right next to them were 2 gfci inserts. Don't know the official name, but it was a decora shape of just the gfci buttons, no plugs. One was the GFCI for the pole outlet and one was the GFCI for the outlet directly outside the door. Outside, standard decora outlets were used protected by weather proof boxes. The homeowner had this done so when their Christmas lights tripped in wet weather, they could reset it from inside. Thought it was pretty cool idea. Is that Kosher? Might be a consideration for the OP if it is.

To the OP, as stated, the actual wiring is pretty basic. Where you live, can this be direct burial wire or must you run it through conduit? Have you found out how deep you need to trench?

That's a good idea since tripping during rain is a problem. Could run a 12/3 and switch the light or a12/2 into a GFCI, line side to a photocell and then into a light. Can't tell if this is a light post or a floodlight. Maybe they'll get back.

OK Ma, now I'll get completely unrelated 'cause I see you are in Woodstock. When you come off 75, you pass a dry wall distributor (if they're still there) and a little further along there's if I recall, a little restaurant like an old diner style. It's an authentic Mexican food place, a complete hole falling apart around it. I think there was a small air strip nearby too. I didn't understand a word anyone said but the food was just unbelievably out of this world delicious. Is it still there?

We live about 12 m north of 75. There are a couple of good places on 41, near the airstrip. By the way, born and raised in Cherry Hill, went to Eustace-59.

We have a floodlight that is a yard light that is on a telephone pole and it runs on a light sensor, so power to the light needs to be always on. I an a telecom engineer by trade so I have wired lots of circuits. This is at our cabin out in the country to it is always good to have outlets throughout our property. The wire is 12 gauge 2 wire and is buried 2 to 3 feet deep in outside conduit on a 20 amp breaker all by itself. We ran the wire up the pole and put in an outside weatherproof box. I put the circuit though a GFI outlet and the light worked fine, but we are only here 6 months out of the year and I want the light on so it can't be tripped by the GFI circuit either by weather or someone turning it off. So I tried to rewire it by bringing the GFI off on separate wires and tied all of the whites, blacks and grounds together. The box is also grounded to the outlet and the box. At first, I thought I had a short/lose wire since the light would go on at dusk for a few seconds and turned off, but I really think that is not the way to wire it. I tried putting in a regular outlet with the light going though the bottom terminals and also with all tied together with pigtails to the outlet. The light didn't work but the outlet did. I want a GFI so this isn't good lonterm. I finally took the outlet out and the light works fine. I really want an outlet there. Since we have already sealed the conduit I don't want to add another wire or breaker for the outlet.

To keep them independent of each other, the light ties into the power before the outlet by pig tailing the outlet. Cap the black from the house, the black to the light and the black pigtail, do the same for the whites. Ties all the grounds together. The pigtails connect to the line screws of the outlet, not the load. Load screws are for downstream protected connected devices. Cover the sensor with your finger. If the light doesn't work properly, double check all the lighting connections. If they're all OK, no corrosion, tight, etc, bypass the sensor. If the light comes on and stays on, replace the sensor, you have the last one assembled on Friday before quitting time. :)

Good Luck

Thanks all, I will try that.