I have a round junction box protruding from an exterior wall. It had a fixture on it with a circular cover, but I've replaced it with a fixture that has a rectangular box which I would guess is supposed to be tight to a wall (see photo).
The area where this is installed is covered, but there is free airflow into the junction box and I can see the wires if I poke my head back there.
Are there any risks to having this wiring exposed in this way?
That needs to be closed up. Use a round to rectangle box adapter.
Image from amazon, no endorsement implied, it was just the first one to come up and I'm being lazy.
The fixture is (probably) properly mounted to the box, and that method is not likely a fire or water hazard at that location. But the problem is the fixture is intended to be mounted to a flat surface, and contact with the fixture could easily tear it off due to ease of something getting hooked behind it.
The simple solution is to trim some pieces of lumber and box-in the outlet box so the fixture has a flat surface to mount to.
The main problem is that it looks shoddy compared to the rest of the handywork, from that perspective. It could survive 100 years like that, especially if the wire is not thin copper strand and the humidity is not high.
