Tesla Posted March 8, 2017 Posted March 8, 2017 To all DIY-ers How easy is it to run power from house, to bottom of garden to a shed? You are speaking to someone with no/little DIY experience...
Willott Posted March 8, 2017 Posted March 8, 2017 (edited) Run the cable, get a sparky in to do the electrical side things (if you've little/no diy experience). You'll be best looking at SWA cable in ducting/a trench (or lay ducting with a draw string and allow sparky to do the pull). But speak to sparky about what cross sectional area cable to run (as your load/wiring requirements at the shed end will affect this). Edited March 8, 2017 by Willott helps if you finish the sentence you're typing 1
3s-gtech Posted March 8, 2017 Posted March 8, 2017 (edited) Easy, with the correct (30mA I believe) RCD protection, cable type (external, armoured if necessary, thick enough for application, buried at the correct depth, labelled). There are a few regs that you need to bear in mind, and remember that since 2005 only 'competent' persons can carry out electrical work, even on your own house, by law. If you are a novice, this probably doesn't include you (no offence, please!), and I'd recommend getting a sparky in. Edited March 8, 2017 by 3s-gtech Edited date for accuracy 1
dhicks Posted March 8, 2017 Posted March 8, 2017 How easy is it to run power from house, to bottom of garden to a shed? Worth checking up on whether planning permission is needed - I seem to remember something being connected up to the mains moved it from "shed" to "extension", planning wise. You could, of course, install solar panels on the roof of the shed instead, if that would power the application you are intending to use. 1
Willott Posted March 8, 2017 Posted March 8, 2017 since 2015 (I believe) only 'competent' persons can carry out electrical work, even on your own house, by law. I think that you can do work and get it certified by building regs (and depends on what the work is - new circuits and full rewires certainly, swapping a socket/light/switch I didn't think required certification), couldn't find any reference to this apart from 2005 Part P - if anyone has further info, then that would be useful (will make a difference if we get kitchen redone in a couple of years...) 1
3s-gtech Posted March 8, 2017 Posted March 8, 2017 Yep, swapping sockets and light fittings etc is fine. Wiring in a new ring or a consumer unit, not so much. Re-researching, this gives a much better guide than I ever remember! Building Regulations in England | Electrical Safety First 1
Willott Posted March 8, 2017 Posted March 8, 2017 Wow, just looked at the cost of new circuit and full rewire building regs through local council - £220 for new circuit and £400 for full rewire. Certainly makes using a registered sparky for a new circuit as their cost will include certification. 1
Tesla Posted March 8, 2017 Author Posted March 8, 2017 Oh wow, okay, all i want(ed?) is power to have a chest freezer out in the shed. Seems like a helluva lot of hoops to jump through....
Willott Posted March 8, 2017 Posted March 8, 2017 (edited) Ah yes, but the potential for pain/damage/cost/death if it's done incorrectly vastly outweighs the hoops! Edited March 8, 2017 by Willott forgot death... seriously, how did I forget death?!
pcstru Posted March 8, 2017 Posted March 8, 2017 Easy, with the correct (30mA I believe) RCD protection, cable type (external, armoured if necessary, thick enough for application, buried at the correct depth, labelled). There are a few regs that you need to bear in mind, and remember that since 2015 (I believe) only 'competent' persons can carry out electrical work, even on your own house, by law. If you are a novice, this probably doesn't include you (no offence, please!), and I'd recommend getting a sparky in. I did one many years ago, buried armoured cable to a shed with a couple of sockets, waterproof RCD protected switch on outside wall wired through to a 13 amp plug which just plugged into a handily available socket in the house. In effect it was an extension cable since it was not permanently wired intro the domestic wiring. Might be worth checking if that would comply with regulations.
Willott Posted March 8, 2017 Posted March 8, 2017 I did one many years ago, buried armoured cable to a shed with a couple of sockets, waterproof RCD protected switch on outside wall wired through to a 13 amp plug which just plugged into a handily available socket in the house. In effect it was an extension cable since it was not permanently wired intro the domestic wiring. Might be worth checking if that would comply with regulations. How did you earth the SWA? the steel part of the cable normally connects to an earth, so did you wire this through to the earth pin on the plug using a banjo? I think you'd also have to be careful with regards to RCD as any newish installations will have RCD at the board itself (and may even have RCBO), so RCD elsewhere may introduce other issues.
pcstru Posted March 8, 2017 Posted March 8, 2017 How did you earth the SWA? the steel part of the cable normally connects to an earth, so did you wire this through to the earth pin on the plug using a banjo? This was back in 2002/3! As I recall I used 3 core cable but for additional protection, I joined the armour to the earth in the external switch. Cable from the external switch to the internal plug was just standard 3 core 13 amp cable. I think you'd also have to be careful with regards to RCD as any newish installations will have RCD at the board itself (and may even have RCBO), so RCD elsewhere may introduce other issues. Mmmm. Never had a problem - I've always thought of that as better safe than sorry. If I use an RCD at the plug at least I know there is at least one in circuit.
Koldov Posted March 8, 2017 Posted March 8, 2017 (edited) When I moved into my house (admittedly 17 years ago) there were some very strange electrical shenanigans going on. One involved an outside security light, the cable of which was fed down the wall, through the (wooden) back doorframe, down the wall internally and plugged into a cooker switch/13 amp socket combo near the back door with a standard plug. The other was for power in the garage which is separated from the house by about 15 ft. This also involved being plugged into a house socket (no RCD obviously), cable (standard 3 core) running along the wall, through the patio doorframe (wooden) into some sort of thick poly pipe underground and then into the garage where it was run to some old metal sockets and light switches/fittings... We had some work done recently on our kitchen and bathroom (which required a sparky) and my word! What an amazing number of hoops you have to jump through to get it up to spec and certified! If he (the sparky) touches anything, it then has to ALL be up to spec, from consumer unit to termination. He said that as our (admittedly old) consumer unit, would not be up to spec he wouldn't touch it or attach any feeds from it. If he did he would have to replace it! I'm pretty sure he said that for external garage or shed wiring wiring (i.e. not attached to the house), we would need a seperate consumer unit. Luckily for us we had an old unused consumer unit fed from the main meter box that used to run economy 7 night storage heaters, so he replaced that one instead. Mind you 'up to spec' is not always straight forward or common sense to me. Whilst wiring the cooker he said that the original switch was 'according to spec' now too close to the hob... Rather than chasing out the walls and ceiling, he drilled through the external wall, poly tubed in the new 30 amp cooker radial outside of the house and back into the wall next to the cooker and wait for it... Ran the cable behind the cooker and put the switch under the sink! All of which is perfectly acceptable and 'up to spec' apparently... I do still use that old poly pipe for the garage though (and this is NOT recommended), but I run an extension cable through it plugged into an RCD and only turn it on when I need power in the garage and turn it off when I'm done. I wouldn't feel safe leaving it on drawing current day and night to run a freezer or anything. I've done this for the loft as well as we had an old immersion water heating tank in the airing cupboard. I changed the socket and changed the fuse at the consumer unit to a more modest 13 amp. From the socket I have an extension lead up into the loft that supplies power to TV in the bedroom etc. The upside to this is that should we ever sell the house, I'll just unplug all the cables and not need certification. Think I'd better stop there before I frighten everybody too much! Please don't even ask about the bathroom extractor fan wiring... Edited March 8, 2017 by Koldov
synaesthesia Posted March 8, 2017 Posted March 8, 2017 I'm just about to embark in a project building a large manshed (4x6m) - large enough to attract building regs but not planning permission. There's nothing to stop you running anything "removable" to it ala an extension cable. You could indeed get away with armored cable or even just external grade cable in a poly pipe with a plug at one end. However the moment there's a fixed plug on the wall in that outbuilding, regardless of construction then it needs to comply with building regulations; the outbuilding needs to be made from substantially non-combustible materials (you can get fire resistant/retardant paint at around £30 per litre). As I'm only looking to run lights for the snooker table in there, I'll be making up a solar panel/power storage bank using lots of 18650 batteries. Yes, I'll be taking donations of laptop batteries from work
dhicks Posted March 8, 2017 Posted March 8, 2017 Ooh - just got a special offer email from CPC: Daily Deals
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