Hi,

I'd like to send power out to our garage. The garage is detached from the house and I'd like to power a light, a mains socket and an electric door.

But I'm not sure how best to go about it. I see from other posts that there's talk about needing a separate consumer unit in the garage or use a fused spur off one of the house rings or connect directly into the house consumer unit. I'll do whatever is right and we're doing a lot of work on the house so now is the time to lay the wiring for it, but I could do with some definitive guidance. Can you advise?

e.g. I assume I need to use special cable rather than the standard grey stuff but I'm not sure what to buy. And is it ok to suspend the cable between the house and the garage? That's what had been done by the previous owner but I could see all his work was a death trap so I just disconnected it when I moved in until it was time tos ort it out (we were getting shocks off the garage door)! But now I'm not sure if there's special rules about sending electrical cable outside and how to do it.

Thanks!

I think this is one of those projects that if you need to ask how to do it, then you really need to get a proffesional in.

not a spark but essentially this the gist

best way is to be wired directly from the house CU into a small CU for the garage.

lights on a 6 amp breaker for example, sockets on say a 20amp breaker

use either SWA (steel wire armoured) cable or use T&E in conduit and bury it deep (~18 inches) in both cases, personally I'm not keen on stringing cable in the air.

garage CU needs to be RCD protected and cut out should be rated less than house CU cut out

cable thickness...give yourself headroom in case of future upgrades, I'd personally go for 10mil as its not much more money and should cover most situations

Sockets and switches I *think* have to be metal clad (? )

oh and if you live in England and Wales its classed as notifiable work

If your not certain you can do the work safely, leave it to the pros. One big point make 100% SURE the power is off, use a multimeter to check, don't assume that the cut out works.

If I've missed anything I'm sure one of the sparks will be along at some point to make correction and/ or additions

Also if you click on the Ultimatehandyman logo there are some useful guides and videos there that might help.

IMO the best way is to supply the garage direct from the meter tails via a switchfuse, not from the house CU.



It's very difficult to guarantee that a buried conduit system will be 100% water tight, and if it isn't it will fill with water.

T/E is not suitable for being immersed in water, so basically T/E in buried conduit isn't the way to go.



The CU doesn't, but is needs to have RCD protection in it for the sockets. i.e. the RCD protection should be local, not back at the house.







Depends where they are, and if they're likely to get bashed around. If you really think that the risks of mechanical damage are such that metal accessories are needed then you should use metal conduit for all the cabling too..



Oh yes.



Youngplug - if you can't answer these then you shouldn't be doing it.

1. What are the 3 different types of domestic single-phase supplies provided in this country, how would you recognise them, and what differences do each make to the requirements for the rest of the installation, particularly regarding supplies to outbuildings?
   
2. How do you propose to isolate your supply so that you can connect up your new CU?
   
3. For a circuit to supply a <thing> (doesn't matter what), how would you go about deciding what cable and protective device to use?
   
4. What are the rules concerning cables concealed in walls, partitions and under floors?
   
5. Which circuits must be RCD protected?
   
6. Explain what tests you would carry out on the installation - please cover the sequence you'd do them in and at what point you would energise the installation, and for each test explain what is being measured, why it is important, how you would carry out the test, what sort of results you would expect to get if everything was OK.

Don't assume your meter works either - verify it against a known source before and after isolating the circuit you're working on.

_________________


I'm sorry - I can't come in to work today, the voices are telling me to stay at home and clean the guns.

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Hi chaps,
Well I can wire the occasional shower fan or something in the house but from what you've said i figure this is probably one that I should leave to someone else. Best to be safe.
Thanks for the advice,
Youngplug.