Hello all,
I've a couple of questions here regarding some electrical work I recently did in my garage. Basically, I fitted a couple of double sockets in my garage as I'm sick of having extension leads all over. They're working fine, but I've been advised by a sparky I know on an unrelated forum I use that what I've done is "very dangerous." Here's what I did: There was already one single socket in the garage so I just removed that and replaced with a double socket, then I fitted another double socket, from that one, on the opposite wall. I then I fitted an outdoor sensor light outside my garage -running from one of the two double sockets I fitted in garage. All earthed. I understand that I maybe sould fit an fcu to the sensor light. Other than that, I'm not really sure why it would be considered "very dangerous". Any advice, guys? Many thanks.

Some possible questions that spring to my mind (I'm no sparky....)

- How was the inital socket fed (spur off a ring, direct to consumer unit, FCU, etc)
- what cable fed it (size / type)
- Is the garage attached to house or seperate?
- Does the circuit have RCD protection?
- what sort of stuff you wanting to run in there?

Got pictures of everything?

BG

Hi there, billygoat.
I honestly couldn't say with authority how the original single was fed, though I'd imagine it was fed from the kitchen socket on the other side of the wall? (Garage is attached to house). It was fed by a live (red), (black), and earth (solid green).I know it does have some form of RCD protection because it has shorted in the past.
I want to move my washing machine and dryer from kitchen out to the garage.

sounds like you may have installed a spur off of an existing spur which isn't allowed.

_________________
- Dave
http://www.pamperhouse.net
http://www.invertedcircle.co.uk

Root, can you add an FCU at the start of the spur to make it compliant?

Granted, you are only limited to 13amp then but solves the problem?

Dylan, where is the consumer unit in relation to the garage? Any spare ways?

BG

not that I am aware of as it would still be a spur off a spur I would look into extending the ring into the garage if you cant run a new circuit to it

_________________
- Dave
http://www.pamperhouse.net
http://www.invertedcircle.co.uk

So this is considered "very dangerous". Obviously it's against regs, but brushing regs aside, is it particularly dangerous?
Many thanks

Still don't know the protection of the circuit or what cable you have used so I'm going to say no, yes and maybe.

BG

OK, thanks BG. I'll do some more research.
In the meantime, if you know anything about bathroom extractor wiring, please see another thread I started earlier today!!
Thanks again for the info provided.

i would say it is dangerous as you could be overloading the circuit also every spur will put more resistance into the circuit which increases the risk of fire as well and it will make it more dangerous for anyone that is not you doing work on the electrics in the future. besides the regs are technically there to stop dangerous wiring not just to give electricians more work.

_________________
- Dave
http://www.pamperhouse.net
http://www.invertedcircle.co.uk

So even adding a 13amp FSU at the beginning of the garage spur wouldn't offer a proverbial safety blanket?

4mm twin and earth cabling, I believe, BG. Apologies, I just realised I hadn't included this info in a previous post.

did the sparky elaborate to why he thinks it is dangerous? are you sure its 4mm T&E?

_________________
- Dave
http://www.pamperhouse.net
http://www.invertedcircle.co.uk

I'm pretty sure it was 4mm T&E. I'll check when I arrive home.
The sparky said if I plug anything like a powertool in to one of the sockets -which I probably will do in future- the cable will overheat and become "stressed" for lack of a better word. I though adding a 13amp might be a solution, as BG implied above.

either that or you will end up spending more money on fuses than you anticipated.

_________________
- Dave
http://www.pamperhouse.net
http://www.invertedcircle.co.uk