Hi everyone,
Long time lurker on these forums and have always valued the honest advice from you lot.
Our garage wiring is a mess and nothing to do with me. It's obviously a combination of previous owners going back likely 40 years or more but we've a mix of cable colours, brown bakelite junction boxes and in one case, what looks like a length of garden hose being used as conduit.
The project is an attached garage with the house CU on the other side of the wall in the house, so a short run of 2.5mm T&E has already been used coming from a 16A MCB to form a radial to a twin socket. After that, it gets hairy and the brown bakelite box is the next stop before it spiders off to security lights, other sockets and suchlike.
What I'd like to do is rip it all out. I'd like to swap the 2.5mm from the main CU for some 10mm T&E (and swap the MCB for a 40A) and connect to an IP55 "garage" consumer unit with a 40A RCD, 32A and 6A MCBs. From the 32A, I'd like to run 2.5mm T&E around the garage clipped to the wall to connect to 4 metal-clad double sockets in a ring final circuit. From the 6A I'd like to run 2.5mm in a radial to an IP66 outdoor socket.
The main reasons I want to do this myself are because a) I'm interested and b) I want to save some money. Mainly a) though I have access to some of the materials through work so my hardware costs will be low. For peace of mind, I've sorted an NECEIC registered spark through work who's going to do final testing, certification and connection to the main CU as a favour.
My reason for running a ring in 2.5mm instead of 4mm as a radial are that the garage isn't huge and I already have a bit of 2.5mm kicking about. I could get the extra 2.5mm I need for £20 (or even "borrow" from work) rather than spending close to a ton for the required 4mm. I'm going right the way round the garage for sockets anyway so even with 4mm, I'd be finishing not far from where I started the run
Does my plan sound okay?
Assuming it does sound okay, my only question mark is do I have to enclose the cable in conduit? I was just planning on clipping to the wall for ease, cost and current-carrying capacity but not sure if there's a building reg that states otherwise. If so, will the reduction in capacity affect my plans or will the 2.5mm still suffice for 32A in a ring final or should I drop the MCB to 20A?
Thanks for any and all advice
Long time lurker on these forums and have always valued the honest advice from you lot.
Our garage wiring is a mess and nothing to do with me. It's obviously a combination of previous owners going back likely 40 years or more but we've a mix of cable colours, brown bakelite junction boxes and in one case, what looks like a length of garden hose being used as conduit.
The project is an attached garage with the house CU on the other side of the wall in the house, so a short run of 2.5mm T&E has already been used coming from a 16A MCB to form a radial to a twin socket. After that, it gets hairy and the brown bakelite box is the next stop before it spiders off to security lights, other sockets and suchlike.
What I'd like to do is rip it all out. I'd like to swap the 2.5mm from the main CU for some 10mm T&E (and swap the MCB for a 40A) and connect to an IP55 "garage" consumer unit with a 40A RCD, 32A and 6A MCBs. From the 32A, I'd like to run 2.5mm T&E around the garage clipped to the wall to connect to 4 metal-clad double sockets in a ring final circuit. From the 6A I'd like to run 2.5mm in a radial to an IP66 outdoor socket.
The main reasons I want to do this myself are because a) I'm interested and b) I want to save some money. Mainly a) though I have access to some of the materials through work so my hardware costs will be low. For peace of mind, I've sorted an NECEIC registered spark through work who's going to do final testing, certification and connection to the main CU as a favour.
My reason for running a ring in 2.5mm instead of 4mm as a radial are that the garage isn't huge and I already have a bit of 2.5mm kicking about. I could get the extra 2.5mm I need for £20 (or even "borrow" from work) rather than spending close to a ton for the required 4mm. I'm going right the way round the garage for sockets anyway so even with 4mm, I'd be finishing not far from where I started the run
Does my plan sound okay?
Assuming it does sound okay, my only question mark is do I have to enclose the cable in conduit? I was just planning on clipping to the wall for ease, cost and current-carrying capacity but not sure if there's a building reg that states otherwise. If so, will the reduction in capacity affect my plans or will the 2.5mm still suffice for 32A in a ring final or should I drop the MCB to 20A?
Thanks for any and all advice