Running power to shed/office.

[rmwebs]

Hi all,

I'm in the middle of planning a home office shed and have a family friend who is a part-p certified electrician so I'm going to be asking him for a quote.

I really just wanted to make sure I know what everything entails. Could someone with experience check my understanding below and correct me if I'm wrong?

From what I understand, the electrician will add a new fuse to our existing fusebox, and take that through the house, out into the garden (using SWA cable) and down to the back of the shed, where it will go into another consumer unit of some sort, correct? (Sorry if my terminology is completely wrong!)

The issue I'm thinking of is that the consumer unit is in a downstairs toilet, at the front of our house. Between that and the garden there is a brick wall (to the garage), a stud wall and then two more brick walls before hitting outside. We've not got a big house, or a big garden, but I'm just concerned that I may be told it cant be done due to not being able to practically get a wire down there.

Another problem is that the lower half of the garden is completely paved, and these cant be lifted up to burry a cable. Can it effectively be 'tucked' down the side of the paved area where it meets the fence, or would it need to be run somewhere else?

A final option was another route. We've got a passage way down the other side of our house, and we've got about 50cm of grass with bushes running down the side, to our back gate. It could go this way, but it would mean running it all the way around the garden...surely this would cause a massive voltage drop?

I've put a (rather crude) drawing together showing what I mean, with, what I would have thought is the best route.

Any advice or info would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Rick

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Best bet is to let your electrician friend come and see the job - he'll be able to look at possible routes, discuss the options with you, and size the cables appropriately.

IMO you should ask him to quote on the basis of splitting the tails and putting in a switchfuse rather than coming off an MCB in the house CU.

 

[rmwebs]

Best bet is to let your electrician friend come and see the job - he'll be able to look at possible routes, discuss the options with you, and size the cables appropriately.

IMO you should ask him to quote on the basis of splitting the tails and putting in a switchfuse rather than coming off an MCB in the house CU.

I've no idea what that means but will ask him I'm guessing it means taking a second cable from the mains box to a new CU in the shed?

It this likely to be more expensive?

(sorry for all the questions)

Finally, would budgeting around £500 be sufficient for this or am I way off base?

 

[ban-all-sheds]

It this likely to be more expensive?

Not significantly.

Finally, would budgeting around £500 be sufficient for this or am I way off base?

See what the guy says.

 

[streetlighter]

Alot depends on the size of SWA cable that needs to be installed and the lenght of the run, i would guess £500 wouldnt even cover the materials for the job.

A recent job i quoted for needs a 50 mtr run of 16mm 3-core SWA for the cable alone the prices where around £350 plus VAT
I would hazard a guess at the job costing around £1200 min but it all depends on the size of cable the electrician calculates is required for the submain.

 

[rmwebs]

I cant imagine getting anywhere near 50 meters..our entire plot (inc front garden/driveway) is only about 20 meters. Surely the SWA wouldnt need to be too thick, there will only be 2 computers a light and a heater thats on for under 2 hours a day.

From what I've read 6mm should surely be more than enough for this. If the electrician takes the first route on that crummy drawing I did, I'd estimate the total (wire) distance to be 15-20 meters, 25 at the most.

 

[RF Lighting]

You might want to think about finding a new cable supplier

 

[rmwebs]

You might want to think about finding a new cable supplier

Me or Street?

£1200 seams really, really excessive to me. Granted I'm new to all this but surely that cant be right.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

have a family friend who is a part-p certified electrician so I'm going to be asking him for a quote.

Stop speculating.

Stop asking other people to guess.

Ask your friend to quote.

See what he says.

 

[rmwebs]

have a family friend who is a part-p certified electrician so I'm going to be asking him for a quote.

Stop speculating.

Stop asking other people to guess.

Ask your friend to quote.

See what he says.

Obviously I am. Its a sunday night on a bank holiday weekend. I'm hardly going to get him around right now. I was asking so I could make sure that:

A) It was even possible
and
B) To make sure I had a general outline of what was going to be quoted for.

Stop being a mini-mod.