16mm T&E for external building

[influx]

Hi,

I'm currently in the process of upgrading a little outbuilding. It was an old toilet from the late 1800's , but i'm planning to put a shower in it too.
It currently just has a single light on the ceiling on very old cable so i'm looking to re-run this from the house so it can take the load and be nice and safe.
The building is aprox 25m away and the current wire is clipped near the top of a 3m wall inside what looks like PVC mains water pipe (so this will be changed too to whatever is cheap/effective).
I'm looking at a 7.5Kw cheap shower , lighting and i might even put a plug in so i can make a cup of tea while i'm out and about, but overall it should be ~40amps.
A relative has advised i use 16mm mains tails, but these appear to be very expensive over this kind of distance so i was wondering if 16mm T&E would do the job as its considerably cheaper and on paper has a rating of over 70Amps.
I'm also considering not using duct and just clipping 16mm SWA, but this seems to work out more expensive than ducted T&E.

I plan to do most of the manual labour myself and hopefully find a good electrician to do all the connections and check it over.

thanks and hopefully i've not said anything too stupid on my first post!

 

[flyingsparks]

Expect a lot of 'part p and notifying building control' type posts shortly...

All I'm going to say is t&e is not suitable for external use or buried in a duct. You need SWA.

 

[ultomoat]

I plan to do most of the manual labour myself and hopefully find a good electrician to do all the connections and check it over.

Your best option is to find an electrician now and tell him what you want to do. He will then tell you what is possible, and what work he is happy for you to do yourself. He will need to sign paperwork to verify that it is all above board - and will refuse to do so unless 100% happy.

You'll probably find that any decent electrician will allow you to dig a trench and fill it in, though he will want to source and lay the cables and connect them up. This way he isn't putting his neck on the line if you did the electrical side yourself.

Queue BAS with his usual spiel about "I being the one responsible for design...".

Oh, cheap doesn't come into this. There is one way to do it safely - and it doesn't involve meter tails or T&E

 

[influx]

Thanks, i'll maybe speak to a couple first and see the lay of the land...

"Oh, cheap doesn't come into this. There is one way to do it safely - and it doesn't involve meter tails or T&E" [/quote]

please enlighten me!

 

[RF Lighting]

Any cable buried in the ground MUST be fully surrounded by earthed metal.

There is no practical way you can use twin and earth and still comply with this regulation.

SWA is by far the easiest way to make this installation safe and compliant.

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

Have big is this outhouse? As you may not be allowed to put a plug in it, if the shower is in the same room as plug.
And as above post your only real option, unless you want to support the cable overhead, is SWA buried in a trench and ideally in a duct at about a two foot depth.

 

[Lectrician]

He mentions clipped around a wall? If it's clipped to a wall, while SWA would still be preferred, split concentric is an option, especially when considering terminating at the main CU.

 

[flyingsparks]

....,map lit concentric ?..

Take it you mean split concentric?!

 

[Lectrician]

....,map lit concentric ?..

Take it you mean split concentric?!

LOL. Blooody auto correct.

 

[influx]

Any cable buried in the ground MUST be fully surrounded by earthed metal.

There is no practical way you can use twin and earth and still comply with this regulation.

SWA is by far the easiest way to make this installation safe and compliant.

It will be above ground. Does this still count?

 

[influx]

Have big is this outhouse? As you may not be allowed to put a plug in it, if the shower is in the same room as plug.
And as above post your only real option, unless you want to support the cable overhead, is SWA buried in a trench and ideally in a duct at about a two foot depth.

Yes, it will be clipped to the wall again about 3m above ground level.
The outhouse used to be a toilet block for a victorian commerical laundry so its fairly big.

 

[JohnW2]

The outhouse used to be a toilet block for a victorian commerical laundry so its fairly big.

The point being made was that, if the outhouse is going to be 'all one room', you would not be allowed to have sockets within 3m of a shower. If the shower is to be in a separate 'room' (and I think that requires a door - and not just the shower cubicle door!), you would not have that problem.

Kind Regards, John

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Yes, it will be clipped to the wall again about 3m above ground level.

Twin & earth is not really suitable for that use.

No reason not to use SWA.

 

[influx]

The outhouse used to be a toilet block for a victorian commerical laundry so its fairly big.

The point being made was that, if the outhouse is going to be 'all one room', you would not be allowed to have sockets within 3m of a shower. If the shower is to be in a separate 'room' (and I think that requires a door - and not just the shower cubicle door!), you would not have that problem.

Kind Regards, John

So if i throw up a little stud partition with a door everything should be fine?

Its 31sqm to give you an idea of size.

 

[influx]

Yes, it will be clipped to the wall again about 3m above ground level.

Twin & earth is not really suitable for that use.

No reason not to use SWA.

apart from cost... t&e in conduit is half the price.