Maximum Wattage

[Project01uk]

Hello,

I have no clue about electricity so if you will say it's best to speak to the electrician I will do but before that I thought I'll post it here.

I'm planning to have a home office in my garage, a heavy duty one with lots of equipment, proper lighting and part of the space will still be a a normal garage so tumble dryer, fridge/freezer, dehumidifier and so on.

I'm attaching my certificate, job has been done in 2006 I believe. I have 6mm cable from what I an see, 8 double sockets in the garage.

I'd be looking at a 3-4 computers, some of them under heavy load (rendering) for 24/7 so about 850 watts each, apart from that printer, speakers, 2-3 monitors. Apart from that tumble dryer, fridge/freezer, dehumidifier and 6 x LED lights, LED strip and 2 x fluorscent tubes 70w.

Is that possible or my garage is going to burn down?

Thanks for all help

 

[Project01uk]

If you need clearer pictures of certificate please let me know!

 

[Iggifer]

Certificate is a bit ropey but what you're proposing is fine. Assuming all is installed correctly.

That's not a great deal of loading so you'll be fine. Probably not even 3kW/13A until you use the tumble drier and even then you're still ok

 

[Project01uk]

Thanks! So what is the maximum safe loading in kW?

 

[ban-all-sheds]

part of the space will still be a a normal garage so tumble dryer, fridge/freezer, dehumidifier and so on.

Actually a normal garage is used for garaging.

Curious - why on earth do you need a dehumidifier in there?

I'd be looking at a 3-4 computers, some of them under heavy load (rendering) for 24/7 so about 850 watts each, apart from that printer, speakers, 2-3 monitors. Apart from that tumble dryer, fridge/freezer, dehumidifier and 6 x LED lights, LED strip and 2 x fluorscent tubes 70w.

Is that possible or my garage is going to burn down?

Because the garage was supplied this way:

You're limited to a total load in it of 32A. Worst case your loads max out at more, but the chance of them all peaking simultaneously is small. No danger of the garage burning down, but you might find that the breaker trips if everything including the TD is running when the F/F compressor kicks in.

A more realistic worry is that that amount of electronic equipment on one RCD could cause that to trip because of all the earth leakage.

 

[Taylortwocities]

It is written on the certificate! It is the value of the MCBs for each circuit.

The limit for the sockets is 32AMPS in total = 7.360 KW
For the lights it is 6 amps = 1.38KW

EDIT, and as BAS has spotted, the MCB at the house end would be the limit. Although the 6mm cable from the house to the garage can cope with more than 32A, so could be increased, a bit, if you run into problems.

 

[Project01uk]

Great, thanks a lot, useful info

 

[ban-all-sheds]

The limit for the sockets garage is 32AMPS in total = 7.360 KW

 

[securespark]

Yeah, not brilliant discrimination. By not brilliant, I meant non-existent!

 

[RF Lighting]

I do enjoy a wrongly filled out certificate

 

[AdrianUK]

Your computers ain't gonna be pulling anywhere near 850W each! Even if they have "850W power supplies" that doesn't mean they pull anything like that.

To put it into context.... if they did use 850W & you had four of them..... that would be 4 x 850 = 3,400W load. On for 24hrs per day would use 3.4 x 24 = 81.6 kWh/day, which, will electricity at 15p/kwh would cost approx. £12 per day or £85 per week! You wouldn't be needing any heating in there either!

 

[Iggifer]

I do enjoy a wrongly filled out certificate

The main switch section I think is my personal highlight. Or perhaps the complete lack of IR testing. I'm on the fence

 

[flameport]

Most surprising is that any certificate exists at all, and it's survived for 10+ years.