Electrician - Power to Garage, Advice Please

[dan_l]

Hi,

First post here, just wanting a bit of advice really. I want to have power in my garage and was hoping to get an electrician to do the job.
The problem is my consumer unit is an older type without a built in RCD so the way I was thinking for it to be done would be to have an external RCD for the garage.
I know people who have got it set up like this but with all the new regulations I was wondering if an electrician can still do this or would they only be allowed to do it if the consumer unit was replaced with one with a built in RCD?

Thanks,
Dan

 

[sparkybird]

Alot depends on info we don't have, but the electrician could possibly fit either a mini RCD board to supply the garage at the existing board position, or RCD protect the circuit used to supply the garage.

Either way, it might not necessarily mean a new fuseboard, but best to get a couple of quotes and see what they say

Hope this helps

SB

 

[dan_l]

Thanks for the reply. There is currently a trip switch on the consumer unit not being used. I'm going to get a couple of electricians to quote but want to have a slight idea of what is needed.
So if there was a shielded armoured cable running from the garage, a seperate RCD along the cable and then the cable ran to the free trip switch on the consumer unit would that pass the regs?

Thanks,
Dan

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I always think it better not to supply a garage etc from the house CU anyway.

Tell the electrician you want him to split the tails, go through a switchfuse to SWA to a CU in the garage.

But you should probably think about having your old CU replaced as well.

 

[MisterG]

I always think it better not to supply a garage etc from the house CU anyway.

Hi

What are the downsides to this?

My CU was replaced just over a year ago and the garage is fed from the CU.

Cheers

G

 

[sunseeker]

MisterG stated

My CU was replaced just over a year ago and the garage is fed from the CU

I have the same situation as this and Ban-all-sheds thinks this is not a good idea so I am anxious to hear the feedback on this one too.

 

[comms]

There is nothing wrong with supplying the garage submain off of a spare way on the house cu, so long as its done correctly you have no worries.

 

[BS3036]

It might depend on the RCD arrangement. It would be possible for earth leakage in the garage (can be a damp place), to shut off power to half the house in some arrangements. Bound to take out the odd teenager's computer when it does.

 

[skenk]

Yeah the downside would be if the submain to the garage is RCD protected at the house CU you would have to go back into the house to reset the RCD if there was a fault. If the garage cable (suitably visible/protected) is fed from a non-RCD fuse or breaker then it's fine.