Installing a Consumer Unit in Garage

[jurassic86]

Hello People,

I am installing a consumer unit in my garage and want to wire it from the main Consumer Unit in the hosue. I have a basic knowledge of electrical wiring and was wondering if anyone can talk me though how I exactly go about getting power to the main Consumer Unit.

I have got some armour cable to feed from the main box to the new box in garage and the box I have purchased for the garage has a 63Amp RCD and 2 32a MCB's.

Any help would be great, or even a link to somewhere which can help me a bit more would be great!

Thanks

Jason

 

[Aragorn84]

What size is the armour?
how much power do you need in the garage?
Are you aware of Part P and how it affects this installation.

 

[jurassic86]

6mm Armour

Im having a couple of lights and 3 twin sockets.

 

[mfarrow]

How far away is the garage?

Are the sockets connected in a ring or radially (i.e. just looped in and out)?

Has the consumer unit in your house got any spare ways?

What is the make and model of your consumer unit?

 

[jurassic86]

Hello,

Garage is approx 4 MTRS from main consumer board in home.

I will be connecting sockets in a ring.

Consumer unit in the house has 1 spare way, so I am going to put another breaker in this box to take power to garage.

Both breaker units in house and garage are MK, the garage one is called a MK Sentry.

What I plan to do is Gland the SWA cable in the Sentry Consumer unit, but was unsure about the other end? Should I Gland this in the main consumer unit also?

Any help would be great.

Thanks

Jason

 

[bernardgreen]

Untitled

• bernardgreen
• 8 Mar 2009
• 10

SWA glanded to the bottom of the die cast box, banjo on the inside. Cores from the SWA pass through a large grommeted hole in the opposite face of the box and into the consumer unit.

Makes the installation very easy as the box is fitted to the SWA first and then fixed to the wall.

 

[jurassic86]

Is it not possible to earth the SWA Gland on the MK Consumer Unit?

 

[VanSolo]

The bottom of the MK Sentry is quite flimsy so Bernards method is probably best.
But it is possible.

 

[bernardgreen]

Is it not possible to earth the SWA Gland on the MK Consumer Unit?

Glanding to a plastic panel has the hazard that over time the plastic compressed by the gland fixing nuts deforms and the mounting becomes loose. If the earth continuity of banjo to gland is dependent on the mounting nuts remaining tight then earth continuity may be lost or compromised after a period of time.

 

[jurassic86]

What if I were to get a metal plate and fix this inbetween my banjo and the plastic casing. This would give a sense of "security" to the fittings?

 

[jurassic86]

Also will I need to gland both ends of the cable?

 

[bernardgreen]

Also will I need to gland both ends of the cable?

Yes, for a tidy appearance and essential if you are using the armour as the only earth conconductor. Though you should use 3 core ( Live, Neutral and Earth ) and earth the armour as protection to the cable if it was ever damage,

 

[bernardgreen]

What if I were to get a metal plate and fix this inbetween my banjo and the plastic casing. This would give a sense of "security" to the fittings?

Plastic will still deform. Don't cut corners, the earth connection is the most important connection if you want the installation to be safe.

 

[jurassic86]

The armour I have is 5 x 2.5mm core - so i could use one of the cores as earth?

 

[mfarrow]

Yes, but the armour should still be earthed to provide a return path if the cable was ever struck.

You could not earth the armour if protecting it by RCD, but then the earth return path would include the shovel, and you.