Outdoor socket

[chriselevate]

I need to spur off an inside ring to fit a socket for my robot lawnmower outside.

Would a standard double socket from the MK Masterseal range be ok or does it need to be RCD active or passive too?

Looks like the MK branded ones aren’t cheap.

Thanks.

 

[sxturbo]

Needs to be an RCD socket.

Doesn't have to be an MK one. Personally I find the BG outdoor sockets pretty good and well built

 

[chriselevate]

Brilliant, thanks. Active or passive? Thanks.

 

[sxturbo]

Active imo

 

[chriselevate]

Darn, ScrewFix only do passive in BG.

 

[sxturbo]

Go with the passive.

At the end of the day it doesn't really matter,

It's only a minor issue if you have a power tool plugged in and then have a power cut, the tool could restart itself when the power comes back on.

But in reality pretty much all power tools require an operator and a button to be pressed, so it's pretty slim chance of things going wrong

 

[chriselevate]

That’s great, thanks for that advice. Appreciate it.

 

[JohnD]

does it need to be RCD

Only if the circuit you are connecting it to is not already RCD protected.

Is it?

 

[Taylortwocities]

Needs to be an RCD socket.

Only if the circuit you are connecting it to is not already RCD protected.

Is it?

Whssign

• Taylortwocities
• 16 Jul 2016

What he said

 

[chriselevate]

The circuit doesn’t have an RCBO on the board but there is a breaker to the right of it that protects it. Eg... the main switch is an RCD breaker. Photo attached.

 

[Taylortwocities]

If that is the main switch that turns off all circuits then you do not need an RCD socket. One of THESE will do you


Note that it is not best practice to have a single RCD for all circuits because, if there is an earth fault, the house loses all of its power.

 

[chriselevate]

Thanks for that, that’s great. Yes, I agree that the single RCD is not great but it’s something we’ve got used to. We’ve got two boards so at least if one trips there’s the other still in operation. Not ideal but without spending a lot of money I guess it’s fine for now.

Budgeting for it to be sorted I guess I should allow for two metal housed consumer units fitted with a load of breakers to work out the rough cost of materials and the a few days labour on top for the swap to be done?

Does that sound about right for an idea of price?

 

[Taylortwocities]

?

Does that sound about right for an idea of price?

Are the two very far apart? If close they could be combined into one. Look at using all RCBO solution.
as for a few days. Two CUs shouldn’t take more than a day.

Anyway, ask the registered electrician that you would be using!

 

[chriselevate]

They are next to each other mounted side by side horizontally. Currently have 12 breakers being used in each.

 

[ericmark]

There are many options, and it is up to you, and any electrician you employ which are used. Wylex do a small size RCBO

it may be these will fit in the existing board? the old one

was taller and would not physically fit in some boxes, at around £32.50 not cheap, but neither super expensive, swapping the existing RCD for an isolator and using RCBO's is likely an option, I say likely as does depend on earthing type etc.

But new board with cheaper make is also an option, some makes of RCBO are much cheaper at down to £14 but a consumer unit is a type tested distribution board and to keep the type tested label you can't use different makes, down to how jobs worth the electrician is.

As you say MK not cheap, but MK do a RCD socket at 10 mA, again an option, but there are loads of ways of doing the basic same thing. Mothers house two RCD's and 6 RCBO's never had one trip, my old house 2 RCD's would get a bout of tripping then years with no trip, this house are RCBO had trips due to water leaks, but no random trips.