Outside socket cable

[Kmurphy]

I’m installing an outside double socket for a submersible pump.

I’m planning on using RCD protected cable 2.5mm for approximately 30m run.

It’s not mains wired, it’ll be plugged into another external socket. I assume it doesn’t need to be signed off or installed by a sparky?

For safety I’ll run it in a conduit along a fence at waist height.

 

[sparkwright]

What cable do you intend to use?

 

[Kmurphy]

@sparkwright I thought probably standard PVC or rubber flex in PVC conduit.

I might want to bury it in the future and change the run, so maybe SWA and over spec the length as the spare length can sit under some decking.

 

[sparkwright]

SWA will solve most problems and as you indicate will be ready for burying.

Cables should not be clipped on fences - fences blow down and wreck the cable.

The only problem with using SWA is fitting a 13 amp plug on it, so hardwired may be the best way.

SWA is not good news for the average DIYer, as
a) they can't or won't fit the correct glands.
b) they can't make it watertight.
c) they can't or won't ensure the armour is correctly earthed.

 

[Kmurphy]

Yeah. I’ve trenched and run SWA before and always had a spark terminate/ live commission, which is one reason I just wanted to use twin and earth.

As it’s just effectively an extension plugged into a socket and not part of the permanent ring I thought some conduit would be obvious enough and offer some mechanical and weather protection.

It’ll save me doing it manually with an actual extension every time I want to turn the pump on.

 

[sparkwright]

You wouldn't use t+e to connect to a plug, you would use flex.

Using such cable with conduit isn't a long term solution - temporary perhaps, but temporary can become permanent...

 

[Kmurphy]

Like 30-40years?

 

[SUNRAY]

Like 30-40years?

Oh I'm sure you're wrong..

I honestly don't know of a garage fed by 7/0.029 T&E attached with black woven insulation tape to a rusty steel catenery wire to the house and terminated into a 13A plug feeding a selection of surface mount 13A sockets around the garage since pre 1973 and plugged into one of those sockets, I don't know about about another 7/0.029 T&E which had been hung on the chestnut paling fence but since mid 80's disappears into a yellow [gas] pipe buried in the ground to the other end of the garden to the shed. From the shed there can't possibly be a another 13A plug with a 1mm² T&E dropping into another yellow [gas] pipe to feed the pond filter & pump. Such an installation couldn't possibly be used to run a business making metal garden furniture since before my first visit in 1973.

 

[Kmurphy]

You seem to be able to say a lot about this place you don’t know...

 

[SUNRAY]

You seem to be able to say a lot about this place you don’t know...

This is the family home of another apprentice who started the same day as me. When I wanted some brackets made his Father did them for me and I've used his services a couple of times a year or so. Added to that his son [my colleagues brother] joined in and diversified into engraving for a while and I had my Trafolite lables made there since 2009. They could never weld and engrave at the same time due to voltage fluctuations crashing the CNC.