Power to my shed

[lamby38]

Hi All,

Excellent forum!!

I looking for a bit of advice. I'm currently landscaping the garden and as part of that I'm laying a base for a new garden shed. What I really want to do is have main power inside. Ideally I'd like a couple of double sockets and an internal light.
I want to run the cable's, fix switches etc. and then pay a spark to wire up.

First question is what cable?? From the consumer unit (in garage) to my shed location is about 25-30m straight run. It'd be relatively easy to install a 25mm PVC cable duct between the two. Can then I run std. twin & earth or does it need to be armoured?

Next, any ideas how deep that needs to be I've read that 18" is below the frost line would that be okay?

Inside the shed am I best to install a separate breaker/consumer unit and then run power off of this?

Cheers
Chris

 

[Taylortwocities]

Get in touch with your electrician and get his OK for your plan.

You CANNOT put T&E in pvc duct underground. You must use steel wire armoured cable. This can go straight in the ground. You'll need a trench at least 450mm deep, sand bed, lay cable, half fill, layer of warning tape then finish filling. Frost is not a consideration, spades and forks are!

You could just put duct in the ground with a pull cord and have the spark pull in teh cable later.

where would teh armoured cable connect at the house end?
How and where would you provide RCD protection?
What is you supply type?
There's too many things that you don't know. Get your spark on board, do the donkey work, with his guidance.
He is going to have to certify and notify this as his OWN WORK. So you need his approval or he wont touch it.

 

[lamby38]

Thanks for the reply Taylortwocities,

Understood about the cable - makes a lot of sense. I think I'll still install the duct as I like the idea of being able to add other cable later if needed (house alarm?)
My plan was to run the cable/duct alongside the house upto the garage (our garage is built into the front of the house. How would you normally bring a buried cable up to the ground level? Would you just fix it to the side of the house in trunking and then drill through into the garage?
We have a new consumer unit with spare MCB's so I'm thinking it can be wired directly into one of these.
Am I correct in thinking with this set-up I don't need an additional consumer unit inside of the shed?

I'll get the sparky involved but wanted to get an idea of what I'm talking about beforehand.

Chris

 

[Taylortwocities]

It depends on what you want to do in the shed.

Personally I would run teh SWA from an MCB (non RCD protected) way in teh house consumer unit to a mini "garage" CU in teh shed that has its own RCD. Then anything tripping teh RCD in the shed area isn't going to trip the house/defrost teh freezer, etc.

Data type cables should separated from mains cables. So a separate duct needed for that.

You can drill through the wall at a very (almost vertical) angle and bring teh SWA up to the consumer unit. It can gland right into there if its a metal one. Or there will need to be a suitable box for the SWA gland to secure on to.
Or you can use an external IP-rated box and have your glands connx outside with T&E coming through teh wall.

Your electrician can help you chose which.
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