Hi All
Sorry to ask this as I know there are many threads on similar subjects but I thought it best to ask a specific question! Anyway I am about to run power to my new summerhouse in the garden in advance of the electrician finishing the job off - and the following is a summary of my issue:
In my garden there is a waterproof cabinet which houses a 5 way consumer unit. There are four breakers fitted and an 30mA RCD, three of the breakers (all 6 amp) are wired to two pumps and a UV unit that are part of a pond set up but there is a spare 32amp breaker that says 'Shed' but is not connected to anything. The consumer unit/metal box is cross bonded and is eathed by a copper earth spike. Power to it comes from a six core cable SWA that returns directly to the main house fuse board where it is connected to a 50 amp breaker. The six core SWA cable has the cores doubled up (two are paired together for live, two paired for neutral and two for earth) which I assume was done either because the electrician didn't have the right cable or found it easier to use smaller cables. I think the SWA is either 4mm or 6mm but certainly no bigger than that (but doubled up to give 8mm or 12mm capacity)
I now want to use the spare breaker to take another SWA cable, buried 450 - 600mm underground to a summerhouse that is 30m away from the consumer unit in the garden. The summerhouse will have a strip light, four double sockets, an external garden socket (single) and will power a Victorian lampost in the garden. Load will be negligible as I only expect one socket to be in use at any one time and will power DIY tools and maybe a battery charger for the lawnmower. The garden socket will be used to power a small pump for a swimming pool (cheapy B&Q inflatable type) and nothing else.
The SWA will terminate in in the summerhouse in a small consumer unit that has three breakers and another 30mA RCD, one 6 amp breaker will be for a lighting circuit (internal and lampost), one 20 amp for the ring main in the summerhouse (4 x double sockets) and the third is a 6 amp will be for the external socket (so I can isolate it in the winter).
I have a man digging the trench in the garden as we speak but need to know if I need 4mm or 6mm SWA to go from the pond to the shed? I think max load would be 1kw if everything was on at once (which I cant ever seeing it be).
Also just to reassure your I have a sparky who will do all the connections etc and will crtify iaw Part P etc but he is in Florida at the moment on holiday and I dont want to disturb him - hence asking the exerts on here. I was hoping to leave it until he came back but the 'trench digger' had a gap in his diary and has fitted me in today so want to get the cable in and buried.
Hope that was clear enough and look forward to your responses.
Nick
p.s. having read some other posts on here I can assure you that I will not be doing this myself and I really do have an electrician on standby to do the connections. He has already quoted me for this but isn't here to advise on cable size which is what this post started out to be!! I am trying to get the cable in and trench backfilled before the weekend hence urgency
Sorry to ask this as I know there are many threads on similar subjects but I thought it best to ask a specific question! Anyway I am about to run power to my new summerhouse in the garden in advance of the electrician finishing the job off - and the following is a summary of my issue:
In my garden there is a waterproof cabinet which houses a 5 way consumer unit. There are four breakers fitted and an 30mA RCD, three of the breakers (all 6 amp) are wired to two pumps and a UV unit that are part of a pond set up but there is a spare 32amp breaker that says 'Shed' but is not connected to anything. The consumer unit/metal box is cross bonded and is eathed by a copper earth spike. Power to it comes from a six core cable SWA that returns directly to the main house fuse board where it is connected to a 50 amp breaker. The six core SWA cable has the cores doubled up (two are paired together for live, two paired for neutral and two for earth) which I assume was done either because the electrician didn't have the right cable or found it easier to use smaller cables. I think the SWA is either 4mm or 6mm but certainly no bigger than that (but doubled up to give 8mm or 12mm capacity)
I now want to use the spare breaker to take another SWA cable, buried 450 - 600mm underground to a summerhouse that is 30m away from the consumer unit in the garden. The summerhouse will have a strip light, four double sockets, an external garden socket (single) and will power a Victorian lampost in the garden. Load will be negligible as I only expect one socket to be in use at any one time and will power DIY tools and maybe a battery charger for the lawnmower. The garden socket will be used to power a small pump for a swimming pool (cheapy B&Q inflatable type) and nothing else.
The SWA will terminate in in the summerhouse in a small consumer unit that has three breakers and another 30mA RCD, one 6 amp breaker will be for a lighting circuit (internal and lampost), one 20 amp for the ring main in the summerhouse (4 x double sockets) and the third is a 6 amp will be for the external socket (so I can isolate it in the winter).
I have a man digging the trench in the garden as we speak but need to know if I need 4mm or 6mm SWA to go from the pond to the shed? I think max load would be 1kw if everything was on at once (which I cant ever seeing it be).
Also just to reassure your I have a sparky who will do all the connections etc and will crtify iaw Part P etc but he is in Florida at the moment on holiday and I dont want to disturb him - hence asking the exerts on here. I was hoping to leave it until he came back but the 'trench digger' had a gap in his diary and has fitted me in today so want to get the cable in and buried.
Hope that was clear enough and look forward to your responses.
Nick
p.s. having read some other posts on here I can assure you that I will not be doing this myself and I really do have an electrician on standby to do the connections. He has already quoted me for this but isn't here to advise on cable size which is what this post started out to be!! I am trying to get the cable in and trench backfilled before the weekend hence urgency
