Best way to provide outdoor power for lights?

[devilsadvocate]

Hi

So I have a double socket in my garage which seems to be a spur off the kitchen. Coming off this double socket is a single light in the garage which seems to be protected via an FCU between the light itself and the double socket.

The garage is on the side of the house and the rear of it is in the garden so this is the easiest place for me to take power from. Spurring off a socket in the house would require me to dig up the patio.

I realise I cannot add an outdoor socket off the garage as its already a spur so what would I need to do in order to fit an outdoor socket off the existing socket in the garage?

Much appreciated.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

what would I need to do in order to fit an outdoor socket off the existing socket in the garage?

1. Establish exactly how the garage is supplied - you can't do anything on the basis of seems-to-bes.
2. Put an FCU at the origin of the supply to the garage, then you may have as many sockets after that as you like. If the circuit you spur from is not already RCD protected then make it an RCD FCU.
3. Think about what you will do about the testing the new socket(s) etc should have to ensure that they are safe.

 

[devilsadvocate]

Its a new build which they builder said would have power in the garage. We checked before moving in and there was no power, we complained and an hour later while we were onsite, there was a double socket fitted so I need to figure out where it comes from within the house as we didn't see them fit it.

My father in law is an electrical engineer so he would be testing it etc.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Sad to see that the moderators believe that wanting things to make sense is pedantry.

MOD: In the same way it would be "sad" to see you permanently banned.

 

[JohnW2]

I have commented on the mods' actions in the (I believe inappropriate) place to which they have moved my message.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Its a new build which they builder said would have power in the garage. We checked before moving in and there was no power, we complained and an hour later while we were onsite, there was a double socket fitted so I need to figure out where it comes from within the house as we didn't see them fit it.

Do you know if, at the time you complained, the electrics were otherwise complete, certified and powered up? If they were then there should be a separate certificate for that socket. Can't be hard to trace the cable from it?

Coming off this double socket is a single light in the garage

So the builders' first pass was to provide a garage without even any lighting?

And yet still the Tories cling to the notion that wherever there is competition there is necessarily a rise in standards.

 

[JohnW2]

Competition probably often does lead to an increase in standards at the 'high end'. However, it also means that there will be a 'low end' where low standard products/services will be available at 'competitive' (i.e. low) prices - not the least for those who cannot afford 'high end' prices. In the absence of competition, the products or services people get will all be equally good or equally bad, with no-one really knowing which, and very few having any true control over which.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

In a sellers market, competition leads to a race to the bottom as those with goods or services to sell which their customers are "desperate" for seek to reduce standards in order to increase their profits.

In a market where customers are obliged to buy from the cheapest seller, competition leads to a race to the bottom as sellers seek to reduce standards in order to decrease their prices.

In a market where customers are obliged to buy from the seller who offers the highest fee for taking on the sellers obligations, competition leads to a race to the bottom as sellers seek to reduce standards in order to free up money to pay the fee.

 

[JohnW2]

In the absence of competition, there is little/no incentive for suppliers of goods/services to improve the standard/quality of the goods/services they provide. Furthermore, except in situations where prices are 'regulated' in some way, a monopoly supplier can charge whatever they like for services/goods of whatever quality/standard they choose to supply, limited only by what the market is prepared to pay for whatever is being sold.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

In a sellers market, "competition" leads to a race to the bottom as those with goods or services to sell which their customers are "desperate" for seek to reduce standards in order to increase their profits.

In a market where customers are obliged to buy from the cheapest seller, "competition" leads to a race to the bottom as sellers seek to reduce standards in order to decrease their prices.

In a market where customers are obliged to buy from the seller who offers the highest fee for taking on the sellers obligations, "competition" leads to a race to the bottom as sellers seek to reduce standards in order to free up money to pay the fee.

 

[JohnW2]

A couple of the fallacies in what is being suggested are the assumption that 'buyers' will always go for the lowest price (regardless of quality) and that it seems to be being overlooked that there is competition in terms of quality as well as price. Most sensible people will not automatically (probably not even often) go for the cheapest of several quotations they have obtained (unless they are forced to for financial reasons), and the same applies to the purchase of any goods/services when there is a range of qualities and prices available to choose from. A substantial proportion of people are prepared (if they can afford to) to pay appreciably, sometimes considerably, more than the 'bottom price' for a product/service which they perceive (rightly or wrongly) to be of high quality.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Please show how introducing competition and "market forces" into hospital cleaning has led to improved standards. And improved job conditions for the people actually doing the cleaning.

Please show how introducing C&MF into education has led to improved standards.

Please show how introducing C&MF into the running of railways has led to improved services and lower fares. Ditto rural bus services.

Please show how introducing C&MF into the probation service has led to improved standards.

Please show how introducing C&MF into the provision of public infrastructure projects like hospital building has led to improved standards, better controlled projects and lower costs to the public purse.

Please show how introducing C&MF into the supply of water, electricity etc has led to better service and lower prices for the consumer.

Please show how introducing commercial consultants for decision making has led to greater "private enterprise" type rigour and analysis and this better decision making over HS2.

Please let me know if you'd like any more to add to the list.

 

[JohnW2]

Interesting and important though all these questions and issues are, and polarised aoppear to be many people's views about them, a "DIY Electrics" forum is definitely not the appropriate place to discuss them, or to promote political viewpoints.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

People who are "not interested in politics" are people who are not interested in whether there are roads, schools, police, jobs, houses, hospitals....

Everything is political.

The fact that someone has had to come to a DIY site to ask about a situation which arose because of the low standards of a housebuilder has a political facet.

 

[JohnW2]

Nothing alters the fact that a DIY Electrics forum is not a place to discuss, or make assertions about, political issues. As per the thread title, the OP asked about the "best way to provide outdoor power for lights" and I feel sure that the sort of answers he was hoping for were not political ones.

MOD: Indeed not we are done here. Continue the debate in GD if you wish.