Old chestnut, shed electrics

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Can anyone help me with the old chestnut; shed electrics. I’ve got an electrician, he’s giving me the instructions for what to do and I’m doing the graft work. I’ve worked with a lot of trade guys over the years, carpenters, plumbers, plasterers and electricians. Quite a number took short cuts, including electricians. So I’m being cautious and looking for advice. This electrician has said he’s either going to take the shed wiring off the radial circuit, using an appropriate junction box, supplying our electric shower, which is protected at the consumer unit by a 40A mcb. Or he’s going to take a spur from the kitchen ring circuit which has its own 32A mcb. I’m not sure which has the more disruption, so if I can have the choice based on some feedback from you guys it would be really helpful. The distance to the shed is 25 meters and there will be 2 double sockets and one light off a fused switch. He said he’s going to use 2.5 twin & earth run inside plastic plumbing pipe clipped part of the distance on our boundary wall and the remainder on the horizontal 3”x3” wood part of the fence, all approx. 2 feet off the ground. I’d like to thank you for any guidance you can provide. Many thanks.
 
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This electrician has said he’s either going to take the shed wiring off the radial circuit, using an appropriate junction box, supplying our electric shower, which is protected at the consumer unit by a 40A mcb

Then he clearly isn't an electrician! Ask around your friends and family if they can recommend an electrician that they have used and who did a good job, do not use trade rating websites to find someone, get a few quotes for the work and go with the person you feel most comfortable with. Anyone else who suggests tapping into the shower circuit, politely show them the door!
 
To me, what you describe is a DIY method.

Id be surprised if an electrician would use plumbing pipe as conduit or use twin and earth outside. It would be likely to get water in it

A timber fence is not considered a permanent structure so I doubt an electrician would clip cable to it.

What type of earth do you have, not all types can be exported
 
2.5 twin & earth run inside plastic plumbing pipe

YEEHAW.gif
 
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Thanks guys for your replies. The earth is connected directly to the electricity boards earth. It looks like I wont be back in contact with...……..
 
He's a bodger. Some sort of handyman by the sounds of it. How accessible would it be to the get the cable back to consumer unit? This is the preferred way generally speaking.
 
On the other hand, it would certainly be interesting to see this person attempting to shove T&E cable into a 25 metre length of plumbing pipe.
 
On the other hand, it would certainly be interesting to see this person attempting to shove T&E cable into a 25 metre length of plumbing pipe.

Easy. It's hosepipe I'd be more interested in seeing, seeing as lots of people do this on fairly long runs.
 
Hi all. Thanks for your feedback. Connection here isn't very good, so have to travel to get on line. Anyhow, took your advice member of the family gave me electrician contact details from a friend of theirs. He's good and is going to run cable from the CU. It's a lot more work and more distance and cost but we think it's worth it. Your reactions and suggestions led me down this route. Thanks again.
 
Easy. It's hosepipe I'd be more interested in seeing, seeing as lots of people do this on fairly long runs.
Once did 7/0.029 T&E, 3/0.029 T & 4C fp200 in a 27yard 1" buried pipe
 
I witnessed my boss (when I was an apprentice) shoehorning 19 1 milli singles into an old imperial screwed conduit.

So much for the spacing factor...
 
On the other hand, it would certainly be interesting to see this person attempting to shove T&E cable into a 25 metre length of plumbing pipe.
String with a small nut tied on the end and a little bit of Newton's best (no, not the bitter...!), followed by the conduit equivalent of KY jelly.
 
I witnessed my boss (when I was an apprentice) shoehorning 19 1 milli singles into an old imperial screwed conduit.

So much for the spacing factor...
I added some stage lighting bars in a school and quoted to use 25mm conduit for 19x1.5mm² plus 1x6mm² ( this was for 8x L&N plus 6mm earth and a different L,N&E). They queried as the existing was done with 20mm and my tubes were to run beside the them. I showed the OSG charts and they accepted.

When I opened the dimmer pack to start my work I found 2 of the circuits had red & black reversed and I found they had used 27x1mm² per tube and in one instance in a total run of about 14M with 2 bends, it was a solid mass of 77 lube.

I decided to do insulation tests on the existing before I started and found the 2 reversed circuits had a short red to earth and also some black to earth faults. I showed them my test results, this resulted in them bringing in their regular electricians who confirmed them and disconnected the faulty circuits.

School asked me to proceed as quoted and in the mean time they contacted the original contractors.

I made the decision to do as much work as I could before the tube where it ran beside the existing.

Lo and behold original contractors turned up to look at the problem and as I was already there doing similar work they promptly gave me the job of correcting it. I replaced the 20mm tube with 25mm and re-wired for them.

The school loved it as they got their existing repaired and the new work came out a bit cheaper because of it.

EDIT: Anyway much too far off topic, my apologies.
 
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