A few years ago, when I was younger, and more Naive, I rigged up my Grandad's summer house with a double socket. The length of cable is about 15 metres, and runs back to a plugtop in the house. It is clipped to the fence and goes straight through the wall into the back of the socket. It is jointed in a small wooden hut, which houses the tumble dryer - the cable wasnt long enough and theres a 20A round JB there. The dryer cable goes through the wall into a plug top too.
Now it works ok, but i know its not the safest setup in the world. To add to this, my grandad installed a normal double socket on the OUTSIDE of the summer house, with a flex he plugs into my double socket inside when he needs this socket.
It turns out he uses this socket to supply his friend's allotment with power for fans in his greenhouses! I haven't ventured down there (just over the fence), but I can see bits of twin and earth strung between the greenhouses and wooden shacks. The friend pays my grandad in plants and flowers from his allotment.
I havent done any calcs, but the socket this is all powered from in the house is about 15-20 metres from the CU, on the ring main. Said ring main powers all of downstairs, including kitchen, lounge, immersion heater (i know), garage. And its not RCD protected, despite the CU being replaced 10 years ago (Hager 8 way straight board).
The run to the summer house is about 10-15 metres, and the run to the furthest allotment shack is about 25 metres.
I'd like to install something properly, as this is all a lash up. The summer house main plugs into a 4 way socket, with the dryer, fridge, bread maker, washer, you get the idea. There is a serious lack of sockets in the utility room, just a double socket with the above and a single socket for the boiler and freezer.
I'm thinking along the lines of a submain located in the utility. Being an extension, the house wall of the utility is painted brick, so appearance is not too important and I could locate the CU here.
Since there is a mix of appliances that we dont want to be RCD'd and sockets that blatantly need to be RCD'd, a split load board would be in order. From the utility it is very easy to route cables to every socket that could be expected to provide electric outdoors. The sockets I have drawn on are the only ones this applies to.
The circuits:
RCD 32A radial for the garage and utility sockets.
32A radial for utility non-RCD
RCD 32A radial in 4mm SWA for dryer, summer house sockets.
5A lighting circuit. The garage has a 4ft fluorescent on 0.5mm 2c flex to a plug top. The WC, strong room and utility lights all on one switch. So a new 6A circuit for this lot.
5A circuit for the 300w halogen PIR lamp outside (currently thru a switch straight on the ring main).
Some of the sockets pictured are already there, on the house ring main, but I will cap these off, maintaining the ring continuity and install new sockets.
Any opinions on this?
Now it works ok, but i know its not the safest setup in the world. To add to this, my grandad installed a normal double socket on the OUTSIDE of the summer house, with a flex he plugs into my double socket inside when he needs this socket.
It turns out he uses this socket to supply his friend's allotment with power for fans in his greenhouses! I haven't ventured down there (just over the fence), but I can see bits of twin and earth strung between the greenhouses and wooden shacks. The friend pays my grandad in plants and flowers from his allotment.
I havent done any calcs, but the socket this is all powered from in the house is about 15-20 metres from the CU, on the ring main. Said ring main powers all of downstairs, including kitchen, lounge, immersion heater (i know), garage. And its not RCD protected, despite the CU being replaced 10 years ago (Hager 8 way straight board).
The run to the summer house is about 10-15 metres, and the run to the furthest allotment shack is about 25 metres.
I'd like to install something properly, as this is all a lash up. The summer house main plugs into a 4 way socket, with the dryer, fridge, bread maker, washer, you get the idea. There is a serious lack of sockets in the utility room, just a double socket with the above and a single socket for the boiler and freezer.
I'm thinking along the lines of a submain located in the utility. Being an extension, the house wall of the utility is painted brick, so appearance is not too important and I could locate the CU here.
Since there is a mix of appliances that we dont want to be RCD'd and sockets that blatantly need to be RCD'd, a split load board would be in order. From the utility it is very easy to route cables to every socket that could be expected to provide electric outdoors. The sockets I have drawn on are the only ones this applies to.
The circuits:
RCD 32A radial for the garage and utility sockets.
32A radial for utility non-RCD
RCD 32A radial in 4mm SWA for dryer, summer house sockets.
5A lighting circuit. The garage has a 4ft fluorescent on 0.5mm 2c flex to a plug top.
The WC, strong room and utility lights all on one switch. So a new 6A circuit for this lot. 5A circuit for the 300w halogen PIR lamp outside (currently thru a switch straight on the ring main).
Some of the sockets pictured are already there, on the house ring main, but I will cap these off, maintaining the ring continuity and install new sockets.
Any opinions on this?
