Power to external garage

The_Palmist

Hi Guys
Our garage is about 4 meters from the house wall. It has no power, I have asked a couple of local sparkies for quotes but they either don't want the job or just don't have any ideas on how to do this. One of them suggested to take an extension cable overground but I don't want that.

Very soon we will be having a conservatory so there will be some digging going on anyway.

Any ideas on the best way to get this done will be much appreciated.

The garage has tarmac drive in front of door and garden to its side.
thanks

phill99

My garage is 25 metres from my house and I have run power to it. Radial circuit principle.

Need to spur into the ring main with a fused spur unit. From that run a 4mm armoured cable buried underground. Bring it into the garage and attach a garage sized RCD consumer unit and then run sockets and lights off that.

Hintza

Your biggest problem will be getting any cable to your fuse box (consumer unit) if you can figure that out then the rest is easy.
I did it last year to the stables 60m from our new self build.

I bought the cable and did all the ground works inc laying the cable 3 foot down leaving the sparky to connect both ends.

The cable was drilled through the wall of the house into the kitchen then through the wall to the Consumer unit under the stairs. At the stable end I bought another small consumer unit for any further extensions.

Ensure you buy the correct armour cable. And check the depth required in England

You don't need a sparky for the menial work.

phill99

Hintza wrote: »

Your biggest problem will be getting any cable to your fuse box (consumer unit) if you can figure that out then the rest is easy.
.

But you don't need to go back to the consumer unit. You can spur into a ring main.

The_Palmist

Consumer unit ir fuse box is on the wall by tarmac drive. It is 15 feet from garage door. So I guess I have to dig along the tarmac?
If that is the best way then I can leave it for later. Conservatory will be done on the garden side and I was wondering if I can use that as an opportunity to get cables laid.
I have never done any such work and with my diy skills attempting this could result in catastrophe.
I want to figure out best way of doing it as I just don't have faith in local tradesmen, they don't turn up when agreed for starters.

Stooby2

phill99 wrote: »

But you don't need to go back to the consumer unit. You can spur into a ring main.

The problem with that approach is that the supply to the garage will be limited to 13A and ought to be figured in to whatever is running on that ring main as well.

My garage is fed via a separate single unit next to the main fuse box that was installed (by a sparkie) via extra meter tails. From there armoured cable runs to the garage and another consumer unit (or whatever the new term is for them). I have two separate ring mains and a lighting circuit from that and if I remember rightly, the whole lot is rated at 30A (it was 20 years ago when it was installed). It means I can happily weld, or use the 2kw paint gun / whatever without worrying about tripping anything else. The armoured cable goes under the floor to the back of the house and is clipped to the fence along the underside of one of the arris rails and then into the garage 20 metres from the house.

The_Palmist

Right guys who do need to look for for the digging bit...builder joiner handy man?
I can get the digging done and then get sparky to connect both ends?

Stooby2

If you want the drive put back properly then a builder is probably your best bet and in any case, you may want to survey where you're going to dig to make sure there's no water / gas / electric under there already.

phill99

Stooby2 wrote: »

The problem with that approach is that the supply to the garage will be limited to 13A and ought to be figured in to whatever is running on that ring main as well.
e.

I agree with that but most garages are used only for small power, plus it reduces the need to get back to the Consumer Unit which is often difficult.

Ectophile

If digging the cable into the ground isn't practical, you could consider using a sturdy catenary wire and strap the cable to that. A 4m run should be possible, but you'd need to work out whether the overhead cable would be a hazard to anyone passing under.

Hintza

phill99 wrote: »

I agree with that but most garages are used only for small power, plus it reduces the need to get back to the Consumer Unit which is often difficult.

Aye you start off think all you need is a light and a socket and then it starts to grow. Sounds like consumer unit is quite handy in this case.

As for digging I used John "The digger man" when he was there doing a few things. Digging by hand will be hard going.