New socket needed from fuse box

womble12345

I need a new socket in my garage to power a new electric garage door. The simplest place to get the power from is the fusebox/consumer unit which is about 2m away on the same wall. Is it possible to get a suitable fuse (13A presumably?) added to a spare slot in the fuse box and run a cable to one socket from there?

The fusebox looks like this:



Is this something I can do myself or will I be breaking the law doing that?

Thanks,
Simon

Ebe_Scrooge

Assuming you have a spare slot in the CU then yes, you can run an additional circuit to the garage. However, this would need to be done by a qualified electrician. And whilst you're at it, you may want to think about getting extra sockets installed in the garage for future use ( power tools, etc. ).


Having said that, are there any sockets in the garage already ? If there are then you can spur off one of those to get power to your door - this is something you're allowed to do yourself.

Mr.Generous

You can have a 15a rcd with a double socket as a single spur straight from the box as long as it has a spare slot, but it needs to be planned and done by a qualified sparks and certified as its a new circuit.

An extra socket can be taken off an existing socket provided it is part of the ring main, you should not spur off a spur.

womble12345

Thanks for the help.

Yes there are other sockets in the garage but the reason for the new door is that part of the garage is being changed into a utility room, however we are having the new garage door fitted first so I wondered if it would be easy to get this socket installed sooner. I think I will just run an extension cable across the garage from an existing socket for the time being and then get the electrician who will be wiring the new utility room to also arrange a socket in the correct place for the garage door (and also some more for power tools, etc).

Thanks for your inputs which have convinced me not to attempt this myself and to leave it to the pro's later on.

Thanks

Head_The_Ball

Edit: You posted the above while I was typing my post below.

womble12345 wrote: »

I need a new socket in my garage to power a new electric garage door. The simplest place to get the power from is the fusebox/consumer unit which is about 2m away on the same wall...

Is there an existing socket inside the house close to the garage?

Last year I installed a spur from a socket in our hall to our garage by simply drilling through the wall behind the existing socket using about 16 inches of cable to feed a new double socket in the garage.

It is a simple job for a DIYer who knows what he/she is doing.

One question: Does the electric garage door specify that it can be powered from a 13 amp plug or does it require a dedicated supply? It is likely to be the former but you should check.

womble12345

Thanks. The garage door installer did tell me that they needed a standard 3 pin plug socket to power the garage door.

I will leave it to the pro's.

knightstyle

Mr.Generous think you will need an mcb, 16a, to protect against over current in the consumer unit, plus an RCD if that part of the consumer unit is not covered by an existing RCD.
A15aRCD on its own???? NO NO NO.