Outdoor Sockets - Any sparkies in the house?

TighterThanTwoCoatsOfPain

Edit: Sorry its such a long one!!

The house i moved into 6 months ago used to have quite a large pond which was installed as part of the original build but was filled in several years ago by previous owners.

The power for the filters and pumps etc were taken from a switched and fused spur from the ring main. This goes outside then underground to a bank of 2/3 outdoor switches (which admittedly look a little 'weathered') which have IP56 (or maybe 66?) on them.

The wire to the old switches is currently disconnected at an outside juntion box.

I thought i would simply re-connect at the junction box and replace the current switches with a handy Outdoor socket or two which would be about 5 metres from the house on the side of the old pond area.

Down at the local DIY place today, all of the sockets said that unless the sockets were being mounted directly on the outside wall of the house, they must only be installed via a direct feed to the Conumer unit .

Guess my questions are:-

a) If its an issue to feed electrics outside then why on earth would a builder do this in the first place for the pond (perhaps i know the answer - cowboy?)

b) Is this really nessecary and should i knock my idea on the head. Was supposed to be a cheap 'nice to have', i'm not prepared to have new feeds put in especially so would rather not do it.

Thanks guys!

Andy_L

The rules changed a few years ago. At the time it was done it was OK, providing the buried cable is armoured/in earthed metal conduit.

As far as personal safety, rather than regulations go, providing the ring main has an RCD in the consumer unit I'd use it (after checking the insulation/earthing on the circuit), baring in mind that if the outdoor kit does trip the RCD you will lose all power on the ring main.

If you want to bring it up to regulations I believe that if you change the connection such that it plugs into the indoor socket rather than being spured off it you can just use a plug-in RCD and you're good to go as it becomes an extension lead rather than domestic wiring.

adaze

When it was done it probably met the regulations. If you are simply undertaking a repair then there shouldn't be a problem with it. New regs are exactly that, new, whilst installing a seperate circuit is certainly the way to go if doing a refit or complete install, but it could be time consuiming, costly and could be quite messy. You wouldn't be breaking and laws (as far as I am aware), and if it was installed propely it should be safe. You could get it checked to be on the safe side.

The point is that the circuit is there (and if it is safe) then you are simply maintaining it, replacing weathered switches and sockets, and I don't see that as a problem.

Although re-reading your post are you sure you can swap switches for sockets?

TighterThanTwoCoatsOfPain

thanks for the replies guys....

the cable is armoured incase someone chucks a spade through it i guess!

adaze wrote: »

Although re-reading your post are you sure you can swap switches for sockets?

the cable runs underground and surfaces to a couple of switches (which i may well replace). the other side of one of the switches runs to a little round metal junction box which used to feed the pond filter.

my plan is to pop an outdoor style socket with built in RCD in place of this junction box. i appreciate what you're saying re: tripping the ring main if there are any problems between the house and socket tho..

If it was 'safe' 8-9 years ago, would my intended set up be reasonable now?

Perhaps if not, i could go the 'plug in RCD' route, but then its not as tidy. :-(

thanks agin guys...

beedeedee

I would like to have a garden pond with all assorted whistles and bells - what's the ball bark figure for a new electrical cable/socket etc to a pond please? (Only about 10 mtrs from the nearest indoor socket). Cheers.