SV650.org - SV650 & Gladius 650 Forum - Garage Electrics, Consumer Unit

SV650.org - SV650 & Gladius 650 Forum (http://forums.sv650.org/index.php)

- Idle Banter (http://forums.sv650.org/forumdisplay.php?f=116)

- - Garage Electrics, Consumer Unit - Which One? (http://forums.sv650.org/showthread.php?t=133018)

Re: Garage Electrics, Consumer Unit - Which One?

no you dont need to put the main supply to your garage off an rcd m8.

If your garage is seperate the house then you will need some mechanical protection for the cable supplying your garage either by using conduit or wiring it in steel wired armour cable.

as for the pros and cons of ring main or radial is you can use more heavy loads like washers , dryers at the same time on ring mains where as in a radial heavy loads like this all the time would just blow the mcb.

what do you intend to use in the sockets ?

Re: Garage Electrics, Consumer Unit - Which One?

Personally I would advice you to ask your pet spark to look at your full domestic install and tell him what you want.

Issues that would concern me are that I would want my garage electrics to be fed through a RCD, I would want to know the routing of my house to garage cable, to ensure it is properly armoured and unlikely to be damaged etc.

When I bought my 1960 build house 25 years ago, I condemned the wiring as soon as I tried to plug in my alarm clock in the bedroom and found the only upstairs socket was on the landing. No problem thought I I will extend the ring and then found the cable to be perished as soon as I lifted a floorboard.

It is a pity that with the part P requirement it has stopped competent non registered installs as well as the cowboys.

So pay your money and get it fully looked at.

Re: Garage Electrics, Consumer Unit - Which One?

Quote:

Originally Posted by DarrenSV650S (Post 1927208)

Do you want 6 double sockets because you have a lot of equipment? Or is it just to have sockets available in lots of places?

Pretty much because it's a double garage, and just want to be able to have sockets available in most locations.

Worst case scenario would be the following items running at once:-
hi-fi, fridge, battery optimiser for bike, a powered tool of some description and pond pump.

Re: Garage Electrics, Consumer Unit - Which One?

What size of domino is protecting the garage supply?

Re: Garage Electrics, Consumer Unit - Which One?

Quote:

Originally Posted by slloyd (Post 1927217)

that would be fine on the 16 a radial then m8.

Re: Garage Electrics, Consumer Unit - Which One?

Carlos: Garage is separate from the house, and from what I can see is a large grey cable heading from the main consumer unit under the floor - then emerging up outside of the garage in a armoured casing, then heading into the garage into the old "pasted it" consumer unit.

timwilky: we have a Part P certificate for the electrical installation for the house, and everything is fine and earthed well and was just advised to upgrade the main consumer unit, and garage consumer unit. Just cost for the main one is a little more pricer than to replace the garage unit, hence my working backwards from the garage first.

Re: Garage Electrics, Consumer Unit - Which One?

Quote:

Originally Posted by DarrenSV650S (Post 1927222)

What size of domino is protecting the garage supply?

Darren: I'll have to check the electrical certificate with regards to this question when I get home from work...

Re: Garage Electrics, Consumer Unit - Which One?

Quote:

Originally Posted by DarrenSV650S (Post 1927210)

As long as you have an RCD in the garage it will be fine

Quote:

Originally Posted by CarlosSV650S (Post 1927213)

no you dont need to put the main supply to your garage off an rcd m8.

Quote:

Originally Posted by slloyd (Post 1927211)

So what are pros and cons with radial circuit ( which could be sufficient for me) or ring main?

That's a more involved situation than you might think and even the industry still debates it. See here for something quite recent. You can feed radial with 2.5mm2 cable on a 20A MCB (up to 50m2 floor area). I suggest this is more than sufficient given the light loading you propose. Bear in mind that it's ultimately a radial feed to the main CU in the house.

Quote:

Originally Posted by timwilky (Post 1927214)

Good advice this. The new installation work you propose will require new Part P certification. My view would be that none of it is non-notifiable. So you need to get a self cert spark in or deal with the local council yourself. If you don't get the paperwork, it will come back to bite you if/when you come to sell.

Quote:

Originally Posted by timwilky (Post 1927214)

It is a pity that with the part P requirement it has stopped competent non registered installs as well as the cowboys.

Oh yes! What a saga.

Re: Garage Electrics, Consumer Unit - Which One?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ruffy (Post 1927407)

Again, it comes back to how properly you want to do things. You could spend a small fortune just putting a couple of sockets in a garage.

Re: Garage Electrics, Consumer Unit - Which One?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ruffy (Post 1927407)

I think you're wrong: I believe that to comply with 17th Edition the cable supplying an external garage needs to be protected by an RCD as it goes outside the equipotential zone of the house. (You dont then need one in the garage unit.)

That's a more involved situation than you might think and even the industry still debates it. See here for something quite recent. You can feed radial with 2.5mm2 cable on a 20A MCB (up to 50m2 floor area). I suggest this is more than sufficient given the light loading you propose. Bear in mind that it's ultimately a radial feed to the main CU in the house.

Good advice this. The new installation work you propose will require new Part P certification. My view would be that none of it is non-notifiable. So you need to get a self cert spark in or deal with the local council yourself. If you don't get the paperwork, it will come back to bite you if/when you come to sell.

Oh yes! What a saga.

You dont need to protect the sub main supplying the garage with an RCD as the unit that is going to be installed in the garage has rcd protection, PLUS your not supposed to have 2 RCD,s in stream. ( this is ok if you have a TN-S or TN-C-S system)

if you are going to take the cables for the sockets and lights for the shed directly from the house CU then you dont need an rcd in the garage like you said.