[Peter Pan]

The new Pan Towers ticks all the boxes for Mrs Pan (gardens, view, gardens and did I mention the view?) and mostly me (for the kitchen) but sadly compromised in that I have no garage now. I do however have a large workshop /shed at the bottom of the garden. This is about 300 feet from the house with no power and water. I thought about a trench with said utilities fed down it but Elfin Safety regs seem a bit onerous. I can get all the cable and stuff at staff discount and prob90 get a mini digger free from work for the weekend but still seems like a lot of effort.

Seen this petrol genny on the Aldi website for £60 which seems a good deal to solve the electricity problem - any experience of these? Water probs solved with 3 hosepipes.

http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers/special_buys3_19771.htm

[Paul_Sengupta]

I use something similar for polishing the aeroplane. Ok, but a bit noisy. Personally I'd prefer to run a cable. What about overhead?

[Flyin'Dutch']

Yup, get someone to get the cable dug in or overground; problem forever solved and likely to be more satisfactory in the long run.

[Peter Pan]

Yes I thought it might be noisy (2-stroke). Overhead not possible - will get in the way of the Sywell boys doing aeros....
I might just run an armoured cable down to the shed and make sure I don't run over it with the mower / strimmer / hedge cutter.

The shed will be typical blokey thing - work bench, pillar drill, chop saw etc. Max 1000W

[David Williams]

When I get around to installing a greenhouse, I intend simply to run a length of armoured cable to it, drill a hole through the wall of the house and plug it into a wall socket. The house is fully RCD protected, but I'll probably use an additional RCD simply to silence anyone who tries to tell me that what I've done is "unsafe" (because it PROB90 breaks some regs).

[stevelup]

Armoured cable itself shouldn't be RCD protected - but the sockets in the shed will given that it's quite likely that portable equipment that may be used outside will be plugged in.

If you want to do it above board, this work will need to be Part P compliant which means you need to use an electrician. Your best bet would be to find one who is willing to do the design work but let you supply the parts and the donkey work. They shouldn't charge too much just to connect and test.

If you want to do it all yourself - and let's face it, who will ever find out - just post back and I can help you with a safe and correct design.

In my opinion, you will quickly tire of the generator...

[johnm]

The simplest approach would be to take a switched fused spur off the ring main in the house, run armoured cable to the shed (either buried along the edge of the garden or secured to a wall/stout fence), install a small consumer unit in the shed with one cb for power and one for lights, job done.

I think with a spur you don't need part P but don't quote me on that.

[Jim Jones]

The shed will be typical blokey thing - work bench, pillar drill, chop saw etc. Max 1000W

perhaps install a phone too, one you can work with one hand.........

[Bill McCarthy]

Scrub round the genny. Most don't have the oomph to supply the starting current for the heavier powered tools. If you do want to go underground with the cable, hire a slotting trencher - it will make a neater and cleaner job. Use the mini digger and you will have a major landscaping job on your hands. Do you know where all the underground services are (if any). I would run a cable through an alcathene water pipe and run it along a fence and just plug in at the house end when required.

[Peter Pan]

The shed will be typical blokey thing - work bench, pillar drill, chop saw etc. Max 1000W

perhaps install a phone too, one you can work with one hand.........

Johnm - there is already a separate consumer unit in the kitchen (barn conversion now connected to the house) and a weatherproof socket outside, presumably connected via a spur from it. All work has been done ion the last 8 years. I thought of extending that spur via armoured cable lain underneath the hedge to another consumer unit in the shed. Stevlup - might take you up on an offer of a 'design'. I'm pretty handy with electrics and want it to be safe but ity's going to be a big job digging a trench to satisfy elfin safety regs.

[PeteSpencer]

We have power via a sunken cable to three sheds, a greenhouse and pond about 60 ft from the house: all protected by RCDs or whatever they're called this month in two of the sheds and pond housing: The whole shooting match is protected by a RCD at main board in the house.

Couldn't do it with a generator: A mini digger and some armoured cable is the way to go, you'll never get the power for all the electrical stuff you'll find yourself wanting to add from a generator. (PIR lights, pond lights, pumps, beer fridge etc)

And while the trench is there why not lay in some water piping at the same time.......

And a sky multiroom cable for those quiet moments.

Sorted.

Edit to add that we got an electrician to do this: I'm toadly useless at all things electrical and would probably have ended up killing myself and blacking out half the town.

Peter

[David Williams]

I thought of extending that spur via armoured cable lain underneath the hedge to another consumer unit in the shed.

I'm sure I've read somewhere that you're not allowed to extend an existing spur nowadays. Could be wrong though.

But, as mentioned above - does one really care about whether it complies with all the regs, so long as it's safe? It seems to me that the regs have got out of hand.

[Jim and Pat Dalton]

what if the cable was already in place when you moved in? Its just heresay isn't it.

Peter I wouldnt run a genny unless it was a goodun like a Honda and supplying to a really good ups. the reason is that many electrical goods these days rely on pure sinewave and you will have problems with start up and running esp multi units.

Pete S has it. run some water down there whilst you can. blimey mate your gonna need a cup of tea sometime!

[Wing_Over]

<Deleted>

[stevelup]

There's a mixture of good and bad advice in this thread. Just to clarify a few things:-

1) This is notifiable under Part P no matter how you do it (unless you live in Scotland)
2) You do not need, nor want, an RCD at the house end feeding the armoured cable
3) You cannot put a consumer unit on the end of a spur
4) You cannot put an RCD on an already RCD protected circuit as you won't have any discrimination

Really, the one and only correct way of doing this job is as follows. I'm assuming a 30M run for the cable calculation and that you will want power sockets and lights in the shed. I'm also assuming that you don't have a TT supply in the house:-

A non RCD protected circuit in the consumer unit rated at 32A. If you don't have a spare non RCD way, you will need to split the tails from the meter using Henley blocks and fit a switch fuse instead.

30M of 3 core armoured cable. At the house end, armour is connected to earth, at the shed end, you use the three inner cores.

Consumer unit in the shed with a 6A MCB for lighting and a 16A RCBO for the power sockets. If you are feeding outside lighting from the lighting circuit, then it would be best if the 6A breaker was also an RCBO.

The minimum depth of the trench should be 450mm and the cable should be surrounded by sand. Warning tape should be buried 150mm above the cable.