[paulie]

I am currentyl in the process of setting up some frag tanks in my shed which is approximately 70 feet from the house. What size of cable do I need to run this sort of distance? Is 2.5mm big enough to run sockets or do I need to up grade the size of the cable to allow for the power drop.

I presume the cable can be connected in to the consumer unit way that serves the house ring main? Also would I need to put a consumer board at the shed end or just connect the sockets (with an isolation switch 1st) Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[chriss]

The best way would be to take a feed from you existing CU to a new CU in the shed, like is often done for a garage. However, because of the distance, you can get problems related to earthing and you may need to have a separate earth fitted for the shed which all gets very complicated depending on how your property is earthed. Cable wise, 2.5mm probably would do the job, but I think I'd be happier going quite a bit heavier, 4mm to 6mm, but then it depends on the potential load at the other end.

Anything related to your CU will require an approved electrician to at least sign-off the works.

Chris

[paulie]

Thanks Chris, we are not on PME at home and the earthing is provided by means of an earth rod so I presume we do the same at the shed end and just drive an earth stake in the ground?

[chriss]

paulie, on May 26 2010, 01:54 PM, said:

I presume we do the same at the shed end and just drive an earth stake in the ground?

Think so, but I'd google it for sure or try asking on this forum www.diynot.co.uk which I find very useful, tho you might get grief for attempting to do a job that should really be done by a qualified sparky.

Chris

[djjd]

hi there paulie i am a fully registered sparks with the niceic and having just read the posts my advice to you is to get someone who knows what they are doing to do the work as it is not as easy as reading posts by people on a forum.there are so many factors involved in running power down the garden to a shed/garage and as stated by chris on his post about earthing putting a rod down the shed sometimes could be a significant issue as there is a risk of introducing earth potential.
the earth stake (rod) has to have a certain resistance if this resistance is too high then there's a possibility that your RCD (trip switch) may fail to act in time if a fault occurs which could duly kill someone in the process and this is just the start of some of the regulations that have to be adhered to.believe you me it may be costly to do what you want but weigh that cost up to somebody's life like yours,your wife and kids or if the building catches fire the insurance would not cover you if you failed to provide evidence of an installation certificate.
i hope i did'nt sound too stern as it not my intention to tell you what to do as i admire you for taking the time out to enquire about such an installation as a lot of people would just do it anyway without asking and contemplating the risks involved.
anyhow hope this helps

regards

jason