garage/workshop rewire part-p etc...

[tombo]

My new saw has been causing the lights in the house to dim each time I use it and the missus is giving me a hard time about it. Not surprising really the wiring from the house to the garage is an embarrassment a single twin and earth dangling loosely across the top of the gate between the house and the garage. In my defense it was like that when we moved in.

i've arranged for an electrician to give me a quote for a new consumer unit in the garage and some sort of armoured cable from the house (it will have to go under the patio for about a meter to reach)

What sort of certificate should the sparky produce when the job is complete?

Anyone have any idea what type of armoured cable would be needed I am more thinking in terms of current carrying capacity to run my tools?

Any other thing to think about?

tom

 

[Philly]

Tom
These are the sort of questions your electrician should be answering-get a second opinion if in doubt of his qualifications.
Cheers
Philly

 

[devonwoody]

I got a certificate yesterday in the post from FENSA (for windows, telling me they were within building guidelines and that my council had been informed of the window changes)

It also appears that electric work carried out by an authorised electrician issues a certificate which does the same thing. without this certificate it appeared that I would have to notify the council myself, and I note that it includes the wording Remote Garage.

 

[paulm]

I had the same thing done a while back Tom.

Can't recall what certification was given, but the sparky used 10mm armoured cable, that's to say each of the three cores had a 10mm cross section, so pretty chunky stuff, but I do draw a lot of current for all the kit in the workshop.

He ran it directly from the house consumer unit and into a new RCD protected consumer unit in the workshop.

If in doubt about possible future current requirements he will probably use 10mm or even bigger as most of the cost is in the labour and the consumer unit, the cable size not affecting the overall cost much for just a few metres of cable run.

Having said all that I do still get the workshop lights flickering a bit when I've got two or three heaters, and the planer and the dust extractor going at the same time, but not much compared to previously !!!

 

[Woody Alan]

Hi

My workshop is about 170 feet (50metres) from consumer unit. I installed 16mm, cable in 2 inch duct. I have absolutely no problems with loading saw, heaters etc. Prior to this I was running off 2.5mm T&E and when I switched on the saw, the initial current draw was so great that due to the resistance of the 2.5 there was a large volt drop across the length of cable, this gives a volt drop across the machine itself, which in turn means the motor struggles to come up to speed, which in turn means more current being drawn etc. vicious circle. So my advice is to fit as big a feed as you possibly can. Looking at it another way. The house consumer unit has 25 mm tails to ensure no drop and that is supplying an aggregated load not usually needing to cope with current surges on switch on. by the way 16mm sounds big compared to 10 mm but in physical size there isn't much in it.
For the record I am not a qualified electrician, but I do install this type of cable as part of my job, but at lower voltage. Expert advice should be sought .

 

[PowerTool]

Cable size depends on load and distance,as you get voltage drop with long cable runs.
As said before,your electrician will be able to work it all out for you.
My workshop is only 2 metres from the house,so I ran some SWA (steel wire armoured) from a spare way on the CU,and installed a garage CU in the workshop,so everything is covered by the RCD as well.
What you need to do is decide what you are likely to need to run in the shop (both now and in the future) as this will have a big influence on the cable also (it's easier to wire it for future expansion now,so you only need to dig the patio up once :lol: )
And will a 13A circuit be enough,or do/will you need a seperate 16A circuit also?

Andrew

 

[StevieB]

HI, I agree that these are questions the spark shold know the answers to. If it helps, I did mine just beofre part-p came in. Shed is at the end of a 75 foot garden and I used 10mm armoured from the house CU to a new CU in the shed. It currently runs a 13a circuit and a lighting circuit no problem. The figures said 6mm would have been enough, but I went for 10 to allow for expansion.

Cheers,

Steve.

 

[devonwoody]

Steeve, the bad news is that when you want to do those extensions part p kicks in.

 

[ratkinsonuk]

Steve - I recently received my installation certificate for my house extension.

It should look something like this :-

http://www.niceic.org.uk/downloads/EICredspec.pdf

If you have any problems or want to find a registered electrician, then use the NIC website, http://www.niceic.org.uk

Rob.

 

[devonwoody]

Steve - I recently received my installation certificate for my house extension.

It should look something like this :-

http://www.niceic.org.uk/downloads/EICredspec.pdf



Rob.

I reckon some executors in the future are going to have some nasty headaches :roll: