installing electricity into a log cabin

[rob1432]

hi everybody. i am new to the electrical world and have no idea about electrics.

i need to somehow get electricity from my main consumer unit in the house by running a wire out of the house wall leading into the backgarden. 15metres down the garden will be the log cabin, which ive bought a consumer unit with plug sockets on it.

what sort of wire would i need? how thick? armoured cable?

the details of the consumer unit are as follows:

The Consumer Unit UK1 is a unit that consists of a 2 piece VO rated Moulded Base and Cover with 2 x 25mm, 12 x 20mm Conduit Knockouts and 7 Knockouts for Twin and Earth Glands. The unit carries the CE mark and the front cover is hinged at the bottom and is secured by 2 inset fastening screws at the top. Items included within the unit are:

1 x 63 Amp QA15C, 30ma Earth Leakage Unit to IEC 61008 for people protection

1 x 16 Amp QA-1 (13) Circuit Breaker to IEC 60898 to protect the Socket Outlets.

1 x 6 Amp QA-1 (13) Circuit Breaker to IEC 60898 to protect the Bulkhead Light.

1 x QA Safety Blank.

1 x 12 Way Mini Rail Mounting Tray with spare space to accomodate another 6 x QA 13mm Circuit Breakers.

1 x PEN Neutral and Earth Bar

3 x 13 Amp Socket Outlets to BS 1363

3 x 16 Amp Switches to switch the Socket Outlets to SABS 163-1978.

1 x 60-Watt Bulkhead Light to BS 4533: Section 102.1:1990. (Lamp not included)

1 x 60 Watt BC Lamp Holder to BS 61184.

1 x 16 Amp Switch to switch the Bulkhead Light to SABS 163-1978.

Ready Board can be used as a Consumer Unit to BS EN 60439-3:1991 including Amendment 1

4 x Wall Fixing Plugs and Fixing Screws.

Fully protected by an R.C.D. (Residual current device that measures the electrical current on the outgoing live and return neutral conductors. If any current imbalance exceeds the set trip value it turns off the power supply.)

Approved to BS EN 60439-3

i am planning on using the electicity for a table saw, belt sander, electronic drumkit and other various tools. would the consumer unit described be ok for this????

any help would be much appreciated. thankyou

 

[m4tty]

Hi mate shouldn't you ask the spark that's installing this as it's notifyable work under part p building regs and will need to be signed off? Cheers

 

[Andy™]

hi everybody. i am new to the electrical world and have no idea about electrics.

then i suggest you go through the yellow pages and call a sparky.

 

[maccarooni]

+1+1

As above x 2

Macca

 

[betty swollocks]

is this

a) a wind up?

or

B) maybe a college course assignment?

if its a, then its all been done before :yawn

if its b, then be upfront and you'll get loads of help

if its genuine, then the above post says it all

because if you have to ask such basic questions

your only involvement in electricity should stop

when the kettle boils and you make the :coffee for the spark!

:Welcome:

 

[Doc Hudson]

hi everybody. i am new to the electrical world and have no idea about electrics

Hello rob1432, welcome to the forum. DIY persons are permitted to do certain Domestic electrical work. But from your own statement it sounds as though this may be outside of your scope. Electricity is dangerous all times, even more so when running electricity out of doors. You would probably be best to seek a professional electrician to undertake this work.

Doc H.

 

[SPECIAL LOCATION]

hi everybody. i am new to the electrical world and have no idea about electrics.i need to somehow get electricity from my main consumer unit in the house by running a wire out of the house wall leading into the backgarden. 15metres down the garden will be the log cabin, which ive bought a consumer unit with plug sockets on it.

what sort of wire would i need? how thick? armoured cable? .............

............i am planning on using the electicity for a table saw, belt sander, electronic drumkit and other various tools. would the consumer unit described be ok for this????

any help would be much appreciated. thankyou

Indeed any help would be appreciated... :_| :_| :_|

All you have told us basically is the length of the run!!!

We have NO idea of:

• Existing supply max demand... (is there sufficient capacity existing?)
  
• What is your earthing type?
  
• Is all the correct bonding in place?
  
• What is the max demand going to be in the log cabin?
  

etc..

etc..

We have some pretty top notch sparks on here.....

But even they aren't mind readers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

NEED MORE CORRECT INFO FOR A PROJECT OF THIS TYPE!!!!

Anyway... back to the nuts and bolts...

as has already been said by our esteemed members above...

Some electrical work has a legal obligation to inform the local council LABC to obtain a compliance certificate to confirm the alterations are electrically safe. This is called Part P building regulations, you can download the approved document off the forum to read all about it..

As you say you "have no idea about electrics" it is very unlikely you would be able to issue an electrical certificate with the full test results for the alterations for the LABC to sign the work off.

SO... I suggest you have two options to consider:-

1/ Employ a qualified electrician who can self certify the work and organise the Part P compliance for you.

2/ If you do want to do it yourself put in an application to the council and they "should" have obligations to provide an electrician to test and certify your work. this council appointed electrician I guess would need to see as various stages of your work are complete....

so he could advise you as what you need to get!

Adding new circuits is Part P notifiable.

External wiring is notifiable.

Adding consumer units is notifiable.

and Theoretically there are fines of up to

 

[Apache]

Hello and welcome

You do sound out of your depth [that's coming from a confident DIYer]!

My advice would be to find a friendly spark who will let you help with the donkey work. Digging the trench for the cable, maybe attaching accessories to walls, even clearing up and making tea. Doing some of the labour will save you a few quid [many of our members not too keen on digging trenches] and you'll learn something.

Do you know a local spark? Where in Lancs are you? A number of our members are in your part of the world.

 

[switch10]

surely a wind up, the clues in nthe first part of his statement, new to electrics with no clue. someones going to get hurt if this guy completes the work

 

[batty]

surely a wind up, the clues in nthe first part of his statement, new to electrics with no clue. someones going to get hurt if this guy completes the work

Not me i'm to far away.

:^O

 

[switch10]

hahaha , same here luckily, giving advice to someone with some knowledge is good, giving advice to someone who openly admits he knows nothing is just plain stupid

 

[steptoe]

hahaha , same here luckily, giving advice to someone with some knowledge is good, giving advice to someone who openly admits he knows nothing is just plain stupid

by the same token a little knowledge is a very dangerous weapon,

at least this guy has been honest and freely admitted to knowing nothing,

some of the questions on a similar vein to this are coming from people claiming to be having assessements in the near future, or already being sparks.!!!

 

[Doc Hudson]

by the same token a little knowledge is a very dangerous weapon,at least this guy has been honest and freely admitted to knowing nothing,

some of the questions on a similar vein to this are coming from people claiming to be having assessements in the near future, or already being sparks.!!!

That is quite a valid point Steptoe. On a related theme I have heard it said that within law if a non-skilled person causes serious injury to someone a court would be more lenient on them due to their genuine lack of knowledge. Whereas an electrician even with limited knowledge would be expected to have greater understanding of the risks and dangers and therefore be treated more harshly. Or is this just another one of those old myths?

Doc H.

 

[Lurch]

On a related theme I have heard it said that within law if a non-skilled person causes serious injury to someone a court would be more lenient on them due to their genuine lack of knowledge. Whereas an electrician even with limited knowledge would be expected to have greater understanding of the risks and dangers and therefore be treated more harshly. Or is this just another one of those old myths?

Would be interesting to see if some of the scheme providers backed up their incompetent members if they ended up in court.

 

[steptoe]

That is quite a valid point Steptoe. On a related theme I have heard it said that within law if a non-skilled person causes serious injury to someone a court would be more lenient on them due to their genuine lack of knowledge. Whereas an electrician even with limited knowledge would be expected to have greater understanding of the risks and dangers and therefore be treated more harshly. Or is this just another one of those old myths?Doc H.

you are IMO quite correct Doc,

I have been a prof witness in a few cases,

and if you are a spark you will get hammered more,

one case was one of theft of electricity, a spark was doing it in his own house and got 3months jail,

by the same token a Joe was doing it too and he got something like a

 

[steptoe]

Would be interesting to see if some of the scheme providers backed up their incompetent members if they ended up in court.

could a member not use this as a defence that they were deemed competent by NIC or XXX and state that if Mr assessor had told me I was incompetent then I wouldnt have done that.?

pass the buck to the scheme,

I wish someone would now Ive thought about it, might make them more stringent.

 

[tom1]

trouble is you can be competent and tick all the boxes on your assesment job, twice a year and rough as you can get away with inbetween, a few random checks to notified jobs would not be a bad shout

 

[SPECIAL LOCATION]

trouble is you can be competent and tick all the boxes on your assesment job, twice a year and rough as you can get away with inbetween, a few random checks to notified jobs would not be a bad shout

Got some friends who are Teachers..

They get the same thing with Ofstead visits..

A few weeks notice so they sort all the stuff out get some decent lesson plans organised for the day(s) of the visits...

Which IMHO is complete Tosh cuz its is not NORMAL everyday school!!!!

In both cases a random visit plus a formal assesment day would be good IMHO..

Even if you are just doing a bog standard outside light or extra socket or moving a heating thermostat etc.. etc..

A drop in visit by inspector would soon pick out how you really operate day in & day out!

Course the problem is the scheme providers themselves also need to plan and organise their staff....

so whereas schools are always in the same physical place..

Sparkies can be here there and everywhere!!!!!!!!

so difficult to just drop in at random on you IF you happen to be working 50 mile away!

:|

As always...

Ideal world -vs- reality becomes the stumbling block!

 

[tom1]

colud contact customer directly from jobs you have notified and ask if they could have a quick look but thats not ideal either,

even if the customer agrees, he aint gong to be lifting boards or seeing connector blocks plasted in the wall. unless you leave a load of blanks out the cu and have no earth ect.

job i am at this week the cooker cable was held back with nails,

 

[Doc Hudson]

colud contact customer directly from jobs you have notified and ask if they could have a quick look but thats not ideal either, even if the customer agrees, he aint gong to be lifting boards or seeing connector blocks plasted in the wall. unless you leave a load of blanks out the cu and have no earth ect.

job i am at this week the cooker cable was held back with nails,

They would be able to do a visual check and see the customers copy of the certificates to look for any anomalies, verify bonding, labeling and basic workmanship should be quite evident. So a random visit to site wouldn't be a total waste?

Doc H.