Rules and Guidelines
Want to participate in the discussions? Please read our Community Rules and Guidelines. Need some help? Visit Support and Answers.

  • State Not Answered
  • Locked Locked
  • Replies 27 replies
  • Subscribers 32 subscribers
  • Views 2626 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
You may also be interested in
This discussion has been locked.
You can no longer post new replies to this discussion. If you have a question you can start a new discussion

Extend new circuit from outhouse into another property with an existing supply, which is bad idea or not allowed?

Former Community Member
Former Community Member
So there is a wooden outhouse with a consumer unit of its own with RCBOs in it that gets it supply from Building A using a 10mm SWA. Building A has a 3 phase 100A power supply. 


Building B needs a new socket for some domestic appliances but has no sockets that can handle the demand in the room where it is required (dishwasher and washing machine).


Due to layout of land and location of consumer unit location for Build B (which has its own single phase existing electricity supply)  it is easier to run a SWA from the consumer unit of the wooden outhouse into Building A. So Building B is using electricity supply of Building A through the consumer unit of wooden outhouse. 


I know there are some concerns about earth bonding potential differences but what options do I have? Can I just get electricity supply from the outhouse to Building B and extend and use the earth of sockets already in Building B? 


Is something I am doing here not allowed?
Parents
  • 0
    A house of this size should definitely have at least two ring mains. Particularly since it sounds like it is being used as a small business premises rather than just a home. I would agree with Andy's suggestion - split the ring into two.


    My present house, a four-bedroomed bungalow used as a dwelling only, when I moved in had a single ring main serving back and front but not the middle which was served by a haphazard number of spurs. I reorganised this into two ring mains. I felt satisfied that I had tidied up the installation.


    The boiler sounds like a combination job, so electric power consumption is not an issue, though ideally it should be on its own subcircuit.


    The safety issue here is that the main switch of a building should isolate everything in the building, and everyone should be confident of that, including non-electrical-savvy people. This will not be the case if part of the building is supplied from an outbuilding.


    It sounds as though your reason for wanting to do it this way is partially to simplify the wiring and partially to get Building A to support part of the load of Building B, which is at its limits. I hope you have your metering and billing arrangements agreed!


    Who are "they", that are keen to deploy a 3-phase supply? If "they" are the electricity network supply company, then I am not surprised. Should they bear some of the cost? Worth some enquiries I think.


    I have seen, over the years, electrical installations that have become confused and even hazardous, simply because successive contractors want to do a quick and cheap fix instead of sorting things out properly. I would be unable to give you a professional recommendation to go ahead with this. One day, things are likely to go disastrously wrong, and someone will need to dig deep to sort it.
Reply
  • 0
    A house of this size should definitely have at least two ring mains. Particularly since it sounds like it is being used as a small business premises rather than just a home. I would agree with Andy's suggestion - split the ring into two.


    My present house, a four-bedroomed bungalow used as a dwelling only, when I moved in had a single ring main serving back and front but not the middle which was served by a haphazard number of spurs. I reorganised this into two ring mains. I felt satisfied that I had tidied up the installation.


    The boiler sounds like a combination job, so electric power consumption is not an issue, though ideally it should be on its own subcircuit.


    The safety issue here is that the main switch of a building should isolate everything in the building, and everyone should be confident of that, including non-electrical-savvy people. This will not be the case if part of the building is supplied from an outbuilding.


    It sounds as though your reason for wanting to do it this way is partially to simplify the wiring and partially to get Building A to support part of the load of Building B, which is at its limits. I hope you have your metering and billing arrangements agreed!


    Who are "they", that are keen to deploy a 3-phase supply? If "they" are the electricity network supply company, then I am not surprised. Should they bear some of the cost? Worth some enquiries I think.


    I have seen, over the years, electrical installations that have become confused and even hazardous, simply because successive contractors want to do a quick and cheap fix instead of sorting things out properly. I would be unable to give you a professional recommendation to go ahead with this. One day, things are likely to go disastrously wrong, and someone will need to dig deep to sort it.
Children
No Data

Community Rules & Guidelines