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2 electricity supplies to one building

Former Community Member
Former Community Member
Hello, I am a not an engineer but need some advice on uk wiring regulations please. 

A national utility company is fitting a 32A charger in my garage for an electric vehicle. 

The garage is detached from my house but there is an existing circuit from the house consumer unit to the garage for lighting and a power socket. The cable runs along a garden wall. 

The new charger will have its own cable run from the same consumer unit in the house down to the garage. 

My problem is that the engineer who came to do the installation refused to do it as he said the garage is a building in its own right and regulations do not allow 2 supplies to one building.

My question is: Do 2 wiring circuits from the same consumer unit constitute 2 supplies If the consumer unit is located in an adjacent building? 

I would have thought that this was still a single supply and to have 2 supplies you need 2 separate meters with 2 consumer units which is not the case here but then, as I said, I’m no engineer. 

Edit.....The engineer stated that the regulation related to avoiding the risk of a voltage between 2 different earths. To me this again only makes sense if you were talking about 2 totally different supplies from different meters and therefore possibly different sub stations etc.
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  • 0
    We would already have electric trucks trundling up and down our roads, if it weren't for a global shortage of batteries. 

    Not really,.

    There are already enough batteries to make a few million electric trucks, and that would be a small start, (UK alone has about 4 million small lorries and about half a million HGV on the roads each working day, and we send quite a lot by train.) but if we did ,then the next bottleneck is the (total lack of ) ability to re-charge them.

    It can and will eventually be done, but phased in over several decades as oil runs out, but not quickly and certainly not cheaply.


    Have you seen the electric charging requirements for a typical electric HGV yet ? That one is 22kW for the 10 hour  'slow charge' built in, and 150kw for 40 minute fast charging (for a range of 90 odd  miles after a - so recharge after something like  90 mins on the motorway. Normally drivers stop after more like 4 hours.)

    Something like Eddie Stobart's modest fleet of 2700 'artic' vehicles will need a sizeable chunk of a power station. (at the moment they have more trailers than tractor units, with electric that ratio may change.)

    And remember we are supposed to be phasing out natural gas for heating and cooking over the same period, so the demand will rise from two directions.

    Mike.

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  • 0
    We would already have electric trucks trundling up and down our roads, if it weren't for a global shortage of batteries. 

    Not really,.

    There are already enough batteries to make a few million electric trucks, and that would be a small start, (UK alone has about 4 million small lorries and about half a million HGV on the roads each working day, and we send quite a lot by train.) but if we did ,then the next bottleneck is the (total lack of ) ability to re-charge them.

    It can and will eventually be done, but phased in over several decades as oil runs out, but not quickly and certainly not cheaply.


    Have you seen the electric charging requirements for a typical electric HGV yet ? That one is 22kW for the 10 hour  'slow charge' built in, and 150kw for 40 minute fast charging (for a range of 90 odd  miles after a - so recharge after something like  90 mins on the motorway. Normally drivers stop after more like 4 hours.)

    Something like Eddie Stobart's modest fleet of 2700 'artic' vehicles will need a sizeable chunk of a power station. (at the moment they have more trailers than tractor units, with electric that ratio may change.)

    And remember we are supposed to be phasing out natural gas for heating and cooking over the same period, so the demand will rise from two directions.

    Mike.

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