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Earthing for detached garage

Looking for some advice on what is required for earthing arrangements on a detached garage. I am in two minds about the need to convert the garage to a TT island.

House supply is TNS, but I probably have to assume it may be converted to TNCS in the future.

The garage is about 1.5m from the house, it has 2 double sockets and an LED light installed.

Feed to the garage is via steel conduit running down the house, through a concrete path and then up and along the outside of the garage. Then through the wall to a steel junction box and then plastic conduit to metal clad fittings.

If earth connection is disconnected from the steel conduit, testing with a continuity tester shows it to be isolated from earth, haven't tried an insulation test so far. There are no other services entering the garage and it's brick built without a steel frame.

At the moment I have the steel conduit connected to the cpc of a 2.5mm T+E cable and then single core 2.5mm earth cable continuing the earth from the steel junction box to the garage installation.

If an EV was connected to a garage socket for charging in the future it would have to be via a 15m cable. I think it would be far more likely that a EV charger would be put on the outside of the house close to where the car will be parked.

So can I say that as :-

The steel conduit is isolated from earth and therefore not an extraneous conductive part, no other extraneous conductive parts.

Sockets unlikely to be used for EV charging

Therefore OK to use TNS earth from the house without bringing 10mm earth bonding cable from the house???

Alternatively 

I could isolate the garage and put a an earth rod in

I could probably get a 10mm earth bonding to the conduit at the house side but getting the cable to the garage would require replacing the conduit which will be quite expensive for the customer on a job that's gone way over budget already due to a multitude of problems hidden under loft insulation and inside walls.

 

Parents
  • In all seriousness I would leave things as they are, as suggested earlier. Ensure that the metal conduit is correctly earthed and have R.C.D. protection in the “garage unit”. I see no additional problems here. The conduit may offer a lower path to Earth after it has rained. It seems generally that too much is being made of possible P.M.E. supply issues. Street lights and bus shelters are P.M.E. supplied, as are outdoor domestic oil boilers. There are not heavy fatalities reported regarding these installations.

    Quote. “I think if I convert the garage to TT the biggest risk in an open PEN condition would be someone using a tool powered from the garage and then coming in to contact with the conduit which could be at the same voltage as the PEN.”

    Most appliances such as hand drills are class 2 these days. Gone are the old metal cased Wolf type electric drills. Wolf Sapphire 73 Electric drill | eBay

    Metal cased Wolf electric drill

    Vintage Wolf Drill | eBay

    Z.

Reply
  • In all seriousness I would leave things as they are, as suggested earlier. Ensure that the metal conduit is correctly earthed and have R.C.D. protection in the “garage unit”. I see no additional problems here. The conduit may offer a lower path to Earth after it has rained. It seems generally that too much is being made of possible P.M.E. supply issues. Street lights and bus shelters are P.M.E. supplied, as are outdoor domestic oil boilers. There are not heavy fatalities reported regarding these installations.

    Quote. “I think if I convert the garage to TT the biggest risk in an open PEN condition would be someone using a tool powered from the garage and then coming in to contact with the conduit which could be at the same voltage as the PEN.”

    Most appliances such as hand drills are class 2 these days. Gone are the old metal cased Wolf type electric drills. Wolf Sapphire 73 Electric drill | eBay

    Metal cased Wolf electric drill

    Vintage Wolf Drill | eBay

    Z.

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