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Advise - Future Proofing Outside Building

Luke1985

Hi All,

Upfront, I am not an electrician, I'm just looking for advise on future proofing.

I recently bought a house and long term (years from now) i intend on adding a outbuilding at the bottom of my garden. this will be an office/workshop so will need power running from my house to the new building. obviously when the time comes i will need to engage an electrician to add the circuit, put in a subordinate consumer unit etc. etc. 

however, right now i have my ceilings down (for unrelated renovations) so it feels like a good time to at least run some internal cable....

I was thinking i could run some (unconnected) cable from near the consumer unit to a box of some kind at the back of the house, that way the eventual sparky doesn't need to smash up my walls/ceilings when the time comes. Consumer unit to back of house will be around 10m of cable, back of the hose to new building will be around 20m.



question is, can a sparky join SWA onto T&E (if thats what i run) and if i do run T&E is 10mm sufficent? or should i be looking at 16mm?

Option B is a I could leave a pipe of some kind running from the back of the house to the consumer unit, but not sure how easy drawing a T&E/SWA down 10meter of pipe would be!

Parents
  • +1

    Ducting for any cable is only useful if it is about the size of a drain pipe and has a pull-rope already in it that moves freely.  An SWA can be joined to almost anything if enough slack is left. The usual trick is to gland the SWA into an adaptable box and then have some terminals in there to whatever you need, TnE, flex, singles in conduit...
    The same sort of thing can be done in less space with care using a double socket back-box and a blanking plate to cover it.
    Generally you want all joints  indoors and easily accessible and inspectable if at all possible.
    Cable size depends on the expected maximum load and perhaps the distance if your grounds are extensive.
    Over a short distance 4mm2 will do 32A which is enough for a ring of sockets and some lights.  6mm is probably overkill unless you need a cooker and shower, 16mm2 is enough for a complete new build flat and more than the meter tails on some older properties.
    Mike.

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  • +1

    Ducting for any cable is only useful if it is about the size of a drain pipe and has a pull-rope already in it that moves freely.  An SWA can be joined to almost anything if enough slack is left. The usual trick is to gland the SWA into an adaptable box and then have some terminals in there to whatever you need, TnE, flex, singles in conduit...
    The same sort of thing can be done in less space with care using a double socket back-box and a blanking plate to cover it.
    Generally you want all joints  indoors and easily accessible and inspectable if at all possible.
    Cable size depends on the expected maximum load and perhaps the distance if your grounds are extensive.
    Over a short distance 4mm2 will do 32A which is enough for a ring of sockets and some lights.  6mm is probably overkill unless you need a cooker and shower, 16mm2 is enough for a complete new build flat and more than the meter tails on some older properties.
    Mike.

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