Outdoor socket circuits

I've just been perusing a copy of "The Which Book of Wiring and Lighting". It says that when fitting outdoor sockets, a single socket outlet mounted on the house wall can be wired as a spur off one of the existing circuits, but socket outlets remote from the house have to be supplied from a dedicated circuit with their own fuseway in the consumer unit. The book seems pretty authoritative, but I thought I'd check this here. It's a bit of a blow to me, because I want a couple of sockets a short distance from the house and because of the layout and decoration of the house it's going to be a great pain taking the cable all the way back to the consumer unit. I'm not sure what additional safety requirement this fulfills. If the sockets away from the house are on a 13amp FCU off the ring with RCD protection and all the external cable is SWA what additional protection can a separate circuit offer?

Reply to
Martin Pentreath
Loading thread data ...

Depending on the age of your book this is. Most external power outlets need cleaning and more regular maintenance than other outlets that are sited inside the house. They also do get more faults per rata than normal indoor circuits. So if the outdoor sockets are taken from your existing ring circuit, then if they do get a fault you have to turn off all the sockets in the house to be able to work on them safely. This can be, as you can imagine, very inconvenient.

A socket fitted externally should always been taken through an internally fitted double pole switched fused spur unit, no matter if it's far remote or fitted right outside to the house wall, so it can be isolated fully from inside the house at any time. This makes it safer from a weather point of view and for your security if someone tries to steal your electricity while your on holiday.

The further these outlets are fitted from the house, the more ratings variables they have to endure, so it's always best to run a totally separate supply to them, to cut down on the inconveniences they can cause to the rest of the house circuits.

Any electrical apparatus that is installed outdoors should be properly earthed and rated for it's own particular use. It should also be properly provisioned for correct isolation from inside the house for safety and security reasons.

Reply to
BigWallop

I agree with the second point above - but it makes nonsense of the first point! With a double pole RCD you can isolate it to work on without affecting the rest of the ring circuit.

I don't know what the regs say but I can see no practical reason for not spurring an outside socket - via an RCD - off a ring main. I've certainly done it!

Reply to
Set Square

There's nothing to this effect in the regs.

A separate circuit prevents a fault outside (such as moisture getting into the wiring) from losing your power indoors, maybe to fridge/freezer/boiler (frost protection) whilst you are away.

If you are going to take a spur off the ring circuit, I would suggest fitting a double pole switch indoors even if it's just one socket and doesn't strictly need an FCU, so you can isolate it and keep the rest of the ring circuit operating in case of an outdoor fault.

All outdoor sockets must be RCD protected at no more than 30mA too, so if you run it off the ring circuit and the ring circuit is not suitably RCD protected, then you'll need an RCD.

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

On Mon, 15 Nov 2004 02:01:22 GMT, "BigWallop" strung together this:

Well, not quite. there should be a double pole isolator fitted inside the house for the outdoor electrics so once this is isolated the indoor circuits remain live, and the outdoor ones don't.

to the OP, there's no reason why you can't run sockets a distance from the house as a spur, as long as you ensure there is RCD protection for the outdoor sockets.

Reply to
Lurch

"Martin Pentreath" wrote | I've just been perusing a copy of "The Which Book of Wiring and | Lighting". It says that when fitting outdoor sockets, a single | socket outlet mounted on the house wall can be wired as a spur | off one of the existing circuits, but socket outlets remote | from the house have to be supplied from a dedicated circuit | with their own fuseway in the consumer unit.

That would be good practice, certainly. "Which" might also be thinking of the floor area rules for ring and radial socket circuits.

Owain

Reply to
Owain

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.