For various reasons, not least that I occasionally run a moth trap*; and it would save mess in the house when mowing lawns; I'd like an outside power socket - the sort beloved of Charlie Dimmock for her water features. That way, I can leave the trap running at night, without having to have a door or window open for cable to pass through.
I'd lie one that's lockable, or with a switch inside the building, so no one can steal my juice ;-)
What do I need to know, before installing one or having someone else do it?
If I do get someone in, how much should I expect to pay? I could drill the wall myself.
one which attracts moths to light so they can be recorded and released.
As far as safety goes, you want the socket to be on an earth leakage breaker, and to be reasonably rainproof. If you have a recent electricity installation, your downstairs sockets may already be on such a protective device, most usually through a "split load" consumer unit (fusebox). In that happy case, put an ordinary fused spur on the inside of the wall, closeish to an existing socket on the protected ring; pass the cable through the wall to a Suitable socket (more on that below). If your existing ring near the relevant wall isn't ELCB'd, you can buy a fused spur which incorporates an ELCB - I think "Powerbreaker" is one such brand. The switched fused spur gives you the isolation on the inside you want.
For the socket on the outside wall, d-i-y sheds and electrical trade counters will offer you a choice of possibilities. There's a pretty cheap flavour of the normal domestic 13A socket which has a transparentish cover
- for example Screwfix's single socket 12754 (just under 7 quid) or a double at 13 quid (12997). Slightly fancier, also sold by S-fix as part numbers 10562 (socket, 9 quid) and plug (10586, 7 quid), is one which takes a normal 13A plug for casual use but has the matching plug with an outer screw-on shroud which keeps the plugged-in assembly rainproof. Finally towards the money-no-object ever-so-handy end, MK do an outdoor socket with a squishy seal for the plug cable which takes ordinary 13A plugs and surrounds them with a cover and that squishy seal to keep the water out; list price about 20 quid.
(My own preference is to use the blue 16A plugs and sockets you see on caravan sites for outdoor tools, but you have to get possibly non-standard to fuse cables of smaller appliances against overload...)
I've got one on the front of the house - in a London street where the front gardens are tiny. It gets used to feeding the hoover for cleaning the car etc and saves leaving the front door open.
I used an Aquatec from TLC as I preferred the design to the more common MK, and sunk the fitting into the wall just leaving the lid exposed - the whole thing stuck out too far for my tastes. I've got a flush RCD just inside the door feeding it which allows it to be switched off if needed. Of course, if you're spurring off an RCD protected ring, then only a 20 amp switch would be required.
I worried about electricity theft, but if you think about it, who would and how?
You don't live where I live. If a dog has two ears and four legs around here, it's a stranger to the area. I like to switch ours off in case I come out in the morning, or home at night, to find the neighbourhood kids with all their computers and games consoles plugged in to, or have all the neighbours vacuuming and pressure washing their cars with it.
It is a consideration to turn off the supply to your outside tap as well before you go on holiday. Wouldn't be nice to find when you got your next water bill that a neighbour had been filling their fish pond or swimming pool at your expense!
It is well worth supplying the outside socket from a double pole switch just to isolate it should it get damaged. There is nothing worse than the house rcd tripping due to water getting into the outside socket.
How waterproof do you need it ? Many of the designs are waterproof when not in use, but either aren't so when being used, or remain so only if you use the special mating sealed plug.
I'd wire it in through a 30mA RCCD fused spur outlet (a common device), or a separate fuseway on the CU, if that were convenient. This can also be used as an anti-theft switch, although it's not an isolator in the full sense of the word.
TLC sell a couple of brands that have a lid that fits over (most) standard plugs and retain water sealing. The light grey ones (I forget the brand) are good, but the dark ones (likewise) are very short on internal space and are near impossible to wire up, especially if you're using 2.5mm cable (because you pulled a whole houseful in one go and didn't think twice).
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