Electricity Question

[Terry W.]

My newish house (new to me) has what appears to be a standard what I call a "fuse box" - that is with circuit breakers. Works OK in that when a light bulb blows, I need to reset the circuit.

However, my detached garage has a power supply in it that does not appear to go through the house system. It is a single box on the wall with a fuse in it and a large red ON/OFF switch. The cables coming from this go to the lights and to a couple of sockets over the work bench. There does not appear to be any sort of RCD in this system.

Questions: a) Is this a normal set up ? No RCD/circuit breaker in garage supply.

b) Is it safe ? or should I put a portable RCD thingy in the sockets over the work bench when using power tools ?

My apologies for my total lack of knowledge and terminology.

Terry W.

[John]

[John]

How do you know it doesn't go through the house system? Have you tried switching off at the house fuse-box to see what happens?

[Terry W.]

"John" wrote in news:eE33i.17$ [e-mail]:

Yes, if Master Switch thrown on house consumer unit, garage power stays on and live.

Terry W.

[Lurch]

On Thu, 17 May 2007 22:43:26 GMT, "Terry W." mused:

I'd maybe have someone have a bit more of a look into it if you're not confident in finding its source. Are you sure it's not fed from a seperate RCD in the meter cupboard or somewhere?

[John Rumm]

This would suggest that the power has been split before the consumer unit in the house (probably using a service connector block aka "henley block"), and a second sub main taken to your garage.

is a difficult question to answer since there is lots of background information that plays a part in design of out building power supplies.

Would you be able to grab some photos of the main house CU and surrounding electrikery, and also the garage? If you post them to a web site somewhere and post a link here, we might be able to have a stab at a sensible answer without going through loads of Q&A sessions.

(to get a feel for this subject and all its subtleties, you could do a google groups search on this group as it has been discussed many times).

[Terry W.]

"Terry W." wrote in news:Xns9933E081A3C20tango.whiskey@140.99.99.130:

Many thanks for all your replies.

I will get an electrician in to have a look and advise me.

Thanks for all your advice - this group really does go to great lengths to help and advise the less gifted :-)

Terry W.

[Robert Laws]

innews:eE33i.17$ [e-mail]:

It might be worth checking whether the electricity meter registers if you use power in the garage?

Robert

[The Natural Philosopher]

If this is the case, installation of a small consumer unit in the garage would be the way to go..probably ALL on a 30mA RCD.

[Bob Eager]

And a protective device (possibly that RCD) at the house end, to protect (and isolate) the sub-main itself.

[meow2222]

innews:Xns9933E081A3C20tango.whiskey@140.99.99.130:

You must enjoy spending money :)

NT

[Lurch]

On 18 May 2007 08:57:23 GMT, "Bob Eager" mused:

No need for the RCD to cover the submain unless it's a TT system, a 1 way switch fuse, like a Wylex 106\206 or similar would suffice.

[Lurch]

On 18 May 2007 02:23:57 -0700, [e-mail] mused:

innews:Xns9933E081A3C20tango.whiskey@140.99.99.130:

You come out with some bollocks at times.

[meow2222]

innews:Xns9933E081A3C20tango.whiskey@140.99.99.130:

Maybe you think the OP should employ an electrician then when a) there is no reason to believe anything's wrong b) we just offered to give some info if he posted some pics.

I dont. If you dont like that... shrug

NT

[Bob Eager]

Oh, I agree. But if he's putting it there anyway...although personally I'd put it at the garage end with, as you say, a switch fuse at the house end.