I wish to have mains to my shed. Nothing elaborate, just a simple socket for the mower or a lead-lamp will suffice.
Would it be acceptable to bury a 13A mains extension lead in proper cable ducting and simply plug the end into a wall socket inside the house? (Obviously it'd be fitted with an RCD plug.)
On Thu, 15 Jul 2004 11:27:12 GMT, snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com (sPoNiX) strung together this:
Well, don't know about acceptable but just about passable I think. I assume when you say cable ducting you're thinking 20\25mm PVC conduit. Probably not the ideal solution but if it's buried in PVC tube then I think you'll be ok.
They do something very similar on ground force when laying cables for their mains pond pumps.
Why not do this properly and just bury some SWA cable instead and put a proper outdoor socket at the other end. This could be fed from an RCD fused connection unit. Probably less hassle than threading an unsuitable extension cord flex down conduit.
1.5mm SWA cable is cheap as chips (80p/m). You'd need a gland pack (about a fiver), an outdoor socket, such as the clipsal IP66 (9 pounds) and an RCD fused connection unit (the most expensive bit at 25 quid). Note that if your ring mains are already RCD protected at the consumer unit, a standard cheap FCU can be used instead.Christian.
You can do more or less what you like if it's plugged in.
Many ready made 13 amp extensions use 1.0mm flex, which while ok for safety purposes will allow rather too much voltage drop if the distance is long. Best to make one up using 1.5mm flex.
On Thu, 15 Jul 2004 12:15:22 GMT, snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com (sPoNiX) strung together this:
Er, yes.....
The other issue with extention leads is the earth fault loop impedance. You can never predict how an extention lead might be used, so in a commercial environment where they get PAT tested, generally the minimum acceptable conductor sizes are:
1.25mm² for up to 12 metres; 1.5mm² for up to 15 metres; 2.5mm² for up to 25 metres (which won't fit most 13A plugs).and a lead falling outside these levels would fail a PAT test.
Yes. Although if all he really is going to use is a light and or a mower, these would normally be double insulated.
However, given that the major work involved is digging the trench, I'd do the job properly and use SWA cable, permanently connected to the house.
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