Suggested Feed For Garage Mancave

[Tricky Dicky]

Now that the new garage is up I am looking to provide an electricity supply and I am looking for suggestions for the feed. Other than LED lighting pro vided through LED strips the main power draw will be the occasional use of a 2.3Kw dryer, a fridge yet to be bought, the electric door, power tools an d in the separate mancave mainly a computer and associated peripherals and a few low voltage items oh! and a kettle and 2 x 2Kw heaters.

Looking at my daughters new build her garage was provided with 2.5mm2 T&E f eed which seems a bit puny to me. Thinking ahead with the possibility of el ectric and hybrid cars coming onto the market and possibly the development of fast chargers for domestic use, I am minded to lay in the biggest cable possible but I am open to suggestions. The length of cable will be approx.

10m from CU to garage it will be fed through conduit attached to an overhea d beam which will span the 1.2m gap between house and garage. So I would be interested in what other people have done or suggestions.

Richard

[tabbypurr]

ly and I am looking for suggestions for the feed. Other than LED lighting p rovided through LED strips the main power draw will be the occasional use o f a 2.3Kw dryer, a fridge yet to be bought, the electric door, power tools and in the separate mancave mainly a computer and associated peripherals an d a few low voltage items oh! and a kettle and 2 x 2Kw heaters.

feed which seems a bit puny to me. Thinking ahead with the possibility of electric and hybrid cars coming onto the market and possibly the developmen t of fast chargers for domestic use, I am minded to lay in the biggest cabl e possible but I am open to suggestions. The length of cable will be approx . 10m from CU to garage it will be fed through conduit attached to an overh ead beam which will span the 1.2m gap between house and garage. So I would be interested in what other people have done or suggestions.

2.5mm is more than enough tbh, rated at around 27A, but you can put as big as you want in. It's your call. Decide what you want to be able to run all at once & choose. 4mm2 isn't too costly.

NT

[Brian Reay]

Depending on the model of home charger for electric cars, you need to allow for either 16A or 32A.

Currently at least, such chargers are often fitted for free, or at least reduced cost. However, the company doing the work have minimum requirements for the installation point. In your example, I am sure it would include reviewing- possibly 'on the day' the cable you are discussing. Normally, they do 'pre-checks', you send them photos, answer some questions etc. However, they also do checks on the day. If things aren't acceptable, no install or perhaps a charge.

In my case, I supplied an additional consumer unit, with RCD, MCB etc. They fixed it, connected to the supply (there is a suitable 'splitter' block- I can never remember the proper name), installed the charger etc, all for free. I wasn't charged for the extra 'tails' etc. They also took care of the Part P paperwork etc. and supplied a certificate.

[T i m]

Henley?

Cheers, T i m

[John Rumm]

More formally a "service connector block"... (Henley it one of many makers who do them - perhaps they were the first and hence why they became eponymous)

[John Rumm]

I would skip the conduit etc, and just use SWA - possibly on a support wire for the gap if burying is not an option.

Since you are only talking about 10m the cable will be a small part of the cost, so go for the largest you think you will ever likely need, and then increase it by at least 50%.

So if you think you may have say 3kW of heating and drier (allowing a bit of diversity), a couple of kW if tools (perhaps some dust extraction), and it sounds like perhaps 6kW of car to charge you could easily end up with a peak load of 12kW... So I would go for 16mm^2 SWA and be done with it.

[T i m]

Ah, cheers. Another 'Hoover' then. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[nothanks]

This may be useful:

[tabbypurr]

ly and I am looking for suggestions for the feed. Other than LED lighting p rovided through LED strips the main power draw will be the occasional use o f a 2.3Kw dryer, a fridge yet to be bought, the electric door, power tools and in the separate mancave mainly a computer and associated peripherals an d a few low voltage items oh! and a kettle and 2 x 2Kw heaters.

feed which seems a bit puny to me. Thinking ahead with the possibility of electric and hybrid cars coming onto the market and possibly the developmen t of fast chargers for domestic use, I am minded to lay in the biggest cabl e possible but I am open to suggestions. The length of cable will be approx . 10m from CU to garage it will be fed through conduit attached to an overh ead beam which will span the 1.2m gap between house and garage. So I would be interested in what other people have done or suggestions.

Feed a few cat5e or cat6s as well

NT

[Archibald Tarquin Blenkinsopp]

Couldn't agree more with that. I did this in a shed/ Garage combination and allowed for an increase, which did come. The tools and fixtures increased along with the addition of a further shed for storage.

None of the walls are plastered so I used 20mm PVC conduit.

The downside that I didn't allow for was the ring main, it was a token gesture with the sockets spurred of quite some distance from the actual ring.

With hindsight it wasn't good. Both the lighting and power needed extending and it was a four day job to shift everything and do the upgrade.

I now have a large JB incoporating power and light feeds at either end of the building to cater for any more modifications.

AB

[tabbypurr]

I was familiar with flats each on a 5A feed. By marking the plugs with current consumption it was quite doable to run everything on that, albeit not ideal.

NT

[John Rumm]

This may tell a fuller story ;-)

[John Rumm]

Good luck charging a car with that ;-)

[Archibald Tarquin Blenkinsopp]

The kettle would take a while.

Expensive wiring, everything must be spurred. One floor for the DB no doubt.

AB

[FMurtz]

[harry]

pply and I am looking for suggestions for the feed. Other than LED lighting provided through LED strips the main power draw will be the occasional use of a 2.3Kw dryer, a fridge yet to be bought, the electric door, power tool s and in the separate mancave mainly a computer and associated peripherals and a few low voltage items oh! and a kettle and 2 x 2Kw heaters.

&E feed which seems a bit puny to me. Thinking ahead with the possibility o f electric and hybrid cars coming onto the market and possibly the developm ent of fast chargers for domestic use, I am minded to lay in the biggest ca ble possible but I am open to suggestions. The length of cable will be appr ox. 10m from CU to garage it will be fed through conduit attached to an ove rhead beam which will span the 1.2m gap between house and garage. So I woul d be interested in what other people have done or suggestions.

Drivel. My electric car charger is 10 amp. Fine for overnight charging. You only need more than 2.5mm if you want a rapid (costly) charger. Electric cars come with a charge lead. The size varies. Decide what car you want first & find out what size the charge lead is.

Bear in mind, the car battery is never run to anywhere near depletion. So you almost never need a fast charge at home.

[harry]

Drivel. Nobody needs 6Kw of charging capacity at home. Most power tools are only a few hundred watts. And a 3Kw heater????? Have you never hard of diversity factor?

I have a 16mm cable for the entire house/outbuildings/electric car. And no gas central heating.

[Nightjar]

On 07-Feb-18 11:45 PM, John Rumm wrote: ...

Which is exactly what I used to run the power to my garage, 25m from the house. I wasn't expecting to need power for more than lights and a couple of 13A sockets, but, as you say, the cable is not the biggest part of the cost and it gives me a good reserve, should I ever need it.

[John Rumm]

Is that a title?

Sorry I had not realised that the world had elected you as their spokes person.

*You* may not need "fast" charging at home (and let's be honest, 6kW is still relatively *slow*). As car battery capacities increase toward something more akin to useful, charging from a 13A socket will be ever more ridiculous.

Many power tools are. However, he needs to size the supply to cope with something closer to the peak operational load (i.e ignoring things like inrush, and short term high loads like kettles etc) so the fact he had a

400W drill sat in the toolbox is not really that relevant is it?

I have plenty of tools that can draw 2kW (A couple of routers, table saw, thicknesser, 9" grinders). I often run 1kW of dust extraction (in reality, not enough) and lighting. In the winter I might run 2 - 3kW of heating for 30 mins getting the workshop warm. (and that is a relatively small and well insulated space). Hence why the OP needs to do a proper load assessment exercise based on predicted use, and then factor for some expansion capacity.

Do you *ever* properly read *anything*?

The OP said 2 x 2Kw heaters and the occasional 2.3Kw dryer. Now the diverse load when the place is up to temperature may well be only a few hundred watts (assuming its insulated, and there is no washing to dry), but again you could be easily running both heaters flat out for a reasonably decent period getting the place up to temperature.

(the OP did not say how big the place was or how its constructed/insulated)

I have written on the subject many times as you ought to know.

You have our commiserations.

[Steve]

Also called Isco Blocks.