Appreciate Some Help Please

karlitob

Hi all

I’m hoping someone can explain what is going on, please

I’ve a swa cable installed just outside the house for the past 10 years. Electrician put it in for when we did the garden - garden room and garden lights. The cable is 15mm thick, and there are two separate cables that are each about 25m long.

He said that the cable is linked to a box beside a double socket and from there we could hook it up to a light switch at a higher height.

Could anyone kindly explain what I’m looking at please - thank you.

https://ibb.co/Bz9cv05

https://ibb.co/JxcTdhq

https://ibb.co/GvnVcJP

meercat

Difficult to tell from here but my guess is both swa cables are ran back to that single box. One cable (2.5) is to do an outside socket. The other cable (1.5) is for outside lights. It looks like the intention is to power these cables from the adjacent socket. The light circuit should be protected by a 10a fuse.

2011

Agree with Meercat.

I would guess that the plan was to fit a spur outlet to the single box. This would be supplied from the socket. The laod side of the spur would supply garden lights via a switch (1.5 mm sq. cable). The supply side of the spur would supply the garden room (2.5 mm sq. cable).

Note the armour should be earthed on the SWA'a. This is best achieved by using a SWA gland.

karlitob

Thank you both very much. Will be getting an electrician out to advise but I wanted to get a sense of it beforehand.

Im planning a garden room in the future but will be laying a trench for water and waste in the next few weeks while the patio gets done. The building will be a small workshop / shed; and then a simple room with lights and tv. Nothing too fancy.

Will these cables do the job of lighting and sockets to the garden room, as well as the garden itself (path lights and an external socket) also do you think?

meercat

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117774572#Comment_117774572

Depending on the load required and length of run to the shed. I’d initially say these cables aren’t suitable (not big enough)but your rec should advise.

karlitob

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117778000#Comment_117778000

That’s a shame. We specifically asked the electrician to ensure they were sufficient for those needs.

I hope (when we remove those steps) that we can thread through a new cable that of sufficient requirement.

Thanks again.

2011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117778117#Comment_117778117

You may well be fine, what will be connected?

karlitob

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117779019#Comment_117779019

Hopefully

In the garden - two more outdoor sockets; under seating lighting, path lighting and a tree up-light.

In the garden room / workshop-shed - it’ll be a simple room for the small one and friends - so lights, and sockets; and the other side of the building I’m planning a shed/workshop - shed first so some lights and sockets but I do have notions of a workshop so the most powerful item will be a table saw but probably only an on-site/portable table saw; nothing professional.

Garden is 45 m long.

meercat

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117780171#Comment_117780171

The cables you have are fine for outside sockets and lights. My advice is a separate supply from your distribution board to the workshop and a sub board fitted to control sockets/lighting.

karlitob

Thank you.

This is where the stupid questions start. I presume it’s not an easy task to get a cable from the distribution board out the back of the garden.

If so - that’s really disappointing as we were very clear with the electrician what we wanted.

2011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117780171#Comment_117780171

Well that is a long cable run, it would seem that there are loads already on that circuit and the requirement is to supply an entire workshop from it. Up until your last post I never expected a workshop or a garden that long.

So the starting point is to work out the total load. Then work out what size load is already fed from that circuit.