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  • Getting frustrated by lack of power to my shed. Google indicates this is a can of worms and many people do many non compliant workarounds that many other people (esp. sparks) have opinions about - for good reason of course.

    Situation is this:

    The CU is in the kitchen so cannot run a separate circuit direct. The ground floor sockets appear to be on an RCD (yellow button?) . I need to spur off the double socket nearest the back window and run through the frame, down the garden and into the shed. The shed is - lightweight tiny house construction fully wrapped in tyvek below the cladding - and v dry and watertight.

    In the shed as a minimum i would like 4 sockets (LED desk lamp(7w), mac mini computer(50W), monitor(150W) +one spare for phone charger etc) as a bonus a fused spur to potentially run 1m2 of electric underfloor heatmat (150W) .

    Current idea based on google is :
    metal patress 13A FCU (switched?) just below the DS inside the house > earth gland > 1.5mm2 armored cable clipped to wall > through wall > clipped to fence > into shed> into 1 metal patress DS with earthed gland > wired to second DS > into switched 13A FCU for the heating mat and thermostat / timer.

    Appreciate this has come up before and I need an electrician for compliance etc - just trying to scope cost for parts etc. Grateful of any thoughts...

  • My solution currently (in lieu of an armoured cabled off a spare circuit from the CU), and certainly not the right way to do it, just how I do it. Double RCD protected external socket that sits on the kitchen ring. Extension lead that plugs in there and runs out to the shed. In the shed, I installed my own small/garage type CU which has a ring main for sockets and a lighting circuit. The input for that small CU would ideally be the armoured cable. Instead in is a 2.5mm2 length with a 3 pin plug on the end that I plug into the extension lead. I NEVER leave it plugged in. I plug it in when I go into the shed and unplug it when I leave (sits by the door). Even though I have light switches, I don't use them and use the light being on as my reminder to unplug.

    My theory is it's just like a caravan hookup, kind of. I did actually show it to an electrician and despite him encouraging me to get the armoured cable in, he just said to swap the previous standard exterior socket for an RCD protected on as I wasn't unplugging it at the house end. So there was a live cable running up the side of the garden that an animal could chew through. So that's why the exterior socket is now an RCD one. I've only had one issue which was self inflicted (adding a spur to one of the double sockets on the ring). But still, all that did was trip the kitchen socket circuit.

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