How can I tell if my garage is on the same ring main as my house?

[Jerakeen]

Hi,
I'm Colin, a non-electrician here hoping for some knowledgeable advice.

I've just moved into a house with a lovely double garage at the bottom of the garden. I'm trying to get wifi down there and the most suitable technology appears to be homeplugs piggybacking the signal over the electrical wiring.

Obviously this requires the garage to be on the same ringmain as the house but as I'm an IT techy and know little of household electrics I don't know how to tell if this is the case. I don't want to go and spend money on networking equipment if it's not going to work.

Can any of you tell me if there's an easy way of finding this out?

Thanks

Colin

 

[snowhead]

Turn something on thats plugged into the garage and also something into the house ring.
Turn off the breaker marked Ring in the Consumer unit.
See if both go off.

 

[7029 dave]

^^^ as above.

 

[Madocks]

Are you sure they have to be on the same ring? ive never used this but the signal isnt going to be fussy about rings?

 

[Jamie']

They don't need to be on the same ring

 

[Pete999]

Hi,
I'm Colin, a non-electrician here hoping for some knowledgeable advice.

I've just moved into a house with a lovely double garage at the bottom of the garden. I'm trying to get wifi down there and the most suitable technology appears to be homeplugs piggybacking the signal over the electrical wiring.

Obviously this requires the garage to be on the same ringmain as the house but as I'm an IT techy and know little of household electrics I don't know how to tell if this is the case. I don't want to go and spend money on networking equipment if it's not going to work.

Can any of you tell me if there's an easy way of finding this out?

Thanks

Colin

Have you any idea how your Garage electrics are supplied, could be a separate circuit from the Consumers Unit, do you have any circuits marked "Garage" ?

 

[Octopus]

They don't need to be on the same ring

But RCD's and RCBO's will impair their performance.

They do not work between different phases.

 

[Jerakeen]

OK, I've taken a closer look at the fuseboxes and I find that there is a circuitbreaker marked Garage.
I have another, smaller breakerbox in the garage.



That would suggest to me that it's on the same circuit but as I said I'm no electrician and I don't want to spend the money on the kit if it isn't going to do the job for me.

Thank you all for your inputs so far.

 

[Pete999]

OK, I've taken a closer look at the fuseboxes and I find that there is a circuitbreaker marked Garage.
I have another, smaller breakerbox in the garage.

View attachment 39665 View attachment 39666

That would suggest to me that it's on the same circuit but as I said I'm no electrician and I don't want to spend the money on the kit if it isn't going to do the job for me.

Thank you all for your inputs so far.

Switch the"Garage" breaker OFF, if the rings in your house stay ON then the Garage is NOT on the same circuit as the house ring. The Garage is on an RCBO, do you know what that black round looking cable does?
It looks to me that the garage is fed separately on it's own breaker and has been split as it should be in the garage into lighting and power. Do you have any tripping problems as it also looks like you have an RCBO and an RCD in the same leg, not a well designed install imo.

 

[Jerakeen]

The black cable goes from the covered socket just below the garage breaker to an led outside spotlight.

Am I understanding you right? If I switch the garage breaker off in the main box the rest of the house should go off too if it's on the same circuit. Sorry if I'm being dense.

 

[Pete999]

The black cable goes from the covered socket just below the garage breaker to an led outside spotlight.

Am I understanding you right? If I switch the garage breaker off in the main box the rest of the house should go off too if it's on the same circuit. Sorry if I'm being dense.

No switch the "garage breaker"OFF this should not effect anything in the house, it should only switch the garage OFF this will prove or disprove that your garage is on it's own supply.

 

[telectrix]

if you turn off the garage RCBO in the main consumer unit and the house sockets are still on, then it's definitely a separate curciut, as appears from the photos. why not get some ouutdoor rated cat 5 cable run down to the garage.

 

[telectrix]

yous quick in the trigger pete. snow got in your underpants?

 

[Pete999]

yous quick in the trigger pete. snow got in your underpants?

Snow what snow, nice and sunny here, I got the OP to give me a call, being in experienced with lektrikery, I could tell he was getting his nick knacks in a twist, just called me an I put him right, seems a nice guy, anyway he's all clued up know and understands what has been done, how are you keeping?

 

[Jerakeen]

Thanks very much for all your help Pete, and thanks for everyone else's input too. I have a better understanding of what's going on now.

 

[telectrix]

Snow what snow, nice and sunny here, I got the OP to give me a call, being in experienced with lektrikery, I could tell he was getting his nick knacks in a twist, just called me an I put him right, seems a nice guy, anyway he's all clued up know and understands what has been done, how are you keeping?

just getting over a cold. bad cough in morning till i've woke my lungs up with a couple of king size rothmans.

 

[Pete999]

just getting over a cold. bad cough in morning till i've woke my lungs up with a couple of king size rothmans.

Nice, worked did it? after 12 years of having given up the weed I still yearn for one in the morning.

 

[Toneyz]

Nice, worked did it? after 12 years of having given up the weed I still yearn for one in the morning.

WEED I hope you mean tobacco, Pete!!!!!

 

[DJ Ovengloves]

Op, just get some Tp-link gigabit ones from Amazon. The gigabit ones are expensive, but excellent imho and if they don’t work Amazon are great at taking stuff back...just say they don’t work as advertised.

Or get someone in to run an Ethernet cable.

If money is no option, Netgear Orbi will worth a look.

 

[Pete999]

WEED I hope you mean tobacco, Pete!!!!!

Oh do I??

 

[Octopus]

do not bother with earth net over mains extenders there a wast of space
your be lucky to get any where near there stated through port even on the gigabyte ones from one room to next in house let alone
run a cat5eor 6 cable out to the garage

Disagree big time.

Until I connected up all our hard wired connections we had 6 powerline adaptors around the house - they were fine, and for a long time we were streaming BBCiplayer using them.

The limit is normally the ISP's speed and for lots of people they are the only option.

Sure a dedicated outdoor rated CAT cable is best but not everybody has the knowledge to do that either...

 

[Octopus]

^^ my comments were made on actual experience of mine, family members and clients

 

[Pete999]

were belive you

but is yours the only house with no snow on the roof in the street

Don't live on a Street

 

[MisterE]

I've had some success with the TP-Link Powerline adapters (but also has some failures!)
Separate phases - definitely don't work
Separate circuits - all depends - RCD's, other "noisy" kit, long circuits etc. may not work.
Even had some success using wireless across phases / between halls, then Powerline on a long run in a showground.
The only way is the try it, borrow a pair of adapters if you can before spending your cash.

 

[Octopus]

Ofcom, the communications watchdog, published a consultation on Monday on new regulations that would allow its officials to issue enforcement notices to shut down such networks when the electromagnetic radiation they can emit interferes with radio signals. Those who fail to comply will face criminal prosecution.

An Ofcom spokesperson said: “Ofcom’s proposals are designed to update existing regulations to take account of developments in technology. They are not in response to requests from any organisation.”

As well as interference causing security issues, regulators also want to ensure that police and ambulance, and air traffic control, services are able to communicate clearly. The BBC has previously said DAB radio broadcasts are affected by power line technology.

Its about time OFCOM came clean about digital radio - they are affected by countless different battery chargers AND when you live in a "dip" like we do, the signal is flaky to say the least

 

[AJshep]

My experience with powerline adaptors running through RCDs has been a bit poor (random disconnects). The OP would be running through a RCBO and a RCD so I think it would be unreliable at best.

 

[Jerakeen]

Well, some feedback.

I decided to take a chance and bought a TP-Link WPA-4220 kit from PC World. I paired the units up in the house and made sure they were connecting properly. Then took the remote unit down to the garage and plugged it in.

The result? A nice strong internet signal where there was none before.
I dare say it may not be running as fast as a cable would, I haven't run a speed test yet, but all I'm going to be wanting down there are web pages and youtube videos showing me how to do things and it's coping with those with no problems at all.

Thanks again for the help. You have a nice friendly forum here

 

[aesmith]

...Thousands of homeowners could face prosecution if their broadband persistently interferes with radio signals, under Ofcom proposals published after lobbying by intelligence agency GCHQ.

Ironic because Ofcom do absolutely nothing about radio or other interference that plays hell with broadband signals.

 

[Deleted account]

What was the original question?

 

[telectrix]

What was the original question?

was wondering that. the answer is BEER< but what was the question?

 

[Spoon]

The answer is 42......

 

[Deleted account]

Is that from hitch hikers guide

 

[Spoon]

Is that from hitch hikers guide

Yep.