Outdoor lighting and out house cabling

[adsmith]

Hi guys

Garden is around 100ft long and I am looking to build a small out house at the back of it. I would also like landcape lighting throughout the garden.
Would you guys run seperate cables from the main house i.e
1)one for outhouse and other for landscape lighting
or
2) would you run one to outhouse (for lighting and power) and from the outhouse run out the landscaping cables?

Also what swa cable size would I best use for a small 4 way board to run from house to back of garden 100ft away?

Also if I was to choose option 1 would I be ok in running the landscape lighting from an fcu off a ring main from the main house with such a decent cable run around the garden.

Many thanks for your help

 

[Spoon]

Do you have a sketch of the layout of where things are going?

 

[Mikegh]

The type of control used to be a big factor

PIR/timer you can wire from shed if convenient

Switching from house would mean separate wiring from house

Probably not the case anymore.with quinetics ,claimed 80m range outdoors,I'm not familiar with them

If quinetics are a game-changer now it will usually be simpler to wire from shed if you're laying cabling round the perimeter of the garden

 

[Taylortwocities]

Also what swa cable size would I best use for a small 4 way board to run from house to back of garden 100ft away?

What will the loads be? The lighting may be trivial (LEDs?), but what are the power needs of the outhouse?

 

[adsmith]

Just general spike lights and uplighters throughout the borders for the landscape lighting, around 30 in total. Doubt it will be more than 500w in total.
And the outhouse will only be a handful of double sockets with a lighting circuit. A garage consumer unit will likely be ample I'd have thought.

Would you have and idea on what size cable for the meter tails would I need for the outhouse?

 

[Taylortwocities]

Yes…but…I have seen what has been described as “outhouses” that are effectively small houses


What will be plugged in to the sockets?
MIG welder
3kW heaters
Water heater
Tumble dryer
Granny charger for EV
Future plans
…
100ft is a long way if there is even one substantial load

 

[adsmith]

Yes…but…I have seen what has been described as “outhouses” that are effectively small houses


What will be plugged in to the sockets?
MIG welder
3kW heaters
Water heater
Tumble dryer
Granny charger for EV
Future plans
…
100ft is a long way if there is even one substantial load

Just the likes of a fridge and TV appliances.
What would you recommend I best do? There are a couple of spare ways in the main house consumer unit but like I say your talking the back of the garden from CU is 150ft away.

What is the usual way to attack this situation?

 

[Taylortwocities]

What is the usual way to attack this situation?

1. Document the loads that you anticipate.
2. Engage the services of a registered competent electrician. These are new circuits and therefore notifiable.

 

[pc1966]

As already mentioned, any new circuit is notifiable under part P of the building regulations in England and Wales, you really are best to get in a registered electrician to sort this out.

Once the design is agreed and a cable chosen by the sparky, they will often be quite happy for you to do the donkey work of trenching the cable to save some money.

You don't have to bury cable, it could be run around a fence/wall if adequately supported and protected from any likely damage, but burying a length of armoured cable is common. However, better still is to bury some twinwall duct to allow cable to be pulled though along with any network cable, etc, you might need.

Knowing the max load is critical to the cable choice. So think about it very carefully before you start as the extra cost to put in larger at the start is far less than replacing something inadequate later. However, there are some other aspects like earth-bonding of anything like metallic water pipes that can be a factor as well in sizing things.