I am considering getting some power in my garage for my new house. We currently have a second fuse board in the shed that is an old kind with rewireable fuses with a 50a double pole main switch feeding it. This shed is about 8 metres from the garage and would be easier to take a feed from here for the garage fuse board than the main fuse board (which has no spare ways) that is at the front of the house. Would it be possible/ safe to take a feed from this secondary fuseboard or convert the main switch to a small garage board to feed the 2 consumer units on seperate circuits fed from 1 circuit in the main fuse board in the house? The current shed circuit is on a 32a breaker. The fuse board in the shed only has one light and two sockets fed from it. Looking for the garage to have one ring main with about 8 sockets and a lighting circuit with about 4 lights on it
I’m looking to get a quote for the work but would like some info on if this way is okay so I can suggest this to the electrician that quotes the work.
Any advice will be appreciated!
It may or may not be possible, but if you use competent electricians to quote they will be able to assess all the possible factors involved.
Depending on how the current cable is run to your shed, then what you are suggesting may be possible.
The new work will need to meet current regulations, which will have stricter requirements than were necessary at the time any rewireable fuse board was installed. (This may be a good chance to replace that with something more suitable in any case)
If the cable to the shed is armoured, or properly protected/installed and of suitable size, then it may well be possible to reuse it without needing to also upgrade the protection at the main board. Any quote would need to assess potential load, cable size, etc though to determine whether it was suitable.
Assuming everything up to the shed point was in order, then replacing the shed board with a new one to feed the shed and a sub main to the garage is possible, with suitable selection of breakers, RCD protection etc to ensure the new work complies with current regulations.
in theory a 32A breaker should be adequate for what you are describing, unless you are planning to use the garage as a workshop with several high load machines running at once? You may well not need a 'ring main' in the garage even for 8 sockets, though again the expected load will play a factor in the calculations.
If there is metalwork in contact with the earth in the garage that may cause an issue with main bonding and need at least some thought before installation and possibly the installation of an earth rod for the new installation as well.
I would suggest presenting the electricians you ask to quote with the 'problem' and see what solution they come up with, and only use one where you are happy that they are competent to consider all the necessary factors and put in writing what they plan to do - and of course confirm that they will issue a certificate for the work and notify it to the Local Building Control under the Part P scheme.
