SWA 1 Way Terminal Boxes etc..

[uksparks]

Hi,

Just been to a job this morning, customer wants power to the garage, no problems there, just one question and I wondered what people tend to do in this situation.

On the back of the house wall is a switched fused spur on a 20A MCB from the consumer unit at the front of the house, its 2.5/1.5 radial. Brand new house, so nice to see they thought of having an option for garage power on the back wall of the house. Does make life easier.

Anyway, what I normally do when I wire someone's shed or garage up is take it out the garage on armoured from a metal clad switch or whatever and terminated the armouring, ill be honest, this is the first one I have come to that is not going to be like that.

The garage end is not a problem, its just the house end.

Option One
Do I feed the SWA inside some 25mm conduit through a terminal box, and terminate the three conductors in the back of the FCU on the inside and disregard terminating the armouring as its already terminated in the garage? This seems ok to me but have a feeling there's a reg somewhere that suggests it should be connected supply end. Although it will be ok and personally cant see anything wrong with it, what do you feel? It would be the neatest job. See photo below of one I did before, but the armouring on that was terminated inside, but this is what the outside would look like.




Or... Option Two
The other option is to take the armoured cable cleated to the wall glanded into a galvanised round joint like below with a rubber gasket. But not sure having never used one, is it possible to take a earth lead off of the metal? Or the other option along these lines is gland it into an adaptable box which I think might look ugly.



or this one I prefer, but don't know if you can get a link from the housing?



What do you think? Thanks.

 

[uksparks]

forgot to add this is three core swa and the armouring would be connected in the remote end to one of the cores that goes back to the met.

 

[Octopus]

Option 3

Use a Wiska 308, properly earth the SWA and connect to the FCU

 

[uksparks]

Thanks, that was something I was looking at as have used them before in different situations, but thought it might not look quite so estheticly pleasing to the customer that's all and was looking for something a bit more tidy looking if you know what I mean.

 

[uksparks]

Here you go this is what I'm looking for,
http://www.pratley.com/Sales_Leaflets/AA_Foundation_Box_Leaflet.pdf

 

[SJD]

What about terminating the SWA in a gland in the back surface of the metal backbox for the FCU, the SWA then goes straight out the wall, with a larger hole cut for the first bit to allow for a gland/boot?

 

[uksparks]

I like the idea but it will probably be a bit tricky, but worth thinking about, nice idea!

 

[Lucien Nunes]

The other option is to take the armoured cable cleated to the wall glanded into a galvanised round joint like below with a rubber gasket. But not sure having never used one, is it possible to take a earth lead off of the metal?

Yes, there is a tapped hole in the back of a metal BESA box for a screw to connect an earth lug. For external use, fussy people like me give the fixing and rear entry drillings and outside of the earth screw hole a spray with cold galv, and seal the fixing screw(s) with silicone.

 

[amlu]

wiska boxes look tidy enough for me, black ones look good with black swa gland attached to them.
for sure it look much better than existing crappy plastic conduit (not even ip rated!)
only problem they are plastic so bit tricky terminating bigger cables in there. would prefer to use metal ones.

those metal boxes look nice, only thing i`m not sure how to cover the un-used cable entries.
Above Ground Cable Joints

another option (but depends how big cable and what fuse is the circuit on) is to use a nice ip rated double socket and terminate swa in there. plenty of space to make off swa in the box and addition of a usable socket for garden gear too.

BG Nexus 13A 2G DP Switched Socket | Screwfix.com

 

[uksparks]

Yes I did that for someone the other month when screwfix had outside sockets on offer, terminated into the bottom, I guess I could just do that as it gives them an outside socket at the same time. It's only going to be 2.5 three core so it won't take up much space. Probably going to be the best solution.

It would be nice if I could find somewhere in the uk that sold the one way partly boxes as they are neat.

 

[uksparks]

those metal boxes look nice, only thing i`m not sure how to cover the un-used cable entries.

If you use a Pratley Newcastle Foundation box as detailed on that PDAf it only has one entry, jut can't find anyone that sells them!

 

[monkeyelectric]

What is on the garage end of that conduit? Can you not just pull singles through it beings as its in place anyway?

 

[uksparks]

The conduit is just a visual thing, it's got swa inside, the conduit stops just below the surface.

 

[Octopus]

If you use a Pratley Newcastle Foundation box as detailed on that PDAf it only has one entry, jut can't find anyone that sells them!

TLC sell Pratley, but don't list them all.

 

[monkeyelectric]

The conduit is just a visual thing, it's got swa inside, the conduit stops just below the surface.

Oh i see! In that case i would go for the external 2g socket idea and terminate the swa into that, you can never have too many sockets!

 

[shanky887614]

Oh i see! In that case i would go for the external 2g socket idea and terminate the swa into that, you can never have too many sockets!

Don't bother with roofer for earth.

Earthnuts are cheap