Power!

[Horse]

I'm guessing there are two answers to this question.

One answer will be: "Get an electrician to take a spur directly from the house fuse box, run it through the wall and around the outside then (in a suitable conduit or using armoured cable) run it 35m down the garden to the shed, where he will then install a suutable RCD and switch and ... etc."

What I have already is:
1. An external double socket on the back of the house
2. A shed, about 35m away

How feasible is it to have:
- A cable between the two, with a three pin plug into the socket
- Cable running from under the decking, then along (neighbour's) fence

And what must I have (not 'should' or 'could') in the shed to provide just basic light and power (eg ceiling light, one or two 3 pin sockets)?

The most I will use could be a hedge trimmer. No big machinery.

[Mussels]

As long as I had RCD the house end I'd just run a cable and use it like a normal extension. In the long term sunlight will degrade a standard cable so some conduit may help.

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

What Mussels said, ask the neighbour before clipping it to his fence, what kind of twat is going to say no, put some protection round the cable so the mice don't chew the insulation off it - I've no idea why mice are attracted to cables, but they are.

[Count Steer]

You can get a 25m reel of 3-core, 1.5sq mm conductor, armoured cable for £35. It's about 11mm outside diameter so pretty easy to work with. If you want beefier/more amps 2.5sq mm is £43 and 13mm o/d. Saves uggbering about with conduit.

Yeah, mice like pvc coatings.

[Count Steer]

You can get a 25m reel of 3-core, 1.5sq mm conductor, armoured cable for £35. It's about 11mm outside diameter so pretty easy to work with. If you want beefier/more amps 2.5sq mm is £43 and 13mm o/d. Saves uggbering about with conduit.

Yeah, mice like pvc coatings.

Obvs you''ll need more than one reel and a junction box, or a bigger reel.

...and at 35m I'd be inclined to go for the 2.5mm.

....and...and...I'd run a 3-pin to an all-weather pair of sockets mounted eg on the side of the decking? Then 3-pin and cable to the shed, which may get rid of the need for a junction box - and you'll have a garden socket.

[iansoady]

I'd be careful about using the fence. In our previous house, a "neighbour" (one of the reasons we moved actually) did similar but actually went through the fence and ran his cable on our side behind some shrubbery. Given the dire quality of the rest of his work I doubt very much whether there was an RCD or similar. It would have been easy for someone on our side to have accidentally chopped through it........

[Horse]

It would definitely be our side

[Mr Nozzle]

What Mussels said, ask the neighbour before clipping it to his fence, what kind of twat is going to say no, put some protection round the cable so the mice don't chew the insulation off it - I've no idea why mice are attracted to cables, but they are.

With rats, it's because their teeth keep growing and they need to file them down, cable is the ideal file for this. Because they don't have rat dentists.

[Taff]

We've a similar situation for power going to outbuildings greenhouse and garage.
There's an RCD on the main fusebox that the armoured cable comes out of, the cable is buried underground across the lawn which is the most direct route, and pops up into the shed and into another fusebox and further split to the garage and summerhouse.
The cable going up to the garage is clipped onto the boundary wall.
The garage and summerhouse both have a fusebox.

[iansoady]

The potential trouble is always some years down the line when you sell the house. A kind vendor will include details of all such installations before the new occupants start digging the lawn up for a pond and meet your cable...

We were lucky in this one as there was a good scaled plan of the drainage under the garden which I had no idea might be there, although better to put a windy pick through a grain than a cable.

[Horse]

If I run it from the existing external (professionally installed) socket, it effectively becomes an 'extension lead', so can be disconnected before any inspection.

[dern]

We got an electrician to do this job and they ran armoured cable to an rcd in the office to a supply in the garage as we want to run computers, guitar amps and so on. There's no way I'd run an extension lead to do the same job. Just feels too naff and unsafe to me.

[Horse]

extension lead

It was inverted commas - it wouldn't literally be an off the shelf cable. The extension bit just referred to be easy to disconnect.

[Count Steer]

extension lead

It was inverted commas - it wouldn't literally be an off the shelf cable. The extension bit just referred to be easy to disconnect.

If you're going the armoured cable route, why not run it into a 2-way consumer unit in the shed? Mind you, you probably need to be Part P registered to wire a plug these days.

[dern]

extension lead

It was inverted commas - it wouldn't literally be an off the shelf cable. The extension bit just referred to be easy to disconnect.

Ah ok, missed that, sorry

[mangocrazy]

35 metres is a fair old distance, so definitely treat 2.5mm as a minimum. If it was me I'd bite the bullet and bury armoured cable in a trench and run the cable direct off the consumer unit. And I'd probably specify 4mm cable, as in your situation the cable is one of the cheaper parts of the whole installation. You may only want or need light usage now, but times and requirements change, and better to be over-specified than under.

When electrifying my garden shed I used a catenary wire suspended about 12 feet above ground level. There's only pedestrian access in the back yard (apart from my motorbikes), so stringing the cable overhead was far easier and simpler than digging a trench. But I'd say 35 metres is way too big a distance for an unsupported catenary wire. Tacking cable to a party fence is dodgy in my book and several types of Bad Things could potentially happen to it. If it's buried then you've removed the possibility of rodent (or human) interference for a start.

[Cousin Jack]

Wire the garage with 17 sockets.

Long extension lead (5 amp preferably), plug at both ends, plug into socket in house and socket in garage. Sorted!

[slowsider]

[X] Should be in 'Current Affairs'

[Horse]

[X] Should be in 'Current Affairs'

Shocking

[slowsider]

[X] Should be in 'Current Affairs'

Shocking

Thought that might galvanise you, Luigi.