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Andy Hall Andy Hall is offline
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Default Power to a greenhouse

On 2007-09-17 14:51:36 +0100, soup said:

I am thinking of putting power out to the greenhouse (only for one
light and possibly a (small) heater, say, in total, 1100 watts worth)
was thinking of using a domestic outlet in the living room running the
cable through the living room wall via a vent (this cable would be
some sort of SWA) then down the garden (buried say a foot down) to the
greenhouse, cable terminated in some sort of trailing socket.
Anyone have any experience of running power out? I do not wish to
go the full; dedicated CU with armoured cable terminated in glands
route.


You could run the power from the living room as a spur using a spur
unit with RCD either inside or a weatherproof one just outside.
Perhaps an outside socket at the living room position is useful as
well? If so, you can use one of the 20mm knockouts and fit the
cable terminating gland into that. Otherwise there are IP65 plastic
enclosures with terminal strip available that can be used to do the
same thing. Position the box over the hole in the wall and run T&E
through the back to the RCD.

A similar arrangement can be done at the greenhouse end. You can
terminate the SWA into a weatherproof socket outlet and FCU for the
light connection.

Have a look at MK Masterseal for a range of suitable wiring accessories.

If you are going to use SWA, you really need to use glands to terminate
the ends. This isn't difficult or expensive.

Steps a

- Cut cable generously to length
- Cut tip off of the flexible shroud and place on cable
- Fit upper parts of fitting, up to and including ferrule onto cable.
On most connectors the ferrule is not cylindrical and goes one way
round.
- Cut around outer jacket of cable at the joint position and cut from
there to end using a utility knife
- Snip off steel wires using cutters. Leave the required length for
the fitting. The conical part of the lower part of the fitting
indicates that but usually around 20mm or so. Splay the wires
slightly.
- Assemble fitting laying the wires around the cone and pushing ferrule
over them.
- Tighten the two main parts of the connector together using two spanners.
- Tighten the top cable clamp
- Fit the fitting to the enclosure using washers, tag and nut.