On 16/02/2013 19:07, Lobster wrote:
On 15/02/2013 15:16, Stephen H wrote:

I am putting in a new 32A ring main that will just be for garage
internal sockets and external outside sockets.

Cor, I've just been doing a bit of that today and what a bloody horrible
job it was - courtesy of the fact that the temp was about 1 deg, and the
cable was therefore almost rock solid. Very hard to bend it where I
wanted it to go, wouldn't cut or tear easily, hard to stuff down the
conduit etc...

Note to self: in future, exterior wiring is a job for the summer!


Incidentally, I was working on this new ring main today.

I have used 2.5mm2 T&E for the ring main and to the garage sockets.

Some of the external sockets are in publically accessible or child
accessible areas, so I have run the 2.5mm2 ring main to 45amp double
pole isolator switches inside the garage. 4mm2 T&E ran from the 45amp
isolators to to each individual outside double gang socket.

This has several benefits:

no one can steal electricity from the front
sockets can be turned off in garden if children are playing
if a fault develops in an outside socket, it makes fault locating down
to socket level easy
if I need garage power and a outside socket is playing up and tripping
the RCBO, I can throw the switch for that socket to Off and work in the
garage.