Hi -

I'd like to fit an outside electrical socket at my house.

I've had a look at a number of parts and am planning on buying a MK 1G unswitched outside socket, a few meters of 2.5mm armoured cable, glands, cable pleats....

I'd like to run these down the side of the house and straight into the garage where the box housing the trip switches are (a wylex unit). I'd like to take this cable directly into the wylex unit via a separate trip (I have two free holes).

I'm confused as to what I should fit in the wylex box; I've read about MCB's and RCBO's and am none the wiser. Can anyone offer an opinion of type and rating?

The outside socket will be used for the usual garden tools (mower, blower etc).

Regards,
Julian.

JulianFS wrote:

I'd like to run these down the side of the house and straight into the
garage where the box housing the trip switches are (a wylex unit). I'd
like to take this cable directly into the wylex unit via a separate
trip (I have two free holes).

I'm confused as to what I should fit in the wylex box; I've read about
MCB's and RCBO's and am none the wiser. Can anyone offer an opinion of
type and rating?


The socket needs to have a 30mA trip RCD, and for a single socket on
2.5mm cable a 16A MCB would be fine.

(You did not say how far a "few meters" of cable will be, but if we are
talking less than 30 I can't see any real problems for a single socket
feed).

Since it is better to not share a household RCD with a feed to an
exterior socket (the possibility of it getting damp makes it more likely
to cause unwated spurious trips), a RCBO (i.e. combined RCD and MCB)
would be the most elegant solution if you can fit it in your CU. Many of
these are two modules wide but since you have two spare ways that ought
to be OK. You can also get single module width ones - but they do not
fit all CUs due to their extra height.


--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
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Theres some discussion about this on this forum
http://supplychain.org.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=16
hope this helps

"John Rumm" wrote in message
...
JulianFS wrote:

I'd like to run these down the side of the house and straight into the
garage where the box housing the trip switches are (a wylex unit). I'd
like to take this cable directly into the wylex unit via a separate
trip (I have two free holes).

I'm confused as to what I should fit in the wylex box; I've read about
MCB's and RCBO's and am none the wiser. Can anyone offer an opinion of
type and rating?


The socket needs to have a 30mA trip RCD, and for a single socket on 2.5mm
cable a 16A MCB would be fine.

(You did not say how far a "few meters" of cable will be, but if we are
talking less than 30 I can't see any real problems for a single socket
feed).

Since it is better to not share a household RCD with a feed to an exterior
socket (the possibility of it getting damp makes it more likely to cause
unwated spurious trips), a RCBO (i.e. combined RCD and MCB) would be the
most elegant solution if you can fit it in your CU. Many of these are two
modules wide but since you have two spare ways that ought to be OK. You
can also get single module width ones - but they do not fit all CUs due to
their extra height.


--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

In article ,
JulianFS wrote:
I'd like to fit an outside electrical socket at my house.

I've had a look at a number of parts and am planning on buying a MK 1G
unswitched outside socket, a few meters of 2.5mm armoured cable,
glands, cable pleats....

I'd like to run these down the side of the house and straight into the
garage where the box housing the trip switches are (a wylex unit). I'd
like to take this cable directly into the wylex unit via a separate
trip (I have two free holes).

I'm confused as to what I should fit in the wylex box; I've read about
MCB's and RCBO's and am none the wiser. Can anyone offer an opinion of
type and rating?

The outside socket will be used for the usual garden tools (mower,
blower etc).

As SWA cable isn't the easiest of stuff to terminate I'd use a separate
stand alone RCD like TLC CM 4904 in a surface mount box then wire back to
the MCB in TW&E.

--
*Organized Crime Is Alive And Well; It's Called Auto Insurance.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Sat, 4 Jun 2005 10:25:38 +0100, "ElectriciansForum"
strung together this:

Theres some discussion about this on this forum
http://supplychain.org.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=16
hope this helps

Put a this in a thread on your forum, **** off.
--

SJW
Please reply to group or use 'usenet' in email subject

I'm confused as to what I should fit in the wylex box; I've read about
MCB's and RCBO's and am none the wiser. Can anyone offer an opinion of
type and rating?

I'd use a 16A/30mA RCBO. I would also use a box to change from the SWA to
T&E outside of the consumer unit, unless the consumer unit is particularly
spacious inside.

Christian.

In article ,
JulianFS writes:

Hi -

I'd like to fit an outside electrical socket at my house.

I've had a look at a number of parts and am planning on buying a MK 1G
unswitched outside socket, a few meters of 2.5mm armoured cable,
glands, cable pleats....

BTW, in addition to the other comments, remember you need waterproof
glands for outdoors. In the sheds, the non-waterproof ones seem to be
easier to find so you might have to pop along to your local electrical
wholesaler who will certainly have them.

--
Andrew Gabriel