I'm about to setup a small workshop at the bottom of the garden. I want
to plumb in an electricity meter (so I can check and pay for my part of
the bill) as well as it's own small consumer unit.

In addition to this I want to be able to isolate the mains supply and
switch to a generator (manually) where necessary as we have poor mains
reliability and despite repeated outages for 'essential maintenance'
it doesn't seem to be getting any better.

I have an armoured cable (including earth) laid from a connection box
in the laundry through to the workshop and was wondering, when
extending a connection from the household consumer unit presumably this
should be covered by a circuit breaker (MCB) rather than an RCD device?
I'm assuming RCDs shouldn't be daisy chained and the consumer unit in
the office already has these installed.

Also what devices are there to enable me to connect a generator at the
same time as isolating the mains supply (thus protecting the guys doing
yet more 'essential maintenance'). This needn't be an automatic switch
as I don't have a generator with electric starter...

Regards,
TH.

Trojan Hussar wrote:

I'm about to setup a small workshop at the bottom of the garden. I want
to plumb in an electricity meter (so I can check and pay for my part of
the bill) as well as it's own small consumer unit.

In addition to this I want to be able to isolate the mains supply and
switch to a generator (manually) where necessary as we have poor mains
reliability and despite repeated outages for 'essential maintenance'
it doesn't seem to be getting any better.

I have an armoured cable (including earth) laid from a connection box
in the laundry through to the workshop and was wondering, when
extending a connection from the household consumer unit presumably this
should be covered by a circuit breaker (MCB) rather than an RCD device?
I'm assuming RCDs shouldn't be daisy chained and the consumer unit in
the office already has these installed.

The feed needs its own rcd and mcb. If you dont have those, faults on
the outdoor or workshop kit will take out the house supply, and outdoor
electrics are a lot less reliable.

The rcd situation depends on more details. Having an rcd does not imply
the office sockets feed will be on the rcd, nor does it imply thats
your best takeoff point. It depends.

One light with built in battery backup sounds like a good idea (eg a
maintained fire exit light). Although the gen will give backup
lighting, it wont stop you plunging into darkness while working with
spinning machinery with big teeth. FWIW gas backup lighting is more
reliable than electric IME, and more convenient than generator power
electric.


NT