Electricity in the greenhouse

In the not too distant future I would like to have electricity in the greenhouse for a propagator and also for a heater in winter.

I can wire a plug and change a fuse but my knowledge ends there, what are my options to get electricity into my greenhouse?

Steve...

 

hi steve i'm an electrician by trade so if you need any advice send me a message

 

Not good I think :(

Professional wiring required to get a Part-P certificate (or whatever it is called). might be OK for you to bury the armoured cable and then the sparky to hook it up - but even then you need "warning tape" above the wire, and Sparky may need to see all that before signing the certificate

I believe (could be very wrong) that if you run an extension lead, above ground, then that is exempt - but I personally would not be keen on extension leads lying around outside ...

Could you do it armed only with DIY skills? Yeah ... Sparkies and Brick Layers don't have to graduate from Rocket Science School :D

Should you do it in this day and age? I suspect the law says "no"

 

Yep it appears to be a nightmare these days regarding electricity in the garden.


You either pay through the nose, or "cough" "cough", use an extension lead.
Could never see how this makes things safer, but............

 

It thought it requires building regs approval these days unless installed by a qualified electrician with the necessary exemptions, but also believe if it's connected via an extension lead & plug it may not be caught by the regs.

Luckily, I ran my undergrounded armoured cable down the garden to the my shed & greenhouse 20 years ago
.

 

I *think* the rational is that it is "temporary" ... rather than "safer" :thumb:

But I don't see how /why that makes a difference either ...

 

I'm not sure, but I think you might need planning permission before that is done, i'll look in my book in the morning Steve. It definately comes under part P of building regs.

As has been said, an extension lead with a ciruit breaker would be easier.

You could have lighting, powered by solar pv charging a 12volt leisure battery, that is exempt from part P. But you'd need hell of an array to power a heater.

 

I don't know the law on this matter, but as a safety thing, if you go for the 'extension cable' plan, I would highly recommend that you get a circuit breaker that is an RCD and overcurrent type circuit breaker.

An RCD (residual current detector) is designed to cut the power if it gets an unusual current on the earth wire, as would happen if you were standing in your greenhouse being electrocuted between live and earth or neutral and earth. The overcurrent bit is designed to prevent your house from burning to the ground when an electrical fault causes enough current to flow to overheat the wires, but not enough to blow the fuse or trip the main circuit breaker.

The RCD that you need only costs about £20, and simply plugs into the wall socket, then you plug your extension into the RCD.

I would never recommend that strategy for regular or long term use though. I'd be too worried about moisture getting into the outdoor bits (water and electricity are not a good mix), or accidentally driving a spade through the cable. I'd definitely fork out for a sparky to come and do the job properly if its going to be a permanent or long term thing.

Better safe than sorry with electrics. They can kill you of death if you get it wrong, or if anything goes wrong.

 

I wont be fitting this myself, a qualified sparks will do whatever needs to be done for me.

I'm looking to run an electric heater in the winter and possibly a propagating bed in the early part of the year (soil warming cable) and thats it. Our greenhouse is 3ft from the house but about 30ft from our fusebox. I could run an extension from the roof to the greenhouse fairly easily, plugged into an RCD as described by clueless if my needs fit into the temporary bracket.

Steve...

 

Found these Masterplug weatherproof boxes complete with 8m extension lead reduced to £9.00 ('seasonal' aisle) at Tescos:



£22.79 @ Amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/Masterplug-IP54-Weatherproof-4-Gang-Extension/dp/B004S62MTE

I'll be using the extension lead supplied for taking away on caravan holidays (have you noticed how there's never enough sockets in static caravans and they're always in the wrong place for laptops/netbooks, mobile broadband routers, battery/phone chargers, etc.?) and using the box to cover the end of my outdoor extension lead in the greenhouse.

P.S. If this item is classed as 'gardening' (rather than 'electrical') it may be elligble for 'doubling up' of clubcard vouchers instore.

 

Only just noticed this.

There are a few "errors / misconceptions" (sorry if I am being pedantic)

First RCD stands for Residual Current Device.
It Doesn't "monitor" anything on the earth wire because that may have been cut. (lawnmower etc)
It actually "monitors" both the Live and Neutral, its looking for an imbalance, since what goes out one wire must come back down the other. (so no imbalance) If you touch the live, current flows to earth (via you) and does not go down the neutral cable, this creates an imbalance, so the RCD trips.
If you touch the neutral to the earth, often there is a slight induced voltage, this is enough to trip the RCD

Part P is a building regulation, It only applies in special locations. Gardens, kitchens and bathrooms are classified as special locations. You need a part P certified person (odd thing is it doesn't have to be an electrician) to verify what you have done is compliant, but you need an electrician to say its safe. Your local council should offer such a service. Or you can employ the services of a part P certified electrician. Just because some is a qualified electrician it does not follow they have Part P.

Cables. There are many reasons you should not use an extension lead to supply a garden building, the main one being that they are for temporary use only. They are not designed to stay outside and take abuse from the weather as they will breakdown overtime, and can easily be damaged. A steel wire armoured cable on the other hand is designed to be used outside, when buried apart from the obligatory warning tape if you should hit it with a shovel you should not damage it, meaning you live to tell the tail.
You can not fix cables to a temporary structure such as a fence.
Another reason you can't use an extension lead is cable size, the further away the supply is the bigger the cable has to be to overcome voltage drop, also the biggest fuse you can have is 13A (in a plug) so if its wired in the correct size armoured cable you can have a much bigger MCB so that means you have more capacity.

Solar For a small light probably, but anything else forget it.

"cheating" If you want to cheat, that is up to you, but just "because it works" does not mean it is safe. (I read this bit on a forum) "Electricity has no prejudices, it kills anyone."