Electrifying front yard

[MalcolmS]

Hi All,
I hope you are well. I am doing some earthwork in the front yard and realised that at this stage I could lay some electrical wires in advance.
Last time when I asked here about delivering electricity to my shed/garden office some people recommended 90mm or 35mm SWA which is ridiculous for the application not to say it is terribly expensive. The electrician said that 10mm armoured SWA is more than enough.
10mm armoured SWA in itself is so thick you cannot bend it unless you allow for a 2 feet wide bend. To run it though a wall and to connect it to the existing consumer unit is hard if impossible and ideally it has to be converted to unarmoured 10 mil. So how I supposed to wrestle with this 90mm or 35mm wire. I believe there are some jokers on this forum.

My plan is to lay a wire for:
1. front yard / gate lights
2. small motorised sliding gate
3. charging port

I understand for lights 1.5mm SWA armoured wire, gate motor - 2.5mm SWA armoured wire, a charging port 5mm or 10mm wire?
Please advise
Thanks in advance

 

[UNG]

I believe there are some jokers on this forum.

So how big is the mansions front yard

If your charging point is USB it won't need that big a feed to it



Being serious you may be better installing ducting to the points where you think you need power now for use at a later date

 

[R-fur]

Get an electrician to calculate the size of cable, in the meantime install 50mm ducts where you think the cables will go. that way you put off the purchase of the cable until you need it.

 

[Dustydazzler]

35mm csa SWA, what are you powering ? another 3 bed house

as above, just put in ducting to all possible positions you may wish to have power to, don't forget a draw rope and then in 6 months or 6 years time you can pull in what ever you need at this time

 

[DPG]

Hi All,
I hope you are well. I am doing some earthwork in the front yard and realised that at this stage I could lay some electrical wires in advance.
Last time when I asked here about delivering electricity to my shed/garden office some people recommended 90mm or 35mm SWA which is ridiculous for the application not to say it is terribly expensive. The electrician said that 10mm armoured SWA is more than enough.
10mm armoured SWA in itself is so thick you cannot bend it unless you allow for a 2 feet wide bend. To run it though a wall and to connect it to the existing consumer unit is hard if impossible and ideally it has to be converted to unarmoured 10 mil. So how I supposed to wrestle with this 90mm or 35mm wire. I believe there are some jokers on this forum.

My plan is to lay a wire for:
1. front yard / gate lights
2. small motorised sliding gate
3. charging port

I understand for lights 1.5mm SWA armoured wire, gate motor - 2.5mm SWA armoured wire, a charging port 5mm or 10mm wire?
Please advise
Thanks in advance

What does your electrician recommend?

And how long is the run? What volt drop calcs have been done?

 

[snowhead]

Garden wiring for lights and sockets | on Free Electrical Advice - Electricians Forums

Find Garden wiring for lights and sockets Advice and Help. How-to Garden wiring for lights and sockets in the UK Electrical Forum advice boards on ElectriciansForums.net | Free Electrical Advice - Electricians Forums: Electricians' Talk Forums. Garden wiring for lights and sockets on...

www.electriciansforums.net

 

[MalcolmS]

So how big is the mansions front yard

If your charging point is USB it won't need that big a feed to it



Being serious you may be better installing ducting to the points where you think you need power now for use at a later date

USB charging station in my front yard is not a bad idea actually
It's not a mansion, the front yard is only about 40sqm.
The wires would go from the back of the house where the consumer unit is and around it.
Just put it in perspective the length of the wire from the consumer unit to the gate would be about 22m. I don't expect the other wires to be longer than that but shorter.

 

[Dustydazzler]

Serioulsy just buy a roll of this...

50mm Twin Walled Cable Duct - Black | Univolt (FXKVR 50)

Just run it from back to the front while doing your ground work and pull in cable afterwards once you or your sparks is ready to install lights/charger etc

 

[nicebutdim]

Hi All,
I hope you are well. I am doing some earthwork in the front yard and realised that at this stage I could lay some electrical wires in advance.
Last time when I asked here about delivering electricity to my shed/garden office some people recommended 90mm or 35mm SWA which is ridiculous for the application not to say it is terribly expensive. The electrician said that 10mm armoured SWA is more than enough.
10mm armoured SWA in itself is so thick you cannot bend it unless you allow for a 2 feet wide bend. To run it though a wall and to connect it to the existing consumer unit is hard if impossible and ideally it has to be converted to unarmoured 10 mil. So how I supposed to wrestle with this 90mm or 35mm wire. I believe there are some jokers on this forum.

My plan is to lay a wire for:
1. front yard / gate lights
2. small motorised sliding gate
3. charging port

I understand for lights 1.5mm SWA armoured wire, gate motor - 2.5mm SWA armoured wire, a charging port 5mm or 10mm wire?
Please advise
Thanks in advance

Along with some facetious comments, you were also advised to engage with a local electrician.

Has the electrician who advised 10mm cable visted your premises or was the cable size concluded on the basis of a casual conversation?

I ask because you're again asking questions which suggest you want to plan this all yourself and expect to receive empirical answers from people who are not in full possession of the details required to provide such answers.

If you want to do this the cheap way, without paying for professional services, then that would be a matter for you (and potentially one for your home insurer, should any issues arise down the line).

10mm 3 core SWA is not a large cable by any stretch. After working with it a couple of times, you'll find it is very easy to manipulate and neatly route through walls.

I will give two pieces of advice: 1. Pay heed to minimum bend radii - they exist for good reason. 2. Avoid unnecessary joints.

 

[MalcolmS]

Along with some facetious comments, you were also advised to engage with a local electrician.

Has the electrician who advised 10mm cable visted your premises or was the cable size concluded on the basis of a casual conversation?

I ask because you're again asking questions which suggest you want to plan this all yourself and expect to receive empirical answers from people who are not in full possession of the details required to provide such answers.

If you want to do this the cheap way, without paying for professional services, then that would be a matter for you (and potentially one for your home insurer, should any issues arise down the line).

10mm 3 core SWA is not a large cable by any stretch. After working with it a couple of times, you'll find it is very easy to manipulate and neatly route through walls.

I will give two pieces of advice: 1. Pay heed to minimum bend radii - they exist for good reason. 2. Avoid unnecessary joints.

The place has been visited by the electrician and he was presented with the whole plan, where and what needs the electricity. The man is full time electricians with 40+ years under his belt.

What he advised and ordered is a mix of 10mm, 2.5 and 1.5mm armoured wires.

I ask questions here to find out how much the answers can deviate and they can deviate a bit.
And yes I plan it, the electrician looked at the plan and he said where are issues what I have corrected.

 

[baldelectrician]

If you are running armour for a hut / cave I would suggest you run EV ultra cable- this is 10mm / 16mm 3 core armour which has a cat 5/cat6 ethernet inside - this allows stuff such as a car charger later as well as a gate supply or CCTV furher down the garden (using an IP camera)

if you run a decent size armour to a hut / cave this will allow you to add other cables (such as outside lights etc) from there

 

[MalcolmS]

If you are running armour for a hut / cave I would suggest you run EV ultra cable- this is 10mm / 16mm 3 core armour which has a cat 5/cat6 ethernet inside - this allows stuff such as a car charger later as well as a gate supply or CCTV furher down the garden (using an IP camera)

if you run a decent size armour to a hut / cave this will allow you to add other cables (such as outside lights etc) from there

This EV 10/16mm 3 core ultra cable sounds good to run it in the front. I ran 3x CAT5 armoured cables at the back.
The existing 10mm cable goes into the shed where the new consumer unit will go.
From there to another consumer unit in the office/man cave.