How can I tell if my garage is on the same ring main as my house?

[Jerakeen]

Hi,
I'm Colin, a non-electrician here hoping for some knowledgeable advice.

I've just moved into a house with a lovely double garage at the bottom of the garden. I'm trying to get wifi down there and the most suitable technology appears to be homeplugs piggybacking the signal over the electrical wiring.

Obviously this requires the garage to be on the same ringmain as the house but as I'm an IT techy and know little of household electrics I don't know how to tell if this is the case. I don't want to go and spend money on networking equipment if it's not going to work.

Can any of you tell me if there's an easy way of finding this out?

Thanks

Colin

 

[snowhead]

Turn something on thats plugged into the garage and also something into the house ring.
Turn off the breaker marked Ring in the Consumer unit.
See if both go off.

 

[7029 dave]

^^^ as above.

 

[Madocks]

Are you sure they have to be on the same ring? ive never used this but the signal isnt going to be fussy about rings?

 

[Jamie']

They don't need to be on the same ring

 

[Pete999]

Hi,
I'm Colin, a non-electrician here hoping for some knowledgeable advice.

I've just moved into a house with a lovely double garage at the bottom of the garden. I'm trying to get wifi down there and the most suitable technology appears to be homeplugs piggybacking the signal over the electrical wiring.

Obviously this requires the garage to be on the same ringmain as the house but as I'm an IT techy and know little of household electrics I don't know how to tell if this is the case. I don't want to go and spend money on networking equipment if it's not going to work.

Can any of you tell me if there's an easy way of finding this out?

Thanks

Colin

Have you any idea how your Garage electrics are supplied, could be a separate circuit from the Consumers Unit, do you have any circuits marked "Garage" ?

 

[Octopus]

They don't need to be on the same ring

But RCD's and RCBO's will impair their performance.

They do not work between different phases.

 

[Jerakeen]

OK, I've taken a closer look at the fuseboxes and I find that there is a circuitbreaker marked Garage.
I have another, smaller breakerbox in the garage.



That would suggest to me that it's on the same circuit but as I said I'm no electrician and I don't want to spend the money on the kit if it isn't going to do the job for me.

Thank you all for your inputs so far.

 

[Pete999]

OK, I've taken a closer look at the fuseboxes and I find that there is a circuitbreaker marked Garage.
I have another, smaller breakerbox in the garage.

View attachment 39665 View attachment 39666

That would suggest to me that it's on the same circuit but as I said I'm no electrician and I don't want to spend the money on the kit if it isn't going to do the job for me.

Thank you all for your inputs so far.

Switch the"Garage" breaker OFF, if the rings in your house stay ON then the Garage is NOT on the same circuit as the house ring. The Garage is on an RCBO, do you know what that black round looking cable does?
It looks to me that the garage is fed separately on it's own breaker and has been split as it should be in the garage into lighting and power. Do you have any tripping problems as it also looks like you have an RCBO and an RCD in the same leg, not a well designed install imo.

 

[Jerakeen]

The black cable goes from the covered socket just below the garage breaker to an led outside spotlight.

Am I understanding you right? If I switch the garage breaker off in the main box the rest of the house should go off too if it's on the same circuit. Sorry if I'm being dense.

 

[Pete999]

The black cable goes from the covered socket just below the garage breaker to an led outside spotlight.

Am I understanding you right? If I switch the garage breaker off in the main box the rest of the house should go off too if it's on the same circuit. Sorry if I'm being dense.

No switch the "garage breaker"OFF this should not effect anything in the house, it should only switch the garage OFF this will prove or disprove that your garage is on it's own supply.

 

[telectrix]

if you turn off the garage RCBO in the main consumer unit and the house sockets are still on, then it's definitely a separate curciut, as appears from the photos. why not get some ouutdoor rated cat 5 cable run down to the garage.

 

[telectrix]

yous quick in the trigger pete. snow got in your underpants?

 

[Pete999]

yous quick in the trigger pete. snow got in your underpants?

Snow what snow, nice and sunny here, I got the OP to give me a call, being in experienced with lektrikery, I could tell he was getting his nick knacks in a twist, just called me an I put him right, seems a nice guy, anyway he's all clued up know and understands what has been done, how are you keeping?

 

[Jerakeen]

Thanks very much for all your help Pete, and thanks for everyone else's input too. I have a better understanding of what's going on now.