advertisement


Fitting an outdoor electrical socket

James Evans

Bedroom Bodger
I was sitting contemplating the lack of power in the garden over the weekend (yes, it was that exciting), and in a eureka moment that almost led to me running naked around the garden, I glanced at the conservatory wall and wondered if I could just drill through and run a normal extension from the socket in there and then cut the cable and terminate in a standard outdoor waterproof socket box.

Does that idea break any regs?
 
Running a spur from a spur was, to me illegal/breaking reg's. A spur socket will have one set of wires/one cable into it.

Any cable passing through a wall should be sleeved.

Use any outdoor rated socket (understand that better by referring to the IP rating).
 
Not clear what you mean by "normal extension" through the wall. Italian, and perhaps UK, regulations is that you drill a hole through the wall and run a corrugated or smooth sleeve through to the outside socket, with the end of the sleeve going into the back or side or bottom or top of the outside socket. You then run the 3 single wires, +, -, Gnd. through the lot. In the end it is really quicker and simpler than wrestling with a normal 3-wire cable. BEWARE of the risk of rain trickling along whatever you decide to use and penetrating to the original inner wall socket. If you go to a decent electrical supply shop you'll see a wonderful selection of flexible corrugated sleeves, rigid plastic tubes, and corners and T-junctions. It is all dirt cheap.
 
If it’s fixed to the building it’s regarded as permanent, and it’s new so it needs signing off.

Pete
 
That’s what I thought Pete. I was basically thinking plug an extension cable into the wall socket in the conservatory, drill a hole in the wall and run the cable through (hole angled up to avoid rain running in), then terminate the cable in an outside socket. So the power could be switched from the internal socket. I wasn’t thinking spur off the wiring. Thinking short cuts...
 
Mmmm I loose box on the end of a cable, not what I would do, it might be classed a permanent as you can't remove it with out using tools.

The cable would have to be sealed going into the box to avoid water getting in as well.

Pete
 
Another thought, mount the exterior socket as planned. Run your wires inside appropriate tubing to an inside junction box.
Inside that box, connect a 3 core cable that has an RCD plug on the other end. Plug that into your inside socket when needed.
Voila, temporary installation.
 
we just run an extension lead through the window on the odd occasion we need 240v. All out outdoors supplies are low voltage with the xformers inside
 
Workzone outdoor wall socket kit. I have a few that have been no trouble for the last 8 years.
RCD on the inside, water proof/resistant sockets on the outside. Aldi or Lidl if I remember correctly. They are switched off/unplugged when not in use and checked before switch on though.
There are a few different kits to choose out there.
 
Yep, done something similar in our porch. Hole in wall, fit outdoor waterproof double socket, flex through hole, three-pin plug into socket inside the porch. Has the advantage, as well as being dead easy & not requiring you to mess with the fixed wiring, easy to isolate so no one can sneak up in the night and recharge their Tesla on it.
 
As Tony says directly above, just do this. It's a temporary installation because it runs from a 3 pin plug not a hard wire, so it's safe because it's protected by the normal house breaker. Easy.
 
What about drilling the hole from inside the "box" of the indoor socket, so the hole (suitably fitted with a sleeve) comes out at the back of the outdoor socket. The 2 + and - wires would go through a bi-polar switch mounted in the indoor socket. Bi-polar because with damp I've noticed a mono-polar switch can still allow the fuse thing or safety circuit breaker to trip.
 
If you are going to go to those lengths then you may as well add a fused outlet to the ring or spur off the same, which is legal and proper in the UK if not elsewhere, and run the exterior socket from that. This is what I did for an outside light.

Me? I'd just run it off a plug. I already do this for big stuff in the garage, the garage supply is 5A only and (who knew) doesn't like running a welder. I run that on an extension from the house, a 30A ring main just shrugs at a 13A inductive load.
 


advertisement


Back
Top