Electricity to Garden Shed

Curious why this is the case?
 
Zenith63 said:
Curious why this is the case?
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Good question Zenith63. However, it is a safety procedure to ensure that the electrician and/or his mate does not get electrocuted and remains in control of the work. An electrician worth his/her salt would never trust anybody to leave the on/off master switch at the fuse board unengaged.

If you start your wiring from the fuse board you are putting your life in danger. All it takes is for somebody to switch the board on and the possibility increases of an accident. I know of a real case where an electrician was killed this way by the lady of the house anxious to put on the dinner who turned on the fuse board. Incidentally, he was wiring an outside shed.
 
That makes perfect sense and not that intuitive unless you do a lot of this stuff I'd imagine! Was more curious about the extra meters of cable you mentioned though?
 
You can start at whichever end you like (Oeeer Matron !) but your final connection should always be at the board.

But in this scenario it would make sense to start at the shed so as not to have to pull/fish the full length of cable through the house.
 
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I should have mentioned that I worked as an electrician's mate when I returned from the UK all those years ago. The guy I worked for was excellent, thorough, knew what he was doing and most important took no chances whatsoever. He always said that you had only to be unlucky once to cause a fatal accident.

In my time I have seen some shoddy work by electricians and their mates and I've seen some chances being taken just to save a metre of cable. The current (no pun intended) regulations regarding electrical work didn't happen by accident; it was because of accidents their act had to be upped.

But, to answer Zenith63's question:- You always left some slack for connection to the fuse board. If you let too little you had to run the wiring again. Electric wire connections were never to cause the wire to be taut, you always let a little slack. SparkRite is not right you should always start at the end and work towards the fuse board. Anything else is not safe. Always remember accidents happen by accident.
 
OP, fair play to you for trying to get an understanding of what is involved prior to getting quotations.

Regarding any electrical work itself however (apart from maybe chasing walls), it is seldom if ever a DIY job.
Leave it to a fully qualified electrician who is registered with Safe Electric (formally RECI) and insist that a Safe Electric cert is included in the quotation and covers all work completed.


While you have the electrician in the house, take the opportunity to get any other bits done. Modern living usually means traditional houses don't have near enough sockets for example.

Make sure you ask the electrician's opinion on the condition of your fuse board. This is a common source of fire, which I have witnessed personally.
 
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Leper said:
I should have mentioned that I worked as an electrician's mate when I returned from the UK all those years ago.
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I also did, then as an electrician, then an electrical tecnician, then an electrical engineer .

Leper said:
SparkRite is not right you should always start at the end and work towards the fuse board. Anything else is not safe. Always remember accidents happen by accident.
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Sparkrite is right.
There is no hard and fast rule on this as you are implying. Safety is not compromised because as I said the final connection is only done when all circuits are teminated or made safe. Quite often the job itself will dictate which direction is preferable or sometimes possible.
Many, many times I have run supplies to a room or section of a building where there is no equipment or even a layout so in essence there is no 'end', just an empty area. Experience has also taught me to often run from board to end area as often the client will change the wanted layout, a little more difficult to do if run the opposite direction, notwitstanding the waiting time, better to get on with it and run the supply and hope when you have it local then the layout is finalised.

Also try running a 240sq 3 phase cable your way when the mains is on the first floor and you are feeding a basement. Not easy to bend or manoeuvre that while trying to pull it UP.

BTW, there is no 'increase' in cable used whether you start at DB or load.
 
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Hi SparkRite. We have to agree to differ. I remain unconvinced. An electrician I knew is dead simply because he wired from the fuse board and the uncaring attitude of the customer. OK! He should not have connected to the fuse board, but he did. He was wrong to assume he was safe.

The electrician I worked for is still an electrician. He is safe and treated everybody safely.
 
Nothing whatsoever wrong with starting from the fuse board if that's what suits the installation of the cable best.

However, terminating the cable into terminals on the fuse board before pulling the other end of the cable to it's destination is nuts. I'm in the industry a good many years and have never seen that done.
The customer in the above tragic story is not the Subject Matter Expert. It shouldn't have been so easy for her to switch the circuit on.

At the risk of derailing the OPs thread, I think the message is clear...
Electricity is dangerous. Do not attempt to perform any element of this project yourself.
 
Thanks again folks, all very helpful.

Again not planning to do this myself but want to know background info before talking to contractor.
 
Fuse board is usually in the utility room
 
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