Tips from Electricians in South West London – domestic Outside Wiring

Main title: Tips from Electricians in South West London – Outside Wiring

One of the ways in which electricians in south west London are helping householders to improve their properties is by installing wiring for outdoor lighting, water features and garden rooms/sheds. Very often, as a home owner, you might be tempted to do this yourself.

If you intend to run a permanent cable carrying mains voltage electricity through the garden, it is notifiable according to the 17th edition wiring regulations.

If you intend to do it yourself, it will need to be inspected and certified by your local authority. Without this certification, you are breaking the law and probably invalidating your home insurance. A lack of a certificate at the time of selling could give the buyer leverage over the price.

Companies like South London Electricians are able to self-certify the work, saving you the problem of notifying the Local Authority and having regular inspections after each stage of the work.

DIY jobs always take a lot longer than you imagine. Time to research what is needed, to notify the local authority and face inspections, to source the materials and to fit everything. Not exactly time wasted but it eats into time that you could have spent pursuing your hobbies, socializing, family time etc.

When you hire an electrician in south west London to install your garden wiring, their expertise will save you all of that time and hassle. Your daily routine and valuable time can then exploited to the full.

When you add up the cost of materials and the hours you have spent, you will find it is actually a lot cheaper leaving it to the professionals.

Your electrician will do all of the technical planning as well as the installation. For example, the 17th edition wiring regulations stipulate the maximum voltage drops for long cable runs. For you to work out the size of cable and voltage drop would be at best, time consuming, however, for an electrician, installing a cable in your south west London garden, it is a simple task.

Ensuring the safety of the garden wiring is not just a case of fitting an mCB – it also depends on the type of earthing already present in your house. Extra earthing may be required to make the circuits legal and safe.

If you have a very modern electrical system, the earthing will be PME (Protective Multiple Earthing) in which the neutral conductor also acts as the Earth. This can allow a voltage to build up between the Earth itself and the earthing terminal. So for outdoor installations such as a shed or garden room, you would need to protect the circuit with the appropriate RCB and install a separate earth rod. This provides the shed with a TT system where the earth is not shared with the neutral and is independent of any other earthing on the system.

If your supply is older, then it will be on the TNS earthing system where the electricity supply company provide an earth terminal at the incoming mains position. If this is the case, using the earth from your house will be fine.

But ask yourself, is it worth the risk of getting it wrong by DIY? Your electrician will know straight away what type of earthing is on your system and will automatically set you up with the safest solution.

The correctly armored cable must be used in order to comply with the regulations. Your electrician probably has this in stock which saves you trailing round all of the DIY stores in your area trying to find it.

Many DIY electricians would probably just take a spur off an existing circuit, often from the kitchen, without considering how close to capacity it is. Apart from the annoyance of the garden electrics tripping out regularly, it can have a knock-on effect on the use of other appliances in the kitchen.

The electrician’s solution would be to take the garden supply directly from the consumer unit. That way, other circuits are unaffected by problems in the garden wiring.

So there are many reasons why you should hire an electrician to fit your garden lighting, water feature or shed/garden room electrics – you are getting a lot more for your money than just some bloke fixing a bit of cable from the house into the garden!

Talk to South London Electricians who install exterior cabling and garden shed wiring throughout south west London – 07956 523316