Power to the Playhouse! (electrical question)

[C.A.R.]

I recently assembled a playhouse for my 2 year old daughter after promising it to her if I got my new job.

Here is a picture for no reason in particular:



Now on to my question,

I want to power an external light to the front of the Playhouse, so we can illuminate that end of the garden. I have looked at solar powered lights but I'm concerned as the Playhouse sits under a tree. I also want the ability to switch the light on and off from the house - 25 meters away.

There is already a power source at the back of the house for running power tools / a lawnmower in the form of a 4-gang socket outlet (with trip thingy).

Question is, how do I go about running a cable to the bottom of the garden? And how would I make the cable up so it ended in a switchable plug?

I've looked at armour cable and it seems I'll be lucky to get much change from £40 for the 25 meters I require.

I also don't know what junction boxes I'll need, or the cable rating (will 1.5mm 3-core suffice?)

Any help much appreciated, apologies if any of the terminology is incorrect.

[Some Gump]

Just do what the bloke who used to own my house did. Dig normal cable down the middle of the border, with no protection.

I only know this because I decided to plant a new bush.... Now replaced with armour in the proper plastic sleeve jobbie.

[C.A.R.]

Yeah I've read lots of stories like that - I definitely intend to do it properly.

Trying to find the cheapest source for the cable and figuring out how to end it with a traditional 3 pin plug is the stumbling block right now.

[Gingerbread Man]

You cland off armoured cable to a junction box or similar, then convert to non armoured in side the box. This could he located just before going inside the property, then go out the back of the box into the property.

Would be basic, probably no correct knowledge.

[stuart313]

Sorry to be blunt but you don't seem like you have a clue, DO NOT D.I.Y. 240 volts anywhere near where your 2 year old daughter is playing. If you must, get a 12 volt transformer installed at the house and run some 12V lighting in there.

[Pickled Piper]

stuart313 said:

Sorry to be blunt but you don't seem like you have a clue, DO NOT D.I.Y. 240 volts anywhere near where your 2 year old daughter is playing. If you must, get a 12 volt transformer installed at the house and run some 12V lighting in there.

Why not just use some LED lighting with battery power? Possibly with a IR remote. surely much safer than Heath Robinson electrics, outdoors and next to your sprog.

[sidekickdmr]

If it was Solar and free power, why would you want to turn it off from the house?

The power tends to run out after about 3-4 hours anyway so wouldn't be on all night.

And a lot of solar lights have the solar panel at the end of an extension wire, so the panel can be in a sunny spot nowhere near the light.

[C.A.R.]

After the first bbq of the year I've decided I need more light in the garden generally - not just a cute outdoor lamp on the playhouse.

Am going to get my dad around since he is far more experienced than I, but would like some (maybe 2) lights running along the low-level fence (approx 5 foot) and an additional one on the playhouse as originally planned.

Could you run a string of lights in series like this, off a 240v socket? With the correct cable and adapters of course.

I would of course ask my dad up front about this but there has been a family death this week and I thought I'd ask something trivial like this to you lot instead first!

[Gingerbread Man]

In series like old Christmas tree lights?

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

Gingerbread Man said:

You cland off armoured cable to a junction box or similar, then convert to non armoured in side the box. This could he located just before going inside the property, then go out the back of the box into the property.

Would be basic, probably no correct knowledge.

You can get kits with all the armoured cable termination, IP-rated junction box, glands etc done for you, with a choice of length of armoured cable. Plugs into an internal socket in the house via an RCD. You just need to drill a hole in the house wall, screw the junction box to the outside wall, bury the armoured cable, and attach the IP-rated sockets somewhere in the outbuilding. Apart from that, it requires no skill or expertise at all. And because it plugs in, it's not "fixed wiring". Job jobbed.

But there's no getting away from the fact that armoured cable is the only proper way to do it, and it's expensive stuff.

[LHRFlightman]

I ran power to the shed in our old house at the far end of our garden. We already had a waterproof outside double plug so my solution was a RCD, a length of the best 3 core main cable I could find in B&Q and a 4-way extension. To protect the cable I fed it through a section of garden hose and buried it in a channel I'd cut in the lawn, about 8" down.

It was like that for 10 years until we left. Worked like a charm.

[ManFromDelmonte]

It's not hard but if you are not confident that you will do it 100% right, don't do it.

p.s. You may want to post your photograph in the lawn thread too.

[sidekickdmr]

As far as I see it you only have two options:

1. pay a proper electrician to wire some proper and permanent lights in with armoured cable etc.

2. Pop down B&Q, they have a range of lights that are all interchangeable (spike lights, wall lights, uplighters etc) which all plug into each other and create a "Chain" and plug into a log voltage transformer in the house. So you could have a string of spike uplighters all down one side and a wall mounted downlighter on the playhouse. easy and cheap

[Pheo]

http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/uploads/br/BR_PDF...

Page 9, top of:

Outdoor Lighting and power installations are special installations. Any new work in, for example, a garden or that involves crossing the garden is notifiable.

Also note that:

Prefabricated armoured plug/socket cables and connectors are not notifiable [provided they are unmodified] but the installation of the external socket is.

i.e. if you do this yourself, its illegal.

And to the guy who put in the outside cable through a garden hose - yes, that might be fine for you (luckily). not so much for the poor person who moved in after you, didn't know the cable was there and put a spade through it.

I think this kind of thread is the reason Stuart13 was pissed off the other day you know...

[Tom_C76]

Armoured cable isn't hard to use. Screwfix sell it, along with all the correct glands, weatherproof boxes etc.

[Jader1973]

Do what the PO of my house did.

Outside socket, 20 metre extension lead buried in the garden leading to a 4 plug socket in the shed that he wired up himself.

Then daisy chain 2 4 socket extension leads off that, and run a couple of fluro tubes and one outside light off of them.

I've never been brave enough to plug anything in out there in case I burn the house down.

[C.A.R.]

ManFromDelmonte said:

p.s. You may want to post your photograph in the lawn thread too.

I will now you've mentioned it - our lawn is in a pretty horrific state.

With regards to competancy - I'm not dignifying all of the little posts suggesting whether I'm capable or not - as others have said, I wouldn't do anything I wasn't 100% sure was safe to do.

I have been doing more online digging.

I looked at the 'daisy chain' options which led me to the low-voltage 12V lighting and ultimately LED lighting chains. As above, this involves getting a plug-and-play transformer and simply attaching lights to the circuit you design - using low-voltage flexible cable. Obviously this 2-core stuff is a huge cost saving, but reading into the options I was pretty surprised at the cost of LED lighting.

Considering how far LED lighting has come in the last decade the somewhat 'basic' looking light fixtures are still prohibitively expensive. I like the idea of having a few downlighters along the garden path, fixed to our low-level fence - but each fixture is some £25-30!

What is so special about these 12v light fixings? The 240V counterparts to take conventional bulbs are easily half the cost.

I was expecting to be able to buy a handful of downlighters, a wall light for the playhouse and a possible higher-wattage brighter light for the back of the house / BBQ area, all running off the same transformer for less than £100. But it's the light fixings themselves which are the expensive bit.

I have looked at some of the cheaper eBay 12v LED floodlight options, which don't look too bad in a black finish (if looking a little basic) but as they aren't feature lights I guess it wont' matter what they look like. With a single transformer the max. cable length is suggested at 50 meters which is more than long enough.

Can anyone point me in the direction of some 'better value' 12v DC LED light fittings? It could be a cost-effective solution - especially with the ability to just plug the transformer in and go...

[stuart313]

Pheo said:

http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/uploads/br/BR_PDF...

Page 9, top of:

Outdoor Lighting and power installations are special installations. Any new work in, for example, a garden or that involves crossing the garden is notifiable.

Also note that:

Prefabricated armoured plug/socket cables and connectors are not notifiable [provided they are unmodified] but the installation of the external socket is.

i.e. if you do this yourself, its illegal.

And to the guy who put in the outside cable through a garden hose - yes, that might be fine for you (luckily). not so much for the poor person who moved in after you, didn't know the cable was there and put a spade through it.

I think this kind of thread is the reason Stuart13 was pissed off the other day you know...

Although I hate to admit it that is not the current version of part P, this is

http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/uploads/br/BR_PDF...

It has been watered down loads and outside work is no longer a notifiable job as long as there is no new circuit involved. Infact the only location classed as special now is in the bathroom and then its not even the full room, just the zones around the bath.

page 6 of the above document.