Putting electricity is outside shed?

[torthecatlady]

Just musing really and wondering if it's something we might be able to do one day.

Has anyone had electricity put in a detached shed or garage?

I have a small kitchen and would like to have electricity in an outhouse type building (but detached from the main property) mainly for extra freezer space. It would also be useful for mowing the lawn and other DIY outside.

Is it a big job and if you have had it done, approximately how much did it cost? At a complete guess I was thinking a couple of thousand... but I could be way off!

We're in South Wales.

Following as I would also love a freezer in my shed!

Following as well because I'm struggling without my big freezer since moving so would like electricity in the shed.

Totally standard thing to do.

My exterior workshop has power - MANY sockets and lights.
No 2 son's garage has several sockets and lights.
No 3 son built an outside utility room with sockets and lights.

Cost depends on many things unfortunately:

Where the Consumer Unit is located.
What type of Consumer Unit and if it has any spare capacity.
Ease of access to Consumer Unit and from there to outside .
Distance to outbuilding.
What you want in the outbuilding - how many lights, sockets, external lights and sockets etc.
Can you get some-one to dig the trench and clear the shed and area around the Consumer Unit? Unskilled 'free' labour to avoid paying a tradesman's rate.

So from a couple of hundred to a thousand.

Unlikely to be more than one thousand unless:

You have a very old house with a very old Consumer Unit - for example with rewirable fuses. An electrician will want to change that for a modern one with all the modern safety features. That would add a couple of hundred to the bill.

Concrete or tarmac between house and outbuilding. Digging that up and relaying could be hundreds

A VERY long way to the outbuilding.

You want many lights and sockets or 'special' features.

Write a list of what you want, take photos of your Consumer Unit, measure rough distance and note what is 'in the way'.

Then Google or Facebook local electricians, describe the job, ask if they are interested and get 3 quotes.

Just noticed the typo in the title

Glad it's not just me! We struggle with a very small fridge freezer in our kitchen, we have one under counter space which houses our washing machine.

My MIL has a garage which has a large chest freezer, 1 under counter freezer, 1 under counter fridge and a drinks fridge (the type with a slidey door which you normally find in a pub. Not to mention the massive fridge freezer in her kitchen, a dish washer, washing machine and tumble dryer. Can you tell that I'm jealous?

She could feed herself and FIL for months on that food alone

She had a very large family and is used to entertaining

@GrumpyOlderBloke

That was very helpful!! And actually could be relatively affordable. We have a couple of handy people in the family who may be able to help (in exchange for dinner and drinks).

I have no idea where the consumer unit is... excellent start... or is that the fuse box?

Consumer Unit or CU is indeed an electrician's name for what used to be called a fuse box. They don't have fuses anymore!

Have a poke about here to get an idea of the cost of 'stuff' - CU, sockets, light fittings, conduit, cables etc.
Special armoured cable to run from the house CU to a new small CU in your shed:

www.screwfix.com/p/prysmian-lv-armoured-6943x-3-core-cable-4mm-x-10m-black/94686#_=p

Your electrician might buy it here anyway.

@GrumpyOlderBloke

That's great, will take a look before getting some quotes

Thanks for all of your help!

Approx 2 years ago we had electricity laid via armoured cable to our garage.

It wasn't far - basically out the wall, across beneath the path (we dug the trench) and into the garage.

Total cost including several power points and a strip light was about £550 I think. Bargain, we thought at the time.

So can an electrician do it or do would it have to be a builder? In my case there would be quite a lot of digging as some distance from main cable to outbuilding?

@PaintedHorizons I imagine you would seek quotes from an electrician and then they would recommended someone they work with on occasion?

You must have a qualified electrician to put anything outside like sockets lights etc - but if there is digging involved he may do it or recommend someone or you could do that bit yourself - as long as it is connected and tested by the electrician

Thank you. I'll do that.

If it's a short run you could avoid any digging by running the cable on a catenary wire, well above head height to avoid obstructing passage underneath.

Should have added that it also saves cutting through the DPC in the house.

We are having ours electrified as the electrician is here doing the extension anyway.

I've just had a power supply run up the garden to a shed. It's cost £500, that has included three double sockets, lights and switches and an ether net cable.
The plan is to use it for a place for DS and friends to hang out. Then when we come to move it'll be a home office.

Cost us £600 in south London.

Garden was being redone so no digging but included cabling (12m garden), fuse box in shed, 2 power points, 2 internal lights plus switch, 2 external lights plus wireless switch inside house.

Bought a beko upright freezer as they are made to work outside (I knew if we got a chest freezer it would always have stuff on it which would annoy me!)

It's been perfect. Love it. Except when it's raining

I had a power supply put into a detached garage recently. Including a new consumer unit, armoured cable running from inside the house under a concrete path and into the garage, a double socket and basic light fitting cost £250 parts only. It was a full day job for a single electrician however we pass work to electricians on a regular basis for dp's business so work was done at cost with no charge for time as a thank you for all the work we pass their way. However, I would estimate another £200+ if we'd have paid for electricians time too.