Hi, I've just bought a house with an external garage that is all wired up but has no power. It has its own RCD unit but the fuse box in the house doesn't have a fuse for the garage so I'm assuming it's just no longer hooked up to the mains. Fast forward a month and I'm doing up my back garden whilst all this lock down malarky is going on. I'm making some steps and whilst digging under the flags stumbled upon a SWA cable that looks suspiciously like the power to the garage. My question is, when I can get a sparky in to sort the garage power out what will they need? Will they need access to this underground cable (and therefore I should stop my garden refurb) or can I start to fill over it again?
Can you trace where the SWA emerges near the consumer unit? If it was disconnected, there must be reason. Without the correct test equipment, you would have no way of knowing if that SWA is good or needs replacing. If you aren't sure and can't find an electrician who is able to come out right now, you may want to consider replacing the whole length and burying at the correct depth.
Find the ends of the SWA, how deep is it buried and is it likely to be damaged. You could dig it up along it's entire length and check for mechanical damage, ie a spade or fork hit.
Probably a good idea to post a photo of the area the house fuse box is in big enough to show all the bits and pieces are connected up. That determines what may be needed.
Attached is a picture of the house fuse area as suggested. The SWA outback is only buried at about 150mm below the bottom right flag (currently propped up by bricks) but will be considerably deeper further towards the garage due to the slopey steps. I'm getting the impression that I'm going to need to rip up all the flags and earth below to access the length of the run of the cable? I was planning on getting rid of the nasty crappily flagged stepped area anyway but not just yet!
You mean the ones down the side of the wonky flags? They won't be laid until I can sort this electricity issue out. They're just placed to get an idea of aesthetics.
Can't see the SWA in either of the photos you have posted. Can you see where it emerges near the consumer unit? Also, you're probably already aware that your alarm needs attention/replacing.
Looks to me that the SWA itself will need sorting out and an electrician will fit a switched fuse unit to feed it. They split the meter tails via a bulky connection unit and power the switched fuse unit from that. If there are spare ways in the consumer unit they may use these. Depends on various things but may need an rcd and an mcb or just an mcb. Depends on sums. That can also mean that just a switched fuse unit can't do it on it's own. Eg if mine is installed to latest regs as it's 40m long it would need an rcd and mcb. I don't know what length starts causing that problem but do know 40m does.
Thanks for this. I found a switched unit on the side of the house the garage is on that does nothing. It's got the connectors for the in part hooked up but no wires going out...hence it doesn't work! So looks like I'm going to have to dig up the rest of the SWA and wait til a sparky can come round to hook it up etc. Hopefully he can use one of the spare fuses in the house consumer unit. Thanks guys.
The SWA would usually connect to an MCB inside the consumer unit not to a FCU like you have shown. Are you able to trace where the SWA goes once it enters the house?