Garage Powered on Downstairs Ringmain for Workshop Ask questions and find answers to many subjects relating to electrics and electrical work

[thompa25]

Just moved into a house and am turning the garage into a workshop. The setup at the moment is the garage has one double socket, for the roller garage door. This socket is wired as part of the downstairs socket ringmain. Im looking for what options I have. Obviously the best option would be running a fresh supply with SWA from the consumer unit. This would take alot of work, as the garage is at the other side of the house to the CU. Im looking to run the usual garage equipment, air compressor, pillar drill etc, with some lighting. Would It be acceptable to put in another RCD fed from the downstairs ringmain with a lower mA trip time than the RCD the ringmain is fed from? Im not really keen on extending the downstairs ringmain to power the whole garage.

[ericmark]

A garage is designed to garage a car, hence name, when converting a garage into a workshop you need a far larger supply, so really you need a RCBO in the consumer unit feeding garage.

[kbrownie]

If the garage is attached to the property and there is a floor void to route the cable to the CU, you would not need to use SWA, but a new circuit would require notification to building controls.