DIY Doctor UK DIY Forums

Hi,

I’m looking for some advice/words of wisdom/experience on how best to wire a log cabin.

I’ve surfed so many sites and watched numerous videos, and (where possible) I’d like to do as much of the electrics as possible on the outside of the cabin, around the building using junctions boxes and conduit?

The one thing I hadn’t appreciated about log cabins is how much they move/expand, which means I have to limit what is screwed across more than one row of wood, so with that sort of thing in mind...

He’s my plan.

First i’m looking to bring an existing armoured cable inside the cabin, under the floor , where it will be brought up and connected into a low placed consumer unit on the wall. (Any recommendations on good CU?)

Then from that consumer unit, I first plan to run a feed out through the cabin wall to the rear of the building, and then take it around the cabin using round conduit and junction boxes, drilling a hole through from the outside into the inside in the places where I want my plug socket to go.
(Any recommendations on conduit, clips and junction boxes?)

With that done, I’d then like to run another feed outside from the unit, this time for the lights, but I’ll look to take that up and over the roof. (I’ll aim to hide within the roof insulation and feed it in and down into the centre of the cabin to use to light the room.. )

this time it feels like I should use flexible round conduit, fixed to the side with a good deal of slack (shaping it up the outside cabin wall in the shape of the letter “S’ so it can cope with any movement, because I’d like to fix it in a couple of places so it doesn't flap bang too much.
(Any recommendations on Flexible conduit, clips and junction boxes, ideally that match with the others?)

How does that sound ?
What am I missing ?

Wire it like a caravan, these also flex, so always wired with flex, but you can't use the flex ratings, flex is designed to be in open air, so all ratings for flex are for use in open air. In the main flex rated at 60 degs C where twin and earth rated at 70 degs C so although 2.5 mm cable would normally be good for 20 amp, you have to consider how the heat will escape and you may need to consider 2.5 mm as 16 amp cable to allow for installation methods.

Be aware as well as electrical regulations you also have building regulations, so where I live in Wales I would not be permitted to do the job you talk about without paying the county council around £150 to register the work.

When I tried to register work my LABC inspector was not happy and wanted me to get it inspected by another electrician, so it is possible it could cost more to DIY than to get a scheme member electrician to do the work.

If you go on to the IET website you can down load blank forms for the inspection and testing for free, I would down load the forms and consider if you have the skill to fill them in, it is hard for an electrician to remember what it was like before he learnt his trade, it seems easy to us, but even I would consider getting some one in, mainly as my son has my test set, and they are not cheap.

Many thanks for responding, you’ve definitely made me question the value of ‘DIY’ for this sort of thing..

Quick question about the term ‘flex’ that you used - do you mean the conduit or the cable itself ?

When I think of a ‘flex’ cable I think of the coiled up version that you would often see used with a kettle ?