wiring from my house to an office in the garden? Ask questions and find answers to many subjects relating to electrics and electrical work

[lloyd]

i have built an office in my garden (glorified shed), which is fairly close to the house. max 10m away. i have an existing external grade socket, which is fitted with a breaker. i do not know, while typing this, whether this socket is on a ring main or is a spur off the main ring etc...(i am also not sure whether that last sentence makes sence!). can i spur off this external socket with armoured cable to run under ground into the office to a consumer unit and then run another ring main from the consumer unit for switches and a lighting circuit with two-way switching. with the building being used as an office, i will probably want to install at least 6 double sockets and then a small lighting circuit. is this possible? do not panic, i will not be doing the works, i will be getting a qualified electrician to connect up and approved inspectors will definately make an appearance somewhere.

many thanks in advance for your advise.

regards

lloyd

[sparx]

Short answer is NO! even if the socket is on a ring, which is very unlikely but easy to check, (only 1 cable = spur), you can' loop off it to do what you want, don't forget the 'breaker?' RCD? only protects that socket outlet & if looping on from it the rest of the circuit would not be covered by RCD.
Be prepared for your Part P leckie to want to run new supply (probably 6/10mm cable ) from mains to shed to a so called 'garage unit' which is a small RCD controlled 2 gang consumer unit with 32A mcb for sockets plus 6A mcb for lights, regards SPARX