What rate wire should i power a 240v garage though and do i need to use conduit for wiring under the lawn?

what are you pluggin into the sockets,also,is the garage next to your house,or is is 50 feet away,if it is next to your house,is it joined onto the house,these are some of the factors to be considered,does your fuseboard at the mains have an inbuilt r.c.d,because if you garage is not attached to your house ,you will have to put in a separate 1-way fuseboard with combined r.c.d to control it.if it was me doing it ,and it was joined onto your house,i would probably put in a 6mm,twin and earth,if the garage is not joined to house , you would be better using steell wired armour three core,and burying it to a depth of 520mm,back fill 200mm with sand and saftey sticker and then top off with dig out material.you can use the conduit you show,but once buried,after a few years if redug by someone else it can be difficult to tell if its conduit or water pipe,steel wired armour has it written down its length.hope this helps ,if in doubt consult a local sparkie,cause thats why we do a 4 year apprenticeship!

Screwfix Conduit

If this development is covered by building regs I'd talk with build control.

I'm not an electrician; but I've done all the installation work on on my two recent building extensions this has all been inspected and accepted,but stiil has to be Part P certificated.

It's worth remenbering not all electrician have this qualification and will still have to get someone to do the certification.

If your running the cable under ground you need to use steel wire armoured cable.

This cable needs to be sized to suit the load that your putting on it. for example, this will be governed by the size of fused to suit the circuits that your installing. The fuses are there to protect this cable.

A Ring main with any number of socket outlets = 32 amp

Inside lighting circuit = 6 amp

Out side lighting circuit = 6 amp

Single spur for gates = 16 amp

http://www.electacourse.com/cableselector.html

I'm not seeing that the conduit is rated for being buried.

They make a cable that can be buried or exposed outdoors without leaking electricity.

You're going to want to go 12 or 10 gauge wire because you may be running some pretty high drawing tools out there.

The next question is where are you hooking it into? Is it the regular breaker box and if so, can it handle the additional amps that you'll be adding?

I'm not saying you can't do this, but if you do it wrong, it could kill you. Not grounded, mixed up hot wire and neutral, improper ground, etc.

If, if you decide to sell and it's not up to code for your area, you may have to bring it up to code and at that point, it may cost as much or more than the original instalation.

A 220 v heater without a neutral or GROUND wire is a dangerous thing, indeed! Standard house wiring is: Red: 110V, Black : 110V, White: neutral, Green: Absolute Ground... It would seem your heater is Black and white to each side of the 220 volt (Black and Red are out of phase 180 degrees, that is where you get 220 volts). I would be very careful here and use an ohm meter go make sure the white line is NOT grounded to the heater's case before going any further. And, were I doing this, I would wire with 3 wire, using one as a "green" line to ground the case and ground in the box, Happy Holidays.

You may need a lot of power to run that many outlets & electric gates. You have to do some sums and work out what the maximum load will be say : 6 X 60Watt bulbs, 5 x 150Watt bulbs, 6 X 3250Watt (? worst case for Sockets), Gates would guess at 2X250Watt. It would need at least 45Amps. You should use largest SWA cable Size 4mm2 - steel wire sheathed rather than conduit.

James, don't rush into this job without consideration.

1st important point is outdoor wiring is now covered under part P of the building regs and requires a Part P approved electrician to carry out the work and get certification of the work completed.

If you decide not to bother with the law then you would need to work out various things

where are you taking the supply from and have you got an rcd protection for the garage supply ?

Are you going to put a three way fuse box in the garage ?

what is the total load you will want on the sockets are you going to be running welding machines or other high load items?

your light circuit will be from a 6 amp breaker and you can use 20a or 32 amp breakers for your sockets depending if you are using radial circuit or a ring.

You will want a breaker for your gates what load would they have ?

How long is the cable run from house to garage you will need to calculate volt drop from the cable rating Tables.

I would think you would be much better using steel wire armoured cable buried underground to the appropriate depth with the danger cable buried tape over the top of the cable.

After all the calculations I think you might get away with 2.5mm squared swa cable check your local b&q for the current rating of this cable.

It may well be worth considering to have the job done properly by a part P approved contractor otherwise you will have to rip it all out if you ever want to sell your house. and of course if you have a propblem your insurance may be invalid.

Hi James,

Why don't you do all the first fix on the garage and get a sparks to lay some steel wire armerd cable, get him to size it and fit the consumer unit. 17th Edition states that all circuits have to be RCD protected and as it stands now everything outside MUST be. You can't use 2.5mm2 inside conduit as has been suggested. My advice really is to get some professional advice.

There is a wire made for outside, underground that you do not need conduit, all the wires are sealed from moisture and water if you don't want to run conduit, check your local hardware or electrical supplier. Wire size, 10/3 would do.

Copper wire, 240 single phase, 50ft run, 40 amp, minimum wire size #10. For 60 amp. # 8. Check out this site and do your own calculation.

Wire Size Calculator... number 10 awg wire size. Our calculator yields results that are within code in most locations however we advise you to check your local electrical code. ...

www.csgnetwork.com/wiresizecalc.html - 21k

I would suggest that you consult a qualified electrician.

I would also suggest you pay no attention to anyone who posts a reply who is not a qualified electrician.

Not that I am punting for business (too busy), but depending on where you are in the country I could take a look and advise, even if you don't want me to do the entire job.