Have just built a garage in the garden, and until we do all the electrics in the house in six months time I need a temporary supply in there. All I need to run is a strip light and maybe a double socket for charging bike lights etc.
Would it be really bad form to just run a bit of armoured cable from an outdoor socket with built in RCD, to a double socket in the garage? I could then just plug the strip light into that?
I know this will probably have all the sparkies on here up in arms, but I just want the least dangerous temporary solution.
Cheers.

If you are plugging it into an RCD protected socket and if only temporary, the armoured would actually be overkill…

Just rig an extension cable up and plug your light into that!

Lerk, that’s been my temporary solution for the last 7 years.

Sounds safer than what i had in here when i moved in …..

Bit of 2.5mm ^2 twin and earth flex suspended on a wire at head height into the back garage.

The side garage had the correct cable – plumbed into the wrong place – drawing off the lighting ring.

What you suggest wouldnt bother me , jsut be sure to limit what you plug in – no compressors or welders 🙂

I was interested to find out when I installed a pond pump the other week that I have to inform the council (according to the instructions that came with the pump) and all sorts. This was to replace a pump that the previous house owner had put in (very badly) that had failed.

So I installed an isolated RCD in the utility room, plugged that into a normal power outlet, then ran a cable through the wall to the pond, covered that and then sealed up the holes and everything. I may have forgotten to inform the council.

Samuri. You sure that pump and rcd wasnt there when you moved in 😉

good point. Yes, now I think about it…

plugged that into a normal power outlet,

If it’s plugged in then it’s temporary and Part P doesn’t apply, so no need to inform anyone….

The rules are a bit silly, eg my workshop in run off a 50m extension lead hung along the fence, which is 100% legit and can stay there for years; whereas to switch to the 10mm cable in a steel conduit I’ve installed is costing me £230 for Building Control to come out and sign it off!

In a house a while back, I just used an RCD plug connecting to an armoured cable and run out to the shed which had a bathroom type pullcord light switch/light and a double plug. I obviously had to be careful not to overload it but I never had any problems.

All sounds OK then.
Thanks for giving me the confidence that I’m not going to blow up/set anything alight.

When we moved in, there were two armoured cables that ran into separate rooms in the house, and then plugged in with a 13A socket, no RCD. There was no consumer unit (old fuse board), so no RCD protection there either. Each armoured cable ran to a plastic box in the garden, where 2 gang adaptors were used to plug different sets of lights in. One of the 2 gang adaptors was in a box full of water……

On top of that, there was an outside socket, which was actually an normal socket for use in the house, and with no specific IP rating. It had been put in a little wooden box with a hinge on it to keep it dry. To top it off, when I traced the wiring back it went back to the 32A supply for the oven.

It’s all been made good now, but I did wonder if I had some comeback against the previous owner, but I’m not sure if I could be bothered with the hassle. How he didn’t kill himself and his family I don’t know…..