Electricians – can you run armoured cable along a wooden fence?

Just to say first, I’m getting an electrician to do this if it’s possible but if not don’t want to waste time getting quotes!

I’ve got an outside socket on the house but want to run power from it to a pond. Only problem is I don’t want to have to lift the patio up to bury the cable, and the patio goes right up to the fence ( so no grass / flower bed to easily dig in)

So can you run armoured cable along a wooden boundary fence or is this not advisable / against regs?

Yes, it’s fine. Stick it on an RCD though, but your sparky will know this

I’ve done similar to the shed/summer house, although the cable runs along the concrete gravel board. RCD on on end though !

I did. IANAE

Caveat: I’m a couple of editions of the regs out of date
No reason why not as long as the fence is solid and rot-free
Do you need SWA cable? Outdoor-proof conduit would be a cheaper and simpler option, metal if rodents are a problem, UV-resistant plastic if not

It’ll probably need to be permanently connected at the house end rather than fed from the socket.

However, I’d probably/unofficially just buy a drum of black copex and put normal 13 amp flex through it to feed the pump, and P clip to the fence. And change the outside socket to an RCD one if it isn’t already.

If you have an RCD protecting the circuit in the house, you don’t need to add a second one to the socket.

The regs are very non specific about outdoor cables. They specify a min depth if you choose to bury them, but they don’t mandate that you have to bury them.

Out workshop is powered by a 50m cable running along the fence in a steel conduit.

The steel conduit was mainly chosen as most of it is behind shrubs / climbers, so I’ll be using a hedge trimmer etc near it at various points and wanted something very robust…

Repairing Fence Post #5 by Ben Freeman[/url], on Flickr

If you have an RCD protecting the circuit in the house, you don’t need to add a second one to the socket

Cue argument amongst electricians 🙂
You can, it shouldn’t be needed in a healthy system and it might trip the Consumer Unit RCD in the house if you test the secondary RCD (or it might not)

can you run armoured cable along a wooden boundary fence

Yes, you can.
IAAE

Ok thanks guys I’ll ring an electrician today!

grey area. personally I would either run SWA or in steel conduit, as mentioned above to stop accidental damage from hedge trimmers or rats chewing it. Depending on location low down on a fence should be ok. Have a think about if the fence is liable to storm damage and what might happen if a panel is blown down – hence why most clip to the gravel boards.

I am running power to the summer house this summer, consumer unit has an RCD but plan to use a secondary fused RCD as well. Rationale being any issues with the garden supply means I can just remove the fuse and the house will work fine. I plan to bury ours as we are also doing a patio at the same time

in the past I’ve had water ingress into an outdoor light, and it kept tripping the consumer unit until I finally worked out what it was and removed the light, being able to isolate circuits makes fault finding alot easier

Rationale being any issues with the garden supply means I can just remove the fuse and the house will work fine.

if the shed supply develops a neutral-earth fault removing the fuse (on the live side) won’t solve it. You’ll need a DP isolator to fully disconnect line and neutral.

IAMNAE, could be wrong.

IAMNAE, could be wrong.

You’re not wrong

I’m an electrician btw

20230417_102901 by davetheblade[/url], on Flickr

Second cable goes to the garden office.

If any smart arse notices the banjos aren’t linked, I never got round to it, ok 😉 it’s earthed either end

thats a very good point. hadn’t thought of that. DP switch it is.

I had another idea for the cable run which doesn’t involve the fence…

Cable runs from pond pump in a heavy duty cable protector like this against the wall and fence but sitting on patio surface and fixed to the ground, then into short piece conduit attached to wall and plug into the existing socket.

https://www.theworkplacedepot.co.uk/pavement-cable-protector

Does that sound like reasonable protection? Will be RCD protected and as it’s at the side of the patio no one will be walking on it, also means I’m not attaching to a boundary fence that could get damaged / blow over. Also means I can just plug the pond pump cable straight in to the socket.

What’s reasonable is up to the electrician certifying the installation.
The pavement protector is fine for a temporary cable run to reduce a trip hazard, but it isn’t meant to protect the cable.
Saddle clamps and conduit on the paving would be less obtrusive, but it’ll be easier to use a solid fence. Hospital saddle clamps will raise the conduit for easier cleaning of the patio if that helps

Ok thanks! Just rung an electrician and he’s coming out tomorrow to sort it all properley

Rationale being any issues with the garden supply means I can just remove the fuse and the house will work fine.

Not necessarily. An earth-neutral fault may still trip the RCD back at the consumer unit regardless of whether you have a fuse there or not.