New garden shed is now in place and all racked out with the overspill from the garage (shed size is 10' x 6' and has plenty of headroom)
Now for the lighting, I know I should be running electricity to it for this, but I don't need 240 volts to it for any power tools
So I was thinking either solar or battery power?
Anybody come up with a successful solution to this?
Thanks
Out of interest where did you get the shed from. In the market for garage over flow, but after somthing that will not fall appart while looking at
it!
I do have a solar light kit used it for camping was o.k. If all you need is a light and the shed has direct sun light (not in shadows) i would
recommend. Ours was a maplin kit so cannot recomend one as they don't exist anymore. Probably worth searching on amazon for genuine reviews..
How often will you use it? When I had a similar quandry just stuck a 100Ah leisure battery in my shed. 12v sockets for tools, an inverter, led lighting and a wall mounted push-button-activated digital voltmeter to monitor capacity. Under the meter I've got a panel mount banana twin pole connector and an adapter (two bits of copper pipe stuck into a piece of wood with a wire soldered on going to a banana plug). Every month or so I just hook that up and charge using my car battery charger using an extension cable from the house Oh yes, 12v amp for music also...
From a purely practical point of view - how about running 12v ac lighting from a safety transformer? The wiring can be run along a fence, buried shallowly without protection, etc. because it is safe due to the extra-low voltage and isolation from both mains and earth. None of the hassles and hard work of 240V.
How far down the garden is the shed?
As i ran waterproof and semi armoured cable in conduits around my garden for lighting and sockets,
Cables go through the dining room wall, and are plugged in with an RCD to the first socket
The RCD and plug are removed when not in use,
I was told, by a friend, a Qualified Electrician, (hes on this site ) and i worked for him, that although what i have done is not quite right,
It is no different to running an extension cable down the garden to run a chainsaw, or the like
Secondly, if thats not possible, get a good used car battery, some Led 12v bulbs as they burn next to nothing, and are very bright,
and switch and a solar panel, the whole lot wont cost more than £30
steve
I've got a 12v battery feeding a couple of led 'driving' lamps and a car radio. Fed by 2 solar panels 20W? pointing in different directions south and west. Works fine for most of the year, in winter I have to charge the battery, the car radio is always pulling a small amount of power for the station memory.
Ive got an old car battery driving 4 of these led lights even got a switch by the door like mormal
lasts forever
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4X-72-LED-Interior-Light-Strip-Bar-Car-Van-Bus-Caravan-ON-OFF-Switch-12-24V-Lamp/264740889659?hash=item3da3c9643b:g:8xQAAOS
w1EZeyX0y
I got a new shed a couple of years ago, and thought that I wouldn't need an electricity supply to it - until my wife pointed out that I was
regularly running extension leads through the garage window, and that she had to use a torch if she went to get something in the evening.
I paid a fair bit for the shed, so I decided to go the whole hog and get a local sparky to wire it properly. Now there's a fused feed off the
main house distribution board to a small distribution board with RCD in the shed, 2 lights, 2 sockets inside and an external one with a cover. Way,
way better and a lot safer all round, and I've now got a proper wiring certificate from the electrical authorities.
I can't remember how much I paid, but it wasn't stupid money - about a half-day labour plus parts.
I replaced my garden shed a couple of years ago when we converted our integral garage into an extra bedroom. As we had a sparky in doing the
electrics for that I got him to run electric from the house to the shed. Strip light and 3 double sockets in the shed. Added about £140 labour +
parts to the price.
It makes the shed so much more usable and worth having. Wife and kids have no fear of going out there on a dark evening to get things.
IMHO better than battery solutions.
I also have an electric mower which I now run from a socket in the shed.
The cheap LED fittings from Toolstation are good value
I dealt with 2x 60w incandescents in my garage for a while, installed by the previous owner with conduited armoured cable. I got sick of struggling to
see and installed second consumer unit, breakers and cat6 cables, plus 4x 5ft batten lights and some movable spots. It's actually a nice place to
be now.
If I were doing it again, I'd put in the effort again, but I suspect the same result could be done with LED and a local battery bank. But who has
a shed and does only stuff not requiring power?
[Edited on 13/9/20 by coyoteboy]
if you are running mains out to the shed, I suggest you take the opportunity to also run an ethernet cable
Thanks everyone for your comments, Some good ideas there for me to think about
The shed in just over a metre from the house
It was made for me locally and fitted all in for a very good price and I'm very pleased with it (Tanelised tongue & groove)
The chap is on ebay under KH property services
[Edited on 13/9/20 by perksy]
1 meter away from the house ?
just run an extension cable, from the house with a plug in rcd
quote:
Originally posted by steve m
1 meter away from the house ?
just run an extension cable, from the house with a plug in rcd
I had a bog standard extension cable going to my shed door once for about four years. Ran it under the hedge so had to be careful cutting the hedge but with the plug inside the house and the reel in the shed only the cable was exposed to the elements so nothing happened to it. In fact I still use that reel to charge my shed leisure battery nowadays.
quote:
Originally posted by gremlin1234
if you are running mains out to the shed, I suggest you take the opportunity to also run an ethernet cable
quote:
Originally posted by perksy
The shed in just over a metre from the house
[Edited on 13/9/20 by perksy]
quote:
Originally posted by BenB
I had a bog standard extension cable going to my shed door once for about four years. Ran it under the hedge so had to be careful cutting the hedge but with the plug inside the house and the reel in the shed only the cable was exposed to the elements so nothing happened to it. In fact I still use that reel to charge my shed leisure battery nowadays.