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(I am in the UK so UK Regulations apply)

I want to run mains power from my (new) house to an outside workshop, a cable length of about 50m. The workshop will have its own separate consumer. I also need to run a number of other cables from the house to the workshop (low voltage like CAT6 ethernet etc).

At a former location I have run SWA power cable and the additional cables, in land drainage pipe (it has slots in in to drain water away) which I buried, as I could run all of the cables I wanted through the pipe, and by leaving a rope loop in the pipe, can pull through additional cables if needed).

Three Questions:

  1. Is this approach still deemed as acceptable with respect to the latest Electrical safety regulations ?

  2. Do I have to use SWA or could I use something more economical ?

  3. As the workshop will have its own consumer unit,with a TT earth system, could I use 2- core (ie Live & Neutral) cabling, as the Earth point will be at the workshop ?

I plan on doing the labouring and getting an electrician to do the other stuff & electrical sign-off, but any early advice will be useful.

Thanks

Machavity
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Adrian
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    In the US, at least, your conduit (drainage pipe) wouldn't be legal. In the US, you must use UL listed _electrical_ conduit that meets NEC requirements - no plumbing pipe of any sort meets those requirement. Of course, the rules in the UK are different, but you may want to look into that particular aspect to ensure what you used (and plan, from the sounds of it, on using for this project) meets your local code. – FreeMan Jul 25 '22 at 15:08
  • @FreeMan - the drainage pipe is simply for convenience, for future pulls, SWA cable is sufficient for UK regs, so long as it's buried 20" or so below ground level & is covered by marker tape. Also see https://diy.stackexchange.com/questions/186999/regulations-for-buried-cable-in-the-uk Adrian - you must use armoured cable, the drainage pipe alone is [as mentioned] not enough. – Tetsujin Jul 25 '22 at 18:11
  • I found an EON guide, which probably needs a bit of further research on the exact regs they refer to - https://www.cablejoints.co.uk/upload/E.ON___Electricity_Cable_Ducts,_Guidance_Notes.pdf – Tetsujin Jul 25 '22 at 18:22
  • Fair enough, @Tetsujin. I was just making sure. – FreeMan Jul 25 '22 at 19:35
  • That's true, we could do the same thing here, run direct burial cable inside drainage tile or something. Just can't be also using it for drainage at the time lol. – Harper - Reinstate Monica Jul 25 '22 at 20:25

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