Powering Up: Connecting Your Garden Room to Electricity

Planning around your need for power

It is important that you think carefully about how you will use your garden building, and what you will need in terms of power, at the earliest stage in the design process. Adding electrical fixtures and fittings retrospectively can be tricky, as well as inevitably affecting the slick design of the structure.

So, first things first, think about what you’ll be installing in your garden studio or office, and be clear on what you’ll need in terms of internal and external sockets, switches, TV and satellite points, internet connectivity points, heating and ventilation, and lighting for both inside and outside. Your garden building designer will of course guide you through the steps of planning everything out, but if you’re clear in advance on what you’ll need, then all the better.

An initial survey will allow the design team to ascertain how power will be supplied to the garden building via the main house.

An electrician will inspect the current electrical system to ensure it is up to date and safe enough to cope with the additional load. In some cases, an old fuse box may need to be replaced with a modern consumer unit, and a residual circuit breaker added for enhanced safety. Depending on the condition of the system, other work may be required.

How to supply electricity to a garden shed or other outdoor building?

To get power to a shed or garden room, an armoured able will need to be connected directly from the main fuse box in the house to the garden building. Ideally, this will be buried under the ground courtesy of a trench, and hooked up through a consumer unit that’s installed within the garden building.

Whilst the trench digging can be done by anyone, the electrical side of things are a job for a qualified electrician, as there is a great deal of expertise required in calculating resistance and ensuring that the work falls within the guidelines of Part P electrical safety requirements.

A Certificate of Work will be required once the work is done, which will become especially important if you later decide to sell your house.

The cost of wiring a shed or garden building will vary depending upon the distance the cable needs to run between the main house and the garden building, and the grade of cable required, which will be influenced by how many things need to be powered within your garden building.

You will need to discuss the route of the supply cable with your electrician. Factors such as tree roots, garden landscaping features, planting and other such obstacles will all need to be considered.

Looking for a fully-powered garden room that’s ready to support all your needs for work and play? Talk to Surrey Hills Garden Buildings.

At Surrey Hills Garden Buildings, we have over the years become the trusted name in Surrey for all types of garden buildings, including garden offices, studios, gyms, leisure rooms, summerhouses, greenhouses, workshops and sheds.

Why not pay a visit one of our dedicated show sites for even more garden outbuilding ideas? Our family run team is on hand to provide you with friendly, expert advice on creating the garden building of your dreams, with full guidance on connecting it up with all the power you need for your work or leisure requirements.

You are also welcome to get in touch to discuss your garden outbuilding ideas. We look forward to speaking to you.