How To Wire Up Your New Garden Room

If you’re building a new garden room, one of the biggest tasks is to hook it up to electricity. Sometimes it’s on a different part of your property, so this step can be quite tricky. The same applies to pods, summer houses, garden gyms and other structures that you build away from your main home.

Usually, if you are planning to wire up a garden house, a garden room or any other outbuilding, you’ll need to use an electrician. These professionals should be registered with some public body so that they can carry out work safely and effectively. Don’t try to do everything yourself. 

Here’s our step-by-step guide on how to wire up your new garden room:

Assess your power needs

Start by thinking about how much power the garden room will use. For example, how many sockets do you want and what type of lighting will you have? If you’re using LEDs, the total power draw will be much less than if you’re using conventional lights.

Also think about high energy appliances that you might want to keep in the garden room, like underfloor heating, fridges or computers. Also, you might want to use it as a workshop to think about the power draw of tools. Many tools that are used in garages and sheds can draw more than 3000 watts, which is significantly more than the draw that you’ll get from standard home appliances. 

A basic setup is usually a 6 or 10mm armoured cable that runs around the edge, the periphery of the garden room with 4-6 sockets and that also connects to lighting. Because of this, you’ll need the cable to be rated for 3,000 watts or more. 

Plan the route

The next step is to plan the route that you want the wire to take. Usually, it will go from a fuse box or a garden outlet underneath your lawn or hardscaping and then back up into the outbuilding. You may want to have a mini sub board inside the garden room so you can control different circuits. This is helpful if you want to ensure that power is switched off while you change out old light bulbs in the future. 

Choose the supply method

You’ll also want to choose the supply method that you use when wiring your garden room.

The best option is a dedicated armoured cable. Most electricians recommend steel wire that’s buried from the house to the garden.

For cheaper options, you might look for a heavy duty extension lead, but remember this isn’t ideal long-term. The outer casing of extension leads can become damaged.

If you’re looking for something off-grid or if the garden room is a long way from your main property, then solar panels, batteries, and inverters are a good option. These are useful for low loads, although you probably won’t be able to use them for tools.

So there you have it, everything you need to know when you’re wiring up your new garden room. We hope this information helped. 

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Becky

Meet the award-nominated UK lifestyle blogger behind Spirited Puddle Jumper – a mum of three living in South East London! Becky shares the real ups and downs of family life, parenting tips, and lifestyle inspiration, proving that being a mum doesn’t mean you stop being fun or having other interests! Follow along for honest insights into UK family life and opinions on a whole range of topics, from travel and food, to beauty reviews, home and DIY, business and health and wellness.