Somebody builds a garden office. The builder leaves a socket on the outside wall of the house and an extension lead running across the lawn.
It powers a laptop and a heater. In winter the heater is on all day, the lead runs under a door, and the whole arrangement is coiled on a reel that never fully unwinds.
It works until it does not. Nothing about it is a permanent supply, and the cost of doing it properly is considerably less than the consequence of the alternative.
1. Explain why a lead is not a solution
Not rated for continuous outdoor use, cannot be buried, offers no protection and presents a fire risk when coiled under load. This should be stated plainly rather than implied.
2. Establish the load required
Lighting and a laptop is a different supply from heating, cooling, a workshop or a hot tub. The load determines the cable, the protection and whether the existing supply can take it.
3. Check what the existing supply can accommodate
Adding a substantial load to a property already near its capacity may require an upgrade, which is a separate conversation with the network operator.
4. Explain the armoured cable requirement
Buried at an appropriate depth, with appropriate mechanical protection and marking. This is the standard method and it is the part customers do not anticipate.
5. Explain the excavation
A trench across a garden, through whatever is in the way. This is frequently the largest part of the cost and it is the part not visible in any quotation line about cable.
6. Check what else is buried
Water, gas, drainage and existing services. Excavating a garden without establishing this is how a straightforward job becomes an incident.
7. Explain the distribution board in the outbuilding
A small board providing protection for the circuits inside, rather than running everything from one connection. This is what makes the building properly supplied.
8. Explain the earthing arrangement
Which has particular requirements for outbuildings and which is a technical decision with real safety consequences, made by somebody qualified.
9. Explain what goes inside
Sockets, lighting, heating, data and anything else. Planning this before the cable is sized prevents a supply that cannot accommodate what the building is for.
10. Consider the data connection at the same time
A garden office needs a network connection, and running it in the same trench is almost free at the time and expensive afterwards.
11. Explain the certification and notification position
Which applies to a new outdoor circuit, and which a future buyer or insurer will eventually ask to see.
12. Consider the future use
A building supplied for a desk today may be a workshop or a gym in five years. Slightly oversizing the supply now is cheap and retrofitting is not.
13. Explain the hot tub and electric vehicle cases
Both are substantial loads with their own requirements, and both are frequently mentioned after a supply has been designed for something smaller.
14. Establish the requirements at the enquiry
An assistant that asks what the building is for, what will be used in it, how far it is from the house, what the route crosses and what else might be added later gives an electrician the information to quote properly rather than to price a cable. Handled with the care in how to handle sensitive questions in your chatbot, alongside outdoor power and garden room wiring enquiries, fault finding and tripping questions and the temporary supply questions in electric hook up and power questions explained. See features, start at try, and the sector view sits under electricians.