How to Fit an Electrical Supply for a Garden Pond or Water Feature
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This post is all about warning DIYers without the proper training or qualifications against the idea of fitting a permanent electrical supply to a garden pond or water feature themselves.
I know this website encourages people to do DIY work in and around the home when they can, but sometimes you have to bring in an expert. Especially when you have little to no knowledge of a topic that could result in serious injury or death.
With that said, I’d still like to provide you with an overview of the process and the materials and equipment needed for the job. So, let’s go.
First of all, in the UK, all electrical circuits in a garden or outdoors must be protected by a suitably sized fuse/miniature circuit breaker and an RCD device.
Any cable supplying a pond pump or water feature and any other electrical equipment must be suitable for outdoor use. Ideally small wire armoured (SWA) cable should be used for an electrical supply from your property out to the garden pond pump or water feature. It should be buried in the ground at a depth of 20 inches (500mm).
- 3 cores with armoured outer sheath
- 2.5mm conductors
- 50 metres length
- Suitable for domestic, commercial and industrial situations
The cable should be bedded in sand and then covered with approximately 6-12 inches (150mm-300mm) of soil, then a ‘Live cable below’ warning tape should be ran the length of the cable trench. The trench can then be completely filled to the ground level.
The 6-12 inch (150mm-300mm) difference in depth between the warning tape and cable allows anyone who is excavating soil in the vicinity of the cable to dig up the warning tape first, hopefully without damaging the cable at the same time.
You can run cables outside through conduits, but I think if there were any savings to make they would be negligible against the cost of SWA cable.
I would get advice from an electrician and see what they recommend for your situation. You can always save money by excavating the cable trench yourself rather than paying the electrician to do it (I am confident the electrician would appreciate it being done by others).
There are outdoor/garden electrical kits available which might suit your requirements but again, check with your electrician.
As I always suggest, try and use an electrician recommended by friends or family members, if you can’t find one or the one they’ve recommended is busy, try using one of the websites listed below.