How To Safely Install Electrical Products In Your Water Garden Or Fish Pond
To enable people to install electrical equipment outdoors in full compliance
with legal and building codes power kits have been designed by companies like
Armadillo in the UK.
A complete kit consists of cable, connectors for submersed and ground level
positions, junction boxes, and switch boxes. A full
description of a project using approved kits which can be obtained from Bradshaws. Here's how to use these kits to complete a safe pond electrical
installation at your home.
The cable ... measuring the length
To calculate the length of power cable required start at the power point
which will take a feed from a power point inside the house. This length of cable
should extend to the junction box that will be located closer to the pond
itself. The junction box is where the various electrical pond components will
get their power from. Always allow a metre more than measured to give you a
little more flexibility in the completed design.
Laying the electric cable
Run the cable from the fixed power supply point up to the place where the
junction box is to be located. The cable must be protected from accidental
damage and as such needs to be armoured and/or run through protective conduit.
The cable should be buried or fixed where possible to a wall. If you do bury the
cable draw a sketch and keep it for future reference rather than rely upon your
memory as to where it was laid.
Connecting to the power source (UK 220 volts and fuses amps
used)
Power will probably be drawn from inside the house using a short length of
cable that will pass through the house wall to a convenient plug point. This
means you'll need to drill a 10mm (1/2 inch hole through the house wall to thread
the cable through it.
Make sure the source of power is protected by ensuring an RCD (residual
current device) is fitted. It's suggested that a circuit breaker is used, specially
designed just to plug into wall inside the house... it has the conventional 3
prong plug.
Depending upon which junction box you have bought you'll be able to connect a
number of different products to the junction box. such as the pump maybe
2 pumps, lighting for the garden and
the pond, and an ultra violet light clarifier (UVC) Ideally the
junction box should be screwed to a wall or post installed in the soil or ground
for this purpose.
Bradshaws recommend you use either Armadillo or Blagdon power safe outdoor
switch boxes and accessories.
Keep a couple of spare fuses of the right amps to hand.
Lengthening cable outdoors
Do not be tempted to do a makeshift job here ...lives are at stake. Use a
specially made waterproof or weatherproof connector for above ground connections
and if you need to connect completely submersed cables then use a properly
designed underwater cable connector like those made by Oase.
TIP ... always buy a switch box with at least 1 more connector than you think
you need ... the future is uncertain and undoubtedly one day you'll need another
connection and you'll say If only I'd added one more switch when I first
installed the pond electrics ....
|
