I mentioned before that I have an electrician doing all the connections, but to keep costs down I am doing the labouring and my main job is to lay a cable between the shed and the house.

When running electrical cables outside you need to use steel wire armoured (SWA) cable for safety reasons – sometimes referred to as armoured cable. There is a plastic coated sheath of twisted steel wires covering the copper conducting wires that is strong enough to stop someone accidentally putting a spade through it.

The UK wiring regulations say it is okay to lay SWA on the surface along the boundaries or to bury it. There is no specific guidance on how deep to bury the cable in domestic situations, other than to say it should be deep enough to avoid damage.

In my case I ran it along the boundary for most of the way, and then underground for the final stretch to the shed. I buried it 400mm (slightly deeper than a spades depth) and will put some yellow warning tape at about 200mm.

I Ran the cable up inside the shed, so no there is no need for a connection box outside. In a freak occurrence of good fortune I reached under the shed with the cable, unable to see the hole I had drilled, and poked it right though first go!

Note that you can’t just lay any old cable – you need to know what size it should be, and more on that in the next instalment.