IOU1 Posted October 11, 2006 Report Share Posted October 11, 2006 My christmas project is to design a outside fishroom in a shed. However my main concern is getting power out there, The shed would only be a couple of metres from the house so was wondering the best way to go about it. I know christmas is a while off yet but I thought I should prepare earlier incase I don't get around to it later. How much would getting power out there cost and what is the most efficient way to heat the rooms etc. I'm on a budget and wouldn't be able to have all the high tech things :roll: :roll: :roll: Thanks, Any ideas would be great, no plans until christmas holidays though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SNOWKIWI Posted October 11, 2006 Report Share Posted October 11, 2006 The best thing to do would be to talk to an Electrician, if you know any! otherwise ring someone local and get them to have a look at the proposed installation and make some suggestions as to the best way to go about it. You may need to run a sub-main from your existing switchboard, or an extra circuit or two from your existing switchboard to the "fish room". More than one circuit would be preferable, so that should a circuit breaker or fuse operate you will not lose power to all your tanks, also keeping any heating circuits on their own is a good idea for the same reason. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke* Posted October 11, 2006 Report Share Posted October 11, 2006 Heatpump would be the most economical way I would say, the problem you may have is keeping it cool over Summer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ocean4freedom Posted October 11, 2006 Report Share Posted October 11, 2006 I guess you could almost run a dencent heavy duty extension lead across and label the house plug with "DO NOT SWITCH OFF" Ya, heating the shed would be pretty easy (heat-pump sounds like a great idea) but the mid-summer sun... But if you make a really good shed with full insulation, then you get more heat retention in winter and less over-heating in summer. Of course the $$$ issue arises Oh, what fun we could all have with limitless fish budgets... 8) :bounce: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted October 11, 2006 Report Share Posted October 11, 2006 I would go with the extention lead idea if I was you you can get extention leads that are rated outside I cant remember the numbers but its called their IPX numbers or something like that I think IPX 5 is designed for outdoor use maybe googling it will bring you some luck ive lost all my notes on it.. Calling a sparky to get it done (unless you have a mate) would be rather expensive lol I would just do it myself but I know how to.. You can actually do your own wiring as per this site para 47 http://www.ess.govt.nz/rules/pdf/ESS_el ... lations%22 Bearing in mind you still have to get it tested by a sparky and you cant muck around in the switchboard. IMO If its not too much loading running a suitable extention lead or even 2 out there maybe even digging a hole for them and sticking them inside a pipe and burying them or something would be alot easier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IOU1 Posted October 12, 2006 Author Report Share Posted October 12, 2006 Thanks. My internet has just let me get on now :-? I might look at the outdoor extension leads and research the heat pumps. Great ideas If only money wasn't an issue...... :roll: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoandWilly Posted October 12, 2006 Report Share Posted October 12, 2006 this is what i have known people to do in the past when the need power to somewhere out side. They use and outdoor extension cord, put put it in the plastic tubing thats kinda flexible so can go round corners and stuff and then berried it bout 30cm in the ground, only thing you have to be carful of is making sure the pipe cant fill up with water from the rain or anything. Or you can just run the piping along the ground if you dont feel like digging a long trench. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted October 13, 2006 Report Share Posted October 13, 2006 My advice would be to get as much insulation onto the fish room as possible. There are cheap ways such as using polystyrene cover sheets or offcuts. Then get an electrician to wire it properly so you stay alive to enjoy your hobby. I used to heat 50 tanks with a one bar heater in a purpose built, heavily insulated fish house. The money you spend on insulation you will save many times over on power bills later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richms Posted October 13, 2006 Report Share Posted October 13, 2006 Heatpumps cool as well so that takes care of the summer issues. Don't be cheap and use extension cords!! Run 25mm conduit with sweep bends (the big ones) and pull a piece of 6mm twin and earth thru it, to reach from the breaker panel in the house to the shed. Ideally it should be 600mm deep, but noone seems to bother. You could use 4mm but it needs a lower breaker at the house (27 vs 32 if I recall correctly) Take it to a location in the shed you will have a breaker panel there, then from there take 2.5mm cable for powerpoints, you will want several circuits so do that, You can also take it to a switch by the door then the outlets so you can switch the lights manually if you choose to, or use plug in timers in the shed. Best talk to your sparky before doing this, but you can usually get the cables cheaper then they will sell them to you for if you go to an electrical wholesaler and have a business card and can get a good discount (dont settle for less then 60%) The expensive bit is RCD protecting it, you can be cheap and put everything on a single RCD, or buy RCD breakers for each circuit which will cost more but will mean all doesnt trip when one light gets a bit of water on it. You can get din enslosures and breakers from several people on trademe for cheaper then your sparky will sell them to you for, but the discounts on those are not as great at the wholesalers since there isnt the cartel of makers holding prices up like there is for cables in NZ. Once again, talk to a sparky before buying anything. Also pull another conduit (easist is a few 100 mm above the power one) and put some cat5e or cat6 in it for networking for temperature monitoring or a computer or whatever, and possibly some coax if you want to put a camera out there to observe the fish from the house. - this is totally optional but neat to show people. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graeme Jackson Posted October 22, 2006 Report Share Posted October 22, 2006 Hi Good advise from Rich, Forget the extension cords, they're a recipe for desaster. I'm a sparky, unfortunatly in Wanganui, but PM me if you need any advise or price comparisons. Good insulation is good wiring is the place to start, a cheap panel heater will do the job if the budgets a bit tight. Look at installing a heat pump when the budget recovers. The other question is, how bigs the fish room and how many tanks? This will affect the submain wire size due to loading. Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morpheous Posted October 31, 2006 Report Share Posted October 31, 2006 You don't want to run extension leads under the ground thats not only dodgy but very dangerous. Plus if the fish room burnt down or something your insurance company wouldn't pay out. What Rich has said is pretty much right and I am a sparky, You wanna run a 6mm twin + Earth TPS cable inside a 25mm conduit pipe from your switchboard in the house out to your splitter box in your shed. And it has to be in a trench at least 500mm deep. You want to half fill the trench and run some orange warning marker tape across length of trench then fill in. Then you want to run 2.5mm twin + earth TPS cable from your splitter out to your power points. you would want to have at least two circuits and you can have up to 6 or 7 points on each circuit. Then run a 1mm cable from your splitter to your light switch then up to your light fitting ( if you are going to have lights ) The rest you would really have to get a sparky to do but you would save money running the cables yourself. I would reccomend buying the cable from Mitre 10 Mega or Bunnings but I don't think you would be able to get 6mm cable from their though. hope this helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IOU1 Posted October 31, 2006 Author Report Share Posted October 31, 2006 Thanks it all helps I'll take a look at all responses in detail around christmas. Thanks for everyones help and hopefully this helps others also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucid Posted October 31, 2006 Report Share Posted October 31, 2006 Also in regards to heating the room, as long as you insulate it properly you can heat it during the day with fluro lights, both over the tank and also aloong the ceiling lighting the room. Then to maintain the room temp overnight, you can have normal screw or bayonet fittings with Red light bulbs in them running. As fish don't see the red spectrum, it will not bother them at all. As for summer temps, why not have a small extractor fan on a timer to run for an hour every two or three hours to pull the hot air out of the room. Ballistic Senior Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loopy Posted November 1, 2006 Report Share Posted November 1, 2006 Ballistic just mentioned about the extarctor fan. Great idea but run it on a thermostat. You can get ones that plug in to the mains and the fan plugs into that. Then you can set it so the critical temp. I would recommend a decent one. The last cost me about $15 from a wholesaler. Mr Loopy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted November 1, 2006 Report Share Posted November 1, 2006 I used a one bar heater with the fan rewired so it went all the time but the heater went on and off with the thermostat. this decreases the thermal layering, which was what I wanted. Others may prefer to have a temperature variation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IOU1 Posted January 9, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 9, 2007 Still considering this fishroom :oops: Is there a form of solar heating panels that are quite cheap that could heat a small area through solar power?? The rooms going to be about 2.4m x 1.8m and i'm still wondering the cheapest way on power, if something does exist I wonder about night heating though... :-? I know this is an old thread but do soalr heating panels exist and if so is this a dumb impractical idea?? :oops: :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richms Posted January 9, 2007 Report Share Posted January 9, 2007 Hydraulic underfloor heating can be run off a storage tank which is heated by solar. You are looking at several grand for the solar hot water system, plus the costs of an underfloor heating system so it wont be cheap. On the plus, you have the electric element in the storage heater for a backup if there isnt enough sun for a few days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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