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All being well we’re moving soon, not got as far as exchanging contracts yet, but..
It’s a new build, and comes with a garage (awesome!) But they never put power or lighting into the garage. We offered on the place when it was 96% finished. Power to garage is an optional extra, and it’s gone past the point of them being able to (or wanting to) lay armoured cables and all the other work. The garage is over 10 meters away, at the end of the garden. They just won’t do it.
Just a bit annoying that’s all
I can get an electrician to do it at a later date. But in reality I only want lights in there, I very rarely ride indoors nowadays.
Anyone successfully installed some kind of simple solar solution for garage lighting? I’m imagining a PV panel somehow mounted to the tiled roof, cabled to a leisure battery and so on. I'm making my life difficult aren't I! 😂
If you haven't exchanged contracts you've got the upper hand if power in the garage is important to you.
It sounds minor but it's so annoying not being able to run power tools / charge batteries / decent lights etc.
It's not a huge job; they'll have trenching equipment on site. Don't go in there saying you "just want a bit of light" - make it clear that it's important to you.
Worth having a quiet chat with the site manager away from the sales office if you can. He or she will know what they're actually prepared to do. When I bought a new build the SM gave me the list of optional extras that the sales office would always throw in for free, and told me to use that as my starting point for more stuff.
I suspect flaperon is right, but FYI I’ve looked into this before and I think it’ll cost you about £3-400 to buy panel, battery charging inverter, battery, lights, panel mountings. All available in various kit forms on eBay.
For me that’s made the decision to put that off and just get mains put in.
Alternative is self contained rechargeable work lights from the likes of screwfix which I’m actually getting by on very happily for under 50 quid.
Oh, and a 25m cable reel for the tools 🙂
When I bought a new build many years ago, the optional extras were ridiculous expensive. Far more than getting a trade in to after you have completed.
Laying 10m of armoured cable shouldn't be a hard job, particularity if the garden hasn't been landscaped yet. Run the cable yourself and then get a electrician to make the connection to the house and put some sockets and lights in the garage. You say you only want light but I'm sure some power would be handy for all sorts of things.
If all you want is lights then stick a leisure battery in there for them and recharge it in the house or via an extension cable - which the tools can be run off also - 10m is nothing for an extension.
Live with it for a while and see if that's enough for you. If it isn't then look into getting power run to the garage, but be prepared for it to not be an 'invisible' connection.
Why the builders don't just run power to the garage at build time is beyond me.... but I guess they can charge well over the top for it so why should they.
I was looking at Persimmon/whatever-their-posh-version-is-called a couple of months ago. Couldn't believe how basic the standard house was and how nearly everything was an optional extra. Even an outside tap was a crazy price for just drilling a hole in the wall.
We bought a new Linden nearly 5yrs ago and there's power to the garage which is about 20m away on the other side of a tarmac parking area and an outside tap that is about 10m away from the main plumbing on the other side of the house. All included in the base house price.
I've asked them again, Will see what comes back. Might pop to site and see if I can find the site manager.
The house does comes with lots of stuff chucked in, kitchen/bathroom, flooring, downlighters (meh), outside tap etc. But weirdly not power to the detached garage.
The sales girl was acutualy pretty good, making it clear it's a lot cheaper to get trades in afterwards for anything not in. Appliances are crazy prices!!
The tricky bit isn't from house to garage, it's from consumer unit to outside. Check where the board is and see how easy it would be to take up floor etc?
The tricky bit isn’t from house to garage, it’s from consumer unit to outside
This is what I meant by the 'invisible' connection. I've got armoured cable running from a barn to the stables and it's a big, chunk thing that's not very flexible - so making a neat exit from a building is not an easy thing to do.
There's also the electrician cost to consider. When I converted a double garage and storeroom into by office the 'leccy ran an internal cable from the house CU to the office and fitted another CU there before all the sockets, lights, etc. It all adds up.
Heard back. They've finished first fix, so it's no go. I'd rather they crack on and finish the house anyway. Garage has nearly been completed today too. So I'll have to get an electrician around afterwards and see what he thinks. That or the leisure battery solution.
So now you’ve seen their attitude even before they’ve got your money, how much success do you think you’re going to have with problems *after* they’ve sold you the house?
And there will be problems.
@flaperon not sure, I can see their point. The house is finished bar kitchen fitting. Walls are finished an decorated.
I could make a big fuss, but tbh I'd rather they get the place completed on time.
Yes I did have a lot of reservations about buying from them, but trying to be positive about it, surely not every new house is a nightmare! But I'm sure there will be issues to resolve.
Old car battery, MPPT solar charge controller off EBay, bit of cable, 40w panel, LED 12v lights. If you need 240v an inverter too.
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F331854348013
These lights are very bright
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F264529353123
Cheers, sounds like a fun little project. Trickiest bit is probably mounting the panel!
I'd push the developer to do it. If you drill your garage roof to affix the panels, you can wave goodbye to any roof warranty you have.
If you drill your garage roof to affix the panels, you can wave goodbye to any roof warranty you have.
Ground mount it. You could easily make something from wood, or buy one, and you ccan then get the best direction/angle.
Just for lighting the little battery PIR things (look for Mr Beams on amazon) do the job fine. There's a bigger one that takes D cells and does a couple of years on a set of batteries in my shed.
Your local recycling centre should have a section for car batteries, people will renew them when they can’t crank the car well anymore but they might be still ok for low current applications. Could be worth popping down with a voltmeter, see if any read over about 11v, should be ok
Thanks for the alternative solutions, something to think about
The house does comes with lots of stuff chucked in, kitchen/bathroom,
Wow, that was good of them 😂😂
Our house was built with no electric in the detached garage. Got a local electrician to get that in straight away.
You'll need bright lighting for working on the bikes, especially if 'older'. The flo light was fine for years, but as we've had the house 25 years, I put in a new flo light, plus two LED floods for working on the bike stand.
We live on the coast and a lot of the privately owned beach huts seem to be getting simple photovoltaic panels installed to power a couple of lights, kettle, hob, TV etc.
Probably quite a cost effective way of getting power to your garage.
Consider future proofing your garage connection so you don't have too redo it all in five years when you want to charge your car.
As it's on your own property, I wouldn't bother with solar and batteries (definitely not second hand ones from the tip), that's a compromise for garages down the road where you cannot run mains power.