The Sammy Miller Motor Museum at Bashley Cross Road, New Milton, is one of the finest motorcycle museums in Europe, with a tea room and visitor facilities on site. DES Renewables delivered the electrical infrastructure that enabled the museum’s solar installation, routing supply, DC and data cabling across a large, publicly accessible site.
Project overview
DES Renewables ran a steel-wire-armoured supply and data cable internally alongside the tea-room supply, terminating it into a spare way in the main distribution board. An existing 16 A three-phase circuit was doubled up in 2.5 mm flex to feed a Chint generation meter. DC and data cabling was laid in ducting within a trench across the site, with coils left in place for final pull-through once building penetrations and board positions were confirmed. The site works were carried out in December 2024 by a three-person team over a day.
Project details
- Company: Sammy Miller Motor Museum
- Location: Bashley Cross Road, New Milton, Hampshire BH25 5SZ
- System: Electrical infrastructure enabling the museum’s solar installation, including a Chint generation meter
- Installation type: SWA supply and data cabling with trenched DC and data routes
- Project timeline: Site works carried out in December 2024 by a three-person team over a day
The objectives
- Provide the electrical infrastructure needed to enable the museum’s solar installation
- Route supply, DC and data cabling across a large site without disrupting public access
- Terminate cleanly into the existing main distribution board and tea-room supply
- Provide generation metering ready for monitoring
The solution: bespoke assessment and design
A visitor attraction is not a blank site. The museum, its tea room and its visitor facilities are spread across a large plot, and the public are moving through it. The cable route therefore had to be planned around the existing buildings and around visitor access rather than simply taking the shortest line.
The design ran a steel-wire-armoured supply and data cable internally, alongside the existing tea-room supply, so that as much of the route as possible was carried within the buildings. That cable was terminated into a spare way in the main distribution board. To provide generation metering, an existing 16 A three-phase circuit was doubled up in 2.5 mm flex to feed a Chint generation meter.
Installation and completion
A trench was dug across the site and DC and data cabling laid within ducting along it. Rather than committing every termination on day one, coils of cable were left at key points for final pull-through once the building penetrations and final board positions had been set — a practical approach on a site where the exact routing depends on what is found as work progresses.
The works were completed in December 2024 by a three-person team over a day. Setup of the monitoring app was deferred at handover, as the building had no WiFi connectivity at the time.
The results
- The electrical infrastructure needed for the museum’s solar installation, delivered and terminated
- Groundworks and cable routing planned around public access and the existing buildings
- A Chint generation meter installed and fed from the existing three-phase supply
- Cable coils left for final pull-through, keeping the installation flexible for final connection
At a glance
- Electrical infrastructure enabling the museum’s solar installation
- One of the finest motorcycle museums in Europe, with a tea room and visitor facilities
- Steel-wire-armoured supply and data cable run internally alongside the tea-room supply
- Terminated into a spare way in the main distribution board
- Existing 16 A three-phase circuit doubled up in 2.5 mm flex to feed a Chint generation meter
- DC and data cabling laid in ducting within a trench across the site, with coils left for final pull-through
- Carried out in December 2024 by a three-person team over a day
Our accreditations
We are MCS certified, which guarantees that our installations have been designed, installed and commissioned to the highest standard using only MCS certified products.
We are also NAPIT certified, which confirms that we are certified to install and self-certify all of our electrical installations. We also comply with the Renewable Energy Consumer Code (RECC).
Runs a business, club or community facility? See what solar could save you
Visitor attractions, museums, cafes and community venues all carry a steady daytime electrical load, and that is exactly the load solar is best placed to offset. get your free bill check and we will look at your usage and tell you honestly what is worth doing.
You can also explore commercial solar to see the full range of work we deliver for businesses and visitor venues across Dorset and Hampshire.
Download the full Sammy Miller Motor Museum case study (PDF).
More recent commercial & community installations by DES
Browse all of our commercial solar case studies, or read about the 29.57 kWp community system at Carvers Clubhouse in Ringwood and the 15 kWp workshop system at Samson Motor Engineers in Wimborne.