Providing power to a media cupboard

[dmd1357]

Hi everyone, hope you can help.
I am trying to bring all my equipment together in a cupbord in the 1st floor lounge. My question relates to providing the power for everything. The wiring is all over the place in the house and I dont want to risk running so much stuff off one of the existing sockets. A couple of years ago we did get a new rcb fuse board installed and I have a spare fuse/slot. In preperation for a sparky to connect everything, I want to run the cables to the fuse board (not connect !!) downstairs. This will save the sparky time and me money. So, my question is, do I just need 1 wire from the fuse board to then supply 6 double sockets, daisy chained if you get my meaning, or do I need to create some kind of ring, returning the wire back to the board ? The wiring route is possible, but complicated, and any help and advice would be appreciated. I have searched everywhere, but to no avail so far. Thanks in advance for your help. Oh and sorry if this is in the wrong section, mods please feel free to move if appropriate.

 

[Andy98765]

With 6 double sockets I would suggest the sparky would rather set up a ring main. That would mean running two cables from the fuse board.

 

[Sanders79]

Definitely sounds like a ring is needed, rather than a series of spurs running off eachother. If you intend to run the cable exclusively for these new sockets from the board, then I don't see why it would be any harder to run two together, and you are looking at pennies more in terms of expense.

 

[dmd1357]

Sanders and Andy, thanks so much for the quick response. 2 wires it is then as a stand alone ring. I wanted to understand this before getting the sprky in so in essence all he has to do is connect the wires at the board and test everything. My thanks again.

 

[thecloneman]

you could run a 4.0mm radial circuit

 

[Sanders79]

It might be worth getting the electrician in first, so he can advise you on where to run the wires etc. There are lots of regulations to consider, so worth picking his brain if you are unsure. Would be better to do it this way that have him arrive and tell you it's all wrong!

 

[davehk]

With 6 double sockets I would suggest the sparky would rather set up a ring main. That would mean running two cables from the fuse board.

No point using a ring final (main) if the sockets are all close together - ring finals are designed for a distributed load over an area of floor.

Far better to just put in a radial - 16A should be enough, which means that unless the cable is surrounded by thermal insulation, 2.5mm^2 cable will suffice.

However, if you want a sparky to connect, teast and certify building regs compliance you need to discuss this with him BEFORE you do any work and get his agreement to you running the cables - and he will need to agree how and where they are gogin to be run, as he wil be signing that he has supervised the entire design and installation as well as doing the testing.

 

[dmd1357]

thanks guys for your thoughts, and there was me thinking it might be fairy straight forward. Good idea about talking to the sparky before doing anything, after all he is the expert, not me. !! and then no issues about signing it off. Will ring him today. The media cupboard is up and working, after a fashion, but with bits of kit being moved into it, I wanted a more stable electrical set up, rather than the load of extension leads off the current ring i have now. I have to completely dismantle the thing anyway to do the electrics, and I'd rather do that just once having spoken to the sparky, than risk having to do it again if he doesnt like it.
Its by no means a fantastic setup, but given where we started a couple of years ago, I'm hoping it will make an enormous difference to us. Think I might even start a little thread of my own to show you what I have in mind. I am now off until jan (long story) so have lots of time to finally get it sorted. watch this space, and thanks again guys for taking the trouble to respond.

 

[dmd1357]

Right, it took me a while, but sparky coming round next thurs to sort power out. Whilst talking to him touched on lighting in the room which Mrs has never been happy with. 1 wall light, 1 centre light, and various lamps. The idea occurred to me to put a false ceiling panel up in the room like several I have seen on here, and put some spot lights in it. The issue I have is that the lounge is not a perfect rectangle, imagine one with a 3ft square box in one corner. Where would it be best to place the ceiling panel and how big should it be ? The sparky says I can get max 10x 240v spots off my current wiring, but anything else will be major wiring work and we dont want the mess etc. As always, Thanks in advance for taking the time to respond, I wouldnt be where I am today without your guys help and more importantly, inspiration.

 

[dmd1357]

Sorry guys, forgot to help with dimensions. Cannot get my rough drawing up yet, but the lounge is 4.6m long and 3.1m wide. The sofa is at one end looking at the other end wall with, from right to left, door, tele and the floor to ceiling corner thingy. Thanks again.