Advice RE Cabling / Setup for Wedding Marquee

[davidmbell]

Hi there, I am after some advice for an upcoming wedding bash in two large marquee's.

I need to run 2 extension cables from the house to the marquees. One length at 45 metres, one length at 55 metres.

The shorter length is powering JUST a disco (with lighting etc). The DJ has said they need a MAX of 3500watts/15amps and just two standard 13amp sockets.

The second, longer length is powering 6x60 watt light bulbs, 6x10 bulb christmas light sets, 2xlow voltage 'icycle' style gutter christmas lights and a second small PA system (not sure on the ampage of this yet but can't be as high as the disco itself).

I was thinking of buying a 100metre reel of 1.5mm (15 amp) artic blue cable. The shorter one, powering the DJ, will be plugged in to the main socket that supplies my oven.

The second lead, I think will just go from another socket in the house.

As nothing will be on in the house at the time of the party am I ok to use a standard 13amp socket to power the 2nd extension?

Its an old house and no doubt the wiring isn't the greatest. I know the cooker has its own fuse and a master socket/switch so that will be of a higher ampage (20?) but will a normal household socket be ok for the other extension lead.

Does this all sound feasible?

I was thinking of installing RCDs at the marquee end of the leads rather than at the house end. Is this ok?

Any advice appreciated? (Such as should I go for 2.5mm wiring or would this be overkill?)

thanks in anticipation!

David

 

[davy_owen_88]

At that distance, even 2.5mm² cable isn't really going to be suitable. The volt drop for 2.5mm² @ 45m @ 15A = 12.5V... The maximum is 9.6V.

The RCD protection should be provided at the house. The reasoning is that if the cable gets damaged you won't have a death on your hands.

I'd suggest you hire a generator for the day.

 

[davidmbell]

Oh dear - hadn't factored that into the equation. B#gger! I guess I'm very glad I asked on here before I tried this!

Would one length of even thicker cable not suffice then and run everything off that?

We had thought originally about a generator but ruled it out due to noise, smell, risk of cutting out, faff etc.

I would much prefer to put this whole thing in the hands of pros but our budget is tight.

Think credit card may have to be used. Safety is more important that me being skint.

Can anyone recommend a decent reliable company in Leeds or Bradford that does silent genny hire and will do a complete system for me (inc extensions etc)

Date of event is 25th August!!!!!!!!!

Ta

David

 

[viewer]

If you're hiring the marquees, then that company may be able to help with an reliable electrician or cabling. You're right about safety - you may be surprised how many DJs have managed to electrocute themselves.

 

[davidmbell]

Not hiring them, we've bought two as it was cheaper to buy and erect them ourselves.

David

 

[CallEdsFirst]

4.0mm arctic? Temporary armoured run? Generator has to be the last resort , we're not talking about a welding party in the marquee! It would cost more than getting a sparks in to wire up a temporary supply!

I am really impressed that you have asked on here though to be honest. I can just see most assuming that many extension leads would be fine!

 

[davidmbell]

So would a 4mm single run cope with it???

What sort of cost is 50 metres of that?

David

 

[Adam_151]

Just a few thoughts in no real order:

Are the two tents in the same direction as each other, if so it would make more sense to allow a bit more for the supply to the first (disco) tent, and have a 15m extension to the other lighter loaded one

Its very important to make sure things have RCD protection in the house, not only do you have sockets outside (which need RCD protection anyway), there is the possibilty that at the end of a long lead a fault to earth might not have a high enough fault current to blow a fuse.

For the 45m 16A run then, you could just scrape by VD wise by using 4mm², of course it would be naughty to allow a bit more a drop on account that its offically 230v but we start from 240v a lot of the time, so you wouldn't really want to try and use 2.5, becuase you dont want the lights going dim everytime a 250w lantern is switched on

As to where you connect this, the proper way would be to have a 16A ceeform socket rigged up next to your CU (thats those blue industrial looking ones), the other side of me says that if DJ says 3500w max, then thats probably the total of all his equipment, if not everything is running 1000% of the time, then it would probably be closer to 3kw and if you could squeeze 4mm into a plug top then you could use the socket on the cooker point (as long as its rcd protected, if then add a plug in RCD), 4mm wouldn't fit properly though and would be a bit of a bodge... so best you dont do it!

As to leeds, both rf lighting and dingbat are leeds based if you need an electrician

 

[bernardgreen]

Also consider some emergency lights that are battery operated and come on automatically if the power fails ( or are on all the time ).

A marquee full of people and glasses suddenly plunged into darkness is a high risk area for panic and injuries.

To hire a small generator may not be as expensive as you think. The modern "silent" ones are very quite and will not be heard over the noise of the disco. Use that for the disco and run a cable from the house for lights.

 

[davidmbell]

Always great to have conflicting opinions : )

I really don't want to have to go down the generator route. Its a bank holiday weekend and I go on honeymoon on the Monday so whatever happens someone has to be around to allow for collection etc.

Again the cable route Its not dead money, I can sell on the reels of cable afterwards.

Can you get RCDs that will cope with 16amp? with a standard plug?

You don't mention the 2nd extension lead? Would that run ok off the first one? - instead of two full runs, one long and one much shorter?

David

 

[CallEdsFirst]

Adam's official solution of a 16A "commando" with rcd protection straight off the consumer unit is the most sensible in my mind. The plug will take anything you want cable wise and will come in real handy if you ever get a caravan!

One run to the first tent with the DJ, then from there to the second tent were the load is fairly negligible sounds reasonable to me!

If you are tight on load, get the DJ to just not use the most consuming lights! Modern DJ equipment is more about low consumption electronic moving lights than 100's of normal resistive, high current drawing, lamps flashing on and off, so has becore more "energy efficient" anyway! Oooh new marketing angle "The Eco DJ, it's all LED!"

http://www.cpes.co.uk/2005/images/products/s1f_16a.jpg

 

[davidmbell]

So I get 50 metres of 4mm artic cable (on a reel)
http://www.polylitesitesupplies.co.uk/acatalog/CX_Supplies_Artic_Cable_1.html

Unless you can find anywhere cheaper for 50metres?

One of these Commando RCDs (from where???)

Then run other extension off this extension (what mm do I need for this? Will 1.5mm do?).

The 2nd PA system will not be in use at the same time as the DJ, as one is for wedding singer, who comes on prior to disco, then later for half an hour).

Thanks for all the advice folks.

David

 

[CallEdsFirst]

The real bad news? This is all notifiable so this is either gonna be an electrician, or ready for next august if you wait for LABC to authorise the work!

Ring a sparks, tell him what you want, and see what he says £ wise. Despite what it sounds like, this aint a massive job, assuming you can get from the consumer unit to outside easily enough.

That may be quite cheap actually, not that I could possibly comment, although ring a few wholesalers in the area to check. Edmundson and City Electrical factors are major nationals so bound to be nearby, (Disclaimer - other wholesalers are available, the value of your copper may go up as well as down)

 

[davidmbell]

Like I'm going to be able to get a sparky in less than 2 weeks.

Oh sh'''''''''

: (

David

 

[Cartboy52]

I presume it's only notifiable if you install the ceeform socket?

I run an extension lead through my garden from the house all the time (lawnmower etc) and don't inform the LABC.