Advice RE Cabling / Setup for Wedding Marquee

[Lectrician]

Get yourself some split concentric.


I would run a 16mm split from house down to marquees. Get an MEM 2way 30mA CU with 40amp MCB at origin. Get a 4way plain CU for marquee end. Stick a few double sockets on 20amp breakers in the far end board in 2.5mm cable. Run extensions from these.


Get a spark to do this for you if I where you.

what would you mount the CU and double sockets on in the marquee ?

A wooden board. Possibly arranged as an "a frame" - Cu one side, sockets the other.

What are you going to cleat the cable to down the garden

Renting a generator for a day usually costs more in delivery than the hire!

Maybe search for a spark who does do events - he will no doubt have some, or access to, distros and cables. We have a decent stock of leads/cee forms, distros etc etc, and do many catering exhibitions.

 

[equitum]

What are you going to cleat the cable to down the garden

Come on its gone too far, the chap needs a temporary supply to his garden and you're on about chuffin consumer units, cleating cables, wooden boards..


If you can honestly say, if it were your back garden, would do anything other than run a couple of rcd protected extension leads from the kitchen ?

 

[Lectrician]

You 'come on'

I was joking with regards cleating cable - taking the **** out of you for asking where a fuseboard would be fixed!

 

[equitum]

You 'come on'

I was joking with regards cleating cable - taking the p**s out of you for asking where a fuseboard would be fixed!

Were you joking about the need for 16mm cable and a consumer unit in his marquee ? ..

"nice wedding, love the marquee...but tell me, whats that big wooden thing in the corner?"

"Oh that, thats the sub main. Apparently we needed it. We've also had to put another consumer unit thingy in the house"

 

[Lectrician]

If the jobs worth doing properly.......

Or would you prefer his "nice" wedding ended early due to disruptions due to fuses blowing and power outages?

I am serious when I suggest 16mm, mainly as this is the most commonly stocked size.

The wooden thing in the corner is likely to be behind the disco isnt it.

 

[Steve]

I am serious when I suggest 16mm, mainly as this is the most commonly stocked size.

I think thats overkill. 15mm would be fine.

 

[equitum]

If the jobs worth doing properly.......

Or would you prefer his "nice" wedding ended early due to disruptions due to fuses blowing and power outages?

I am serious when I suggest 16mm, mainly as this is the most commonly stocked size.

The wooden thing in the corner is likely to be behind the disco isnt it.

2.5mm arctic cable isn't going to cause any fuses to blow or power outages, is it?

 

[Lectrician]

It may if it is only backed by a 13amp fuse!

 

[Tim 77]

"nice wedding, love the marquee...but tell me, whats that big wooden thing in the corner?"


"Oh, that's Heather's leg, she takes it off to dance"

 

[equitum]

 

[Tim 77]

One of my favorite jokes was...

Q-What's got three legs and lives on a farm?













A-Paul and Heather McCartney.

It's ruined now

 

[FatGit]

What I'd do is try the extensions with RCDs in the house, unless your sockets are already protected.
If the DJ's kit starts tripping it out, for whatever reason, I'd ask him to de-rate it by taking off a few lights or a speaker. This should sort out any over-current problems. However, you'll be amazed at what works in real life, even if calculations show something as being slightly outside parameters.

Or you could hire a genny for the event.

All this stuff about submains and consumer units is just OTT for such an event. Who in real life is actually going to do it?

 

[Lectrician]

A disco scaled down - great - a record player.

A smoke machine is around 2kw to start with, and these are used widely (or a haze machine) to give the lighting effect. In a marquee, it will be used more regularly to keep a haze in the air.

These days, the lighting is not controled by chasers, the lamps are constantly lit, and the effects controled by moving gobos and coloured lenses to create the effects.

Chasers are still used for pin spots, par floods, light boxes....but the main effect lighting is usually as above.

The sound system it self takes no where near that of the lighting. A DJ will typically say - "my system is 3000watts" or similar.......He usually quotes the speakers max for a start, not the amp, quotes in PMPO not RMS, and the amps will never work that hard anyway.

13amp aint enough for a decent disco setup - it certainly wasnt for mine when I was younger.

 

[FatGit]

But are you really saying that you would go to all this business of installing submains, consumer units, RCBOs, Part P, LABC and the rest of it when the DJ has said that all he wants are 2 sockets?
I just don't believe that 99% of people would do anything more than run a couple of extensions up the garden to the marquee.
It just seems that from time-to-time on the forums people loose sight of the fact that money is an object and this chap has said as much.

 

[davy_owen_88]

We aren't talking a small little get together with some friends at the end of the garden, we are talking about a wedding, 2 marquees, a disco, lights and quite a number of people. I'd be interested in finding out how many of you, on supposedly the biggest day of your life, would be prepared to cut corners at the risk of ruining it just to save a few quid.

I also don't believe that DJ's know anything about electrics. Two sockets to them means 2 sockets. It doesn't mean that for every gig they get booked for that they perform VD calcs, EFLI calcs etc. They expect you, or someone qualified to make sure that those 2 sockets are going to be sufficient.

What if the fuse/RCD trips while he is setting up? Are you going to have a spare lead made up? Have you seen the prices on 4mm² artic cable and how much it will cost to run 2x lengths down the garden and have some spare should anything go wrong? Have you even considered how long it will take you to walk the 50m back to the house to replace a blown fuse when you've been drinking heavily and all while you guests have gone quiet, the music and lights are out and your new wife is staring at you like you are some cheap idiot...

Suddenly the idea of getting it done properly sounds pretty appealing to me, but obviously I'm in the 1% that wouldn't want my big day ruined to save what would be a drop in the ocean compared to the other costs involved in a wedding.