Can I use this round pin socket as a power socket?

[OldKettle]

Hi,
I am trying to get my broadband router set up in a new house, and the only power socket anywhere near the phone socket is a round pin socket, which I understand to be a 5 amp lamp socket.

Is it possible to get an adaptor so that I can safely use the socket as a standard 3 pin socket? (not sure if it is important but the input on the router's power supply is 300ma).

Is there any risk to the electronics if I do so?

Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

 

[ericmark]

You could make an adaptor and it would work, the worry is if something goes wrong with router it could cause lights to fail, so not recommended.

 

[JohnD]

if you have a 5A lighting circuit, it is usually considered unwise to fit a 13A socket to it, because of the risk that someday an appliance will be plugged in that exceeds the current available.

Very rarely it is done, for example for an aerial amplifier in a loft, when there is no aesthetic objection to the large "5A max load - for aerial amplifier only" sign glued to the protective cover.

 

[Mottie]

Why not fit a round pin plug top to a short extension lead with a normal square socket? Won’t look too nice but if it’s like mine, you can lose it under the hall table where the router sits.

 

[flameport]

5 amp lamp socket.

Those are usually wired to a wall switch, so not exactly convenient for a device like a router which needs to be on all the time.
Electrically there is nothing wrong with connecting the router to it.

 

[OldKettle]

Those are usually wired to a wall switch, so not exactly convenient for a device like a router which needs to be on all the time.
Electrically there is nothing wrong with connecting the router to it.

Thanks for this, and to everybody who commented above. Greatly appreciated.

I think that it may be wired to a wall switch, because there is a bank a 4 switches in the front room, one of which doesn't see to do anything.

That said, there is also a switch on the socket itself, and it seems to be the only such socket in the house, so I have a little hope that it might not be switched through the wall.

If it is switched through the wall, then I expect that there will be regular internet outages and it will just have to be a temporary measure.

 

[rsgaz]

then I expect that there will be regular internet outages

That's easily sorted out by altering the wiring behind the light switch to make it always on, so that particular switch does nothing.

 

[winston1]

Even easier to put a bit of tape on the switch.

 

[JohnW2]

You could make an adaptor and it would work, the worry is if something goes wrong with router it could cause lights to fail ....

Given the usual respective life-expectancies of routers (assuming we are talking of the one pronounced 'rooter', rather than the power tool!) and 'lights', would it not probably be more appropriate to "worry" (if one wants to worry about something) about the fact that if something goes wrong with any of the lights that could cause the router to fail?

Kind Regards, John

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Hi,
I am trying to get my broadband router set up in a new house, and the only power socket anywhere near the phone socket is a round pin socket, which I understand to be a 5 amp lamp socket.

Run an extension cable to a phone socket somewhere else.

 

[sparkwright]

Given the usual respective life-expectancies of routers (assuming we are talking of the one pronounced 'rooter', rather than the power tool!) and 'lights', would it not probably be more appropriate to "worry" (if one wants to worry about something) about the fact that if something goes wrong with any of the lights that could cause the router to fail?

Kind Regards, John

This is a good comment.

When bulbs (lamps) fail, they can blow the circuit fuse/trip the circuit breaker/RCBO/RCD.

 

[sparkwright]

Any sockets in a room the other side of the wall where you want to put your router?

 

[JohnW2]

This is a good comment. When bulbs (lamps) fail, they can blow the circuit fuse/trip the circuit breaker/RCBO/RCD.

Indeed so, at least with incandescent bulbs/lamps tripping MCBs or (the over-current part of) RCBOs. I cannot say that I have personally experienced the death of any sort of bulb/lamp tripping an RCD - and, in most cases, it would be difficult to think of a mechanism whereby that could happen. Nor have I (at least as yet!) experienced the death of a CFL or LED tripping anything.

Conversely (and this was my main point), in many decades of living with electronic items of one sort or another (routers or otherwise), a good few of which have ultimately 'died in service', I cannot recall any occasion on which anything had 'tripped' as a result of fault/failure in such equipment.

Kind Regards, John