Home Office - Mains Sockets

[disturbed]

I am in the process of renovating a lot of my house. The first floor sockets are on a radial circuit, and I am about to replace this with a ring. I used to have an office in a bedroom with four four gangs on a double socket, on a radial spur!

in my new office with a ring, I want lots of sockets. I am quite prepared to just put 8 double sockets next to each other in a plasterboard wall, and all on the ring. I just have some questions:

1 - Is it safe to have 16 double socket on one ring? 9 in my office, and 7 in the other two bedrooms
2 - How close together can the sockets be? Is there an electrical regulation? Will the plasterboard just disintegrate?
3 - Is there a better way of doing this?

tia

 

[JohnD]

1) yes you can have as many as you want (I am assuming you live in a normal house)

2) As close as you like (you are not going to be plugging a 3kW load in every socket, and even if you did, the MCB would trip). But if you have several big loads, fit single sockets as a precaution against overloading a double. However most ofice equipment is low load (except the kettle, toaster and microwave).

3) There is a better way, you can get trunking with outlets in it. this is like a bar (usually white plastic) about six inches high by two inches deep, can go all round the room if you like, you can have as many sockets, FCUs, telephone or comms outlets as you want in it. Make sure you get one with three isolated compartments so that the phone nad the power cables are not mixed up.

It is not cheap, but labour is much lower than hacking holes in the walls. I would guess it might end up costing you £50 to £100 per linear metre.

You will often see it in shops and offices. It is usually fitted just above desk height so that you do not have to grovel about on the floor to plug things in (this is often called "dado trunking" you can also get skirting trunking and bench trunking, you can guess where these are fitted.

 

[plugwash]

if your using dryline boxes on a plasterboard wall you probablly wan't at least a couple of inches of horizontal spacing to allow both boxes to grip and not foul each other.

 

[Lectrician]

I would fit Marshall Tufflex Maxi Trunking with click-in boxes. You could also put your data/telephone points in it.

Putting loads of sockets in a wall is OTT in my opinion - The next owner/occupier can easily remove the trunk.

 

[disturbed]

Good points. Thanks.

I agree putting 8 sockets in a wall is not good planning. I'll probably want to move the furniture around, and put the desk on a different wall in a few months!

Filling in a few screw holes left by trunking would be a lot easier than trying to repair a plasterboard wall - which I have just paid to have built!

Wickes sell some modular system of mains sockets, but it plugs in to an existing socket. Is this any better than just having trailing 4 gang extensions screwed to the wall?

 

[Lectrician]

Anything that plugs directly into a socket isn't ideal. IT kit is unlikely to overload a 13amp outlet, but sockets on a ring or radial would be better.

Go to a wholesaler and ask for MT Maxi trunking and some TSS03 TSS04 boxes (single and double respectively). You would also want some end caps if the trunk didn't hit walls, some dividing fillet if you want to include data/comms. You can also get pre-fab bends, or just bend covers. They also do pre-cut lid to use between boxes - 25mm wide. (or you can cut your own).

If the wholesaler doesn't do MT, they will do another brand such as MITA - but MT is best.

It is also available at extra cost in posher designs and colours.

 

[RF Lighting]

It looks like this:

 

[Adam_151]

Off-topic...

I can only remember seeing it once, but IIRC there is a variant of that trunking that contains bus bars, and you just snap sockets into it where required, as easy as pie, anyone else heard of it?

 

[plugwash]

mk seem to do it under the name powerlink plus

 

[RF Lighting]

MK do indeed still make it, and the busbars are rated to 63A

I haven't seen it installed anywhere for years though

 

[SparkyMarky]

We used to specify this in all our offices, but don't bother with it any more (although we've got a fair bit of it still in use). It's was just too expensive, and unless you're always moving sockets about it doesn't give much benefit. All the sockets were non standard, and IIRC even the telephone and data outlets have to be special ones to fit. It was also a constant nightmare cutting the covers and joins to the perfect sizes to ensure that none of the busbar was left exposed. In the end we dropped it in favour of standard dado trunking. Far cheaper, easier to install and capable of taking standard wiring accessories.

 

[Lectrician]

Thats all way OTT for a small office - maxi-trunking all the way......far cheaper.

 

[Lectrician]

4 x 2 trunking that the sockets click into, and dividing fillet clicks into:

pre-cut lid sections(saves time):

Clip on corner covers:

Double box:

Fillet:

 

[Job_n_knock]

I agree that MK Powerlink and its competitive counterparts are expensive but the whole idea is that not only can you run power cables through it to various points but also due to its compartments you can also run telephone and data cables to wherever you want those. All in all you should save money BUT....only if your installation is large enough to absorb the cost.

 

[disturbed]

Thanks for all the advice and info. I've just been and ordered a 3m length of 100x40 trunking, 10 double socket boxes, 4 ends and 2 trunking T's so I can have two strips of 5 double sockets, one above the other, under my desk. All for £56.

The first place I went to offered me the 3 compartment stuff at £83 + VAT per 3m length! And the single compartment was £45 + VAT per 3m length. The stuff I bought was £15 per 3m.

I dare say the expensive stuff is higher quality and a lot stronger, so much better for a commercial installation where people take less care in their use of it, but for my bedroom/study I think the cheap stuff will suffice.