Home Office wiring

[crh]

I run a small computer business from home and currently have 15 electrical items plugged into the one original double socket via various trailing multi sockets. I also sometimes have customers computers connected. The items connected are IT related such as computers, monitors, speakers, portable disk drives, digital cameras, printers, fax machine, pda, etc.
I am moving my office into another room and want to make the electrics safe and neat. I dont really want to install loads of sockets on the wall as I may want to move in the near future.
I was thinking about making up a board with all the sockets fixed to it and then fixing that to the wall as this would be neater than having a row of sockets lined up on one side of the room and would also allow me to remove the board when I move.
Are there any problems with doing things in this way?

Thanks

Colin

 

[AdamW]

Well, how do you intend to connect this board of 15 sockets into the mains? I really doubt it would be a good idea to connect it all up via one 13A plug! OK, so IT equipment as you describe generally draws not much current but you may find that when you have a few PCs plugged in with monitors and associated equipment that you will blow the fuse on it and then where will you be? With a customer coming to collect their PC and you are trying to find somewhere to plug it in!

It would be safer and less hassle in the long run to put in a few extra sockets and use a minimum of 4-way trailing adaptors.

That way you could have 3 or 4 double sockets within a meter or two of your workbench, and use a 4-way adaptor or two for the low power stuff (ethernet hub, usb hub, printer, anything with a DC adaptor basically).

 

[AdamW]

Just another thought about your current setup: I assume that you have an eight-way adaptor plugged into each socket of your double socket:

A double socket can only safely supply 13A in total, hence with your current arrangement you need to make sure that you have a 5A in each plug, or at a stretch a 3A or 5A in one and 13A in the other.

 

[crh]

I have 3 double sockets connected to the back of the original sockets. These are over my workbench and are used mainly for working on customer computers. The other one is connected to a six way, which is in turn connected to a four way. I am fairly sure that most of the equipment has either a 3 or 5 amp fuse in it.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Don't f@rt about - put something like this at the back of your workbench:

or this on the wall:

(although not that actual product - those busbar trunking systems are a tad pricey..).

 

[andemz]

I agree with ban-all-sheds the wall trunking is a great idea. In my offices we have these fitted all over the show and when the sparky's have a new request they can quickly adapt the setup.

They have run this trunking around the whole of the wall, it's fantastic the network cables are there the ring main cables are there and i guess you can pretty much set it up as you would require.

One question though. If CRH was to put this trunking up, is it quite easy to then move it when you felt that you needed to move office say. Or is it not worth it and you leave it where it is.

 

[plugwash]

well you can unscrew it and reuse it like any other trunking
but
1: there is the question of whether the time for a sparly to remove it is worthwile
2: in your new install you will almost certainly end up with mroe joints than if you had fitted new

 

[ban-all-sheds]

well you can unscrew it and reuse it like any other trunking
but
1: there is the question of whether the time for a sparly to remove it is worthwile

But if you're not paying a sparky to do it...

2: in your new install you will almost certainly end up with mroe joints than if you had fitted new

True, but crh might only need 1 length, no corners, which makes it more reuseable, but even if the trunking can't be reused, all the outlets can...

 

[crh]

Thanks for the advice. I like the idea of the trunking.
Afew more questions:
1 Do I have to run network and telephone cables separately?
2 When do I get the trunking?

 

[AdamW]

You can run network and telephone cables together, in the same conduit.

In fact, you can even use Category 5 (network cable) for phones. You may need to use special faceplates though (alternatively you can use a standard RJ-45 outlet, aka ethernet socket, and then use an RJ-45 to phone adaptor lead.)

I would imagine you can get the trunking and accessories from www.TLC-direct.co.uk

 

[plugwash]

ive terminated cat5 solid to a phone socket with screw terminals
and i think you would get it into the idc ones as well without any trouble

 

[AdamW]

ive terminated cat5 solid to a phone socket with screw terminals
and i think you would get it into the idc ones as well without any trouble

Even better

I wasn't sure if there was some difference, but I suppose the gauge of the cores is the same. Only real difference is Cat-5 is twisted pairs.

 

[P.S.]

standard telephone cable is twisted pair too.

Category 5 cable differs from "telephone" cable. The combination of twists, which minimizes interference between pairs is different.There are also differences in the dielectric coefficients and other physical characteristics of the materials used for insulating the individual wires and for sheathing the cable.

 

[AdamW]

Because telephone extension leads are usually flat I had always assumed telephone cables were straight pairs rather than twisted.

I love twisted pair cables, demonstrating the noise-cancelling properties of twisted pairs with a digital oscilloscope is kinda cool (on some level that I am disgusted I appreciate enough to call it "cool" )

I suppose the improved insulation in a Cat5 (or any other common 4 pair UTP cable) is part of the specifications. Not much point in having phone cables suitable to carry GHz between the master socket and the bedroom extension just yet.

I wasn't aware that they put twists in to minimise interference between pairs as well, I would have assumed that the twisted pair configuration would pretty much cancel out any inductive effects between two different pairs. I learned something today!