DIY: the addition of plug sockets to a room

[doppelkorn]

I have a room with one double plug socket but as this will be housing all my DJ and audio gear, as well as being my desk for working from home, I need more.

As far as I can tell I have 2 options:

• Pay an electrician to come in and add one or two, which will involve "chasing the plaster" apparently and probably become costly.
• Use an extension cable plugged into the first socket with a breaker. Then channel the cable round to the desired location with plastic conduit.

I know nothing about this but the second option seems like it'd overload the socket. Can you overload a socket? Is that possible?

I should also add that the walls are solid block in that room (and indeed the whole flat).

[Guest Symatic]

2nd option seems easier and dj gear plus a computer setup would probably run off that socket - my departments old office was a rediculous mess of extenders and only blew up once.

 

so given thhat i know nothing about science or electricity, i would ignore what ive said and find a mate who is an electrician to try and figure out the power in your house.

 

#useful

[Steve]

For a single socket, the maximum recommended load is 13 Amps, so at 240 Volts that's 3,120 Watts. You also have to consider the extension bar that you're using and what load that can handle.

 

You can check the power draw of devices using a Kill-A-Watt (or similar), which plugs into the wall socket, then you plug your device (or extension bar) into that. It has a screen on it which displays the power draw in Watts.

 

Be wary of high power draw devices, such as electric kettles, hairdryers etc. as plugging one of those into an extension bar adds considerable load. Some kettles can be 2 kW for instance and that's two thirds of your max used up.

 

Apparently a Technics 1200 consumes 14 Watts, so if you're talking about a pair of decks, mixer, computer (unless it's a real fucking beast!), monitor, amp/powered speakers, maybe a lamp, then you should be well under the max load for a single socket. Do check though, just to be safe.

[Guest rasteri]

You aren't going to be getting anywhere near overloading a socket with any practical amount of home audio/PC equipment, like Steve says as long as the combined power is less than about 3000W and you use decent quality extension cables you'll be absolutely fine. No need for a circuit breaker (although it couldn't hurt).

 

I have two PCs, two screens, two turntables, two mixers, a bunch of misc audio effects, a couple of monitor speakers,a TV and a lamp coming off a single wall socket and that doesn't even come to 1000W. I could have 3x that amount of stuff and it'd still be fine.

 

One caveat - if you're planning to use one of those extension cables that comes in a reel, you have to completely unwind the reel before using it or it'll overheat. If it's too long, cut some of the cable off and attach a new plug. Also if you're using conduit, make sure the space inside is at least twice as big as the power cable, as it needs some breathing room to avoid overheating (although again unless you're using the full 3000W that's unlikely to be a problem).

[doppelkorn]

Thanks gents.

 

That's a pretty simple and clear solution.

 

It'd have decks, mixer, possibly some other kind of mixing board, laptop (rarely plugged in), monitor, probably a lamp, amplifier...

 

Should be fine.

[motosega]

you'll never overload a 13 amp socket with audio stuff, worst come to worst you'll blow a fuse.

 

british wiring and plugs are pretty much idiot proof. you basicly can't fuck up. even if you are an above average idiot. plug in too much stuff and the fuse blows. british plugs and wiring standards are fucking top notch, its the only place in the world that you'll find a ring main.

 

around the world i've seen so much dodgy wiring, whole towns that run off a 32amp red ceeform, theaters without earth, fuse boxes with bits of metal in them instead of fuses because the fuse keep blowing, there's even a company here in italy that sells a gadget that switches on your circuit breakers automaticly when the are overloaded.

 

just keep pluging stuff in till the fuse blows, even then the british 13 amp plug is good til about 16 amps, the conductors on a british plug are actualy bigger(larger surface area) than an industrial 16 amp ceeform, german schuko plugs are rated at 16 amps and so are italian "big domestic" plugs, even though they both have smaller conductors and no fuses.

 

 

the only british wiring habit that causes me concern is the widowmaker: http://www.blue-room.org.uk/wiki/Widowmaker

but unless you are plugging in stuff with 32a ceeform plugs into small theaters, you'll never see one. luckily.

[doppelkorn]

Cheers man. I'm swelling up with pride here!

 

[Jon]

Congratulations DV, you have collectively won a shiny #DIYMASTERS badge

 

[chile]

i have only one plug in my room and get around it with a one plug extra long extension cable (the ones for lawnmowering) that stretches all the way downstairs to an unused plug socket in the hallway. With me two plugs I then popped on 2 extension leads.. a 10 way and an 8 way. Check em out on amazon, they're cheap and I havent had any problems with them -

 

 

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B003CU7S28/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000OV0CEY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[doppelkorn]

Cheers chile, did you heed this advice?

 

 

One caveat - if you're planning to use one of those extension cables that comes in a reel, you have to completely unwind the reel before using it or it'll overheat. If it's too long, cut some of the cable off and attach a new plug. Also if you're using conduit, make sure the space inside is at least twice as big as the power cable, as it needs some breathing room to avoid overheating (although again unless you're using the full 3000W that's unlikely to be a problem).

 

As an aside we've decorated that room but I've not got round to studio-ifying it yet.

[Guest rasteri]

i have only one plug in my room and get around it with a one plug extra long extension cable (the ones for lawnmowering) that stretches all the way downstairs to an unused plug socket in the hallway. With me two plugs I then popped on 2 extension leads.. a 10 way and an 8 way.

 

What are you running in that room? Unless you have an electric heater or a rack of servers or something, you'll be fine just running everything off the single plug. Even if you overload it the worst you can do is blow a fuse.