Attic Plug Socket

[Guest ProjectX]

I've just installed my projector in bedroom, ran all my cables (10m) up the pole and across the attic and back down in my room to my desired location for input. As I have installed projectors for a living I know that normal practise is to have the sparkies install a single socket in the attic/ceiling void so the manafacturers 2m power cable can be used... In the rush to get my projector going I made a 10m lead of 3 core and stuck an IEC on one end and plug the other which runs the same way with the input/video cables. Im now thinking this is a **** idea, the projector is rated 3A. I have started noticing slight occasional interference (wavy lines) through certain inputs. I believe this to be related to my power cable. So I start looking around the house for a suitable socket to spur off with a relatively short and easy run up to the attic. Having found a socket in back bedroom I took up a floorboard to discover a 30A junction box already in the ring next to my intended socket with a spur. Following the wire I find its connected to a fused switch which then connects to boiler (immersion) I aint no plumber but I do know this is only switched on once in a blue moon because there's usually plenty of hot water. Getting to the point, should I steer clear of the switch? Can I still spur off the double socket itself, with the junction box being so close in the ring? There is another double socket at the other side of the room, to spur off this would mean ripping virtually all the floorboards up and would make my twin & earth cable run to the attic roughly 15-20m, as appose to 10m off the other. Is this length of great importance? Could I put another 30A junction box in the ring for spur in between the two sockets? (i.e socket--junction box(spur)--socket--junction box(spur to immersion) There are roughly 10 double sockets in the ring over 5 bedrooms and landing, so I believe it to be relatively big in distance.

Any help is much appreciated.

[morph]

Best help you can get is to get an electrician in.

Does your buildings and contents insurance cover you DIY electrics

[Guest ProjectX]

Granted I could get an electrician in, but it still doesn't satisfy my curiousity of how it should be done. The last time an electrician came he made a right balls up in supplying power to an outside light. It works but I think he was very lax of correct regulations (i.e cable not run & tacked properly, junction box not secured properly, even the lid isn't on) So if one does come, I would like to know what Im on about so the wool isn't pulled over my eyes. All I want to know is what a good qualified electrician would do in my situation.

[kka]

the best thing to do is get three different people in, listen carefully to what they have to say, then decide. at the end of the day you should be issued with a minor works certificate saying that the work has been done under the current regs.use only approved companies.

[morph]

Granted I could get an electrician in, but it still doesn't satisfy my curiousity of how it should be done. The last time an electrician came he made a right balls up in supplying power to an outside light. It works but I think he was very lax of correct regulations (i.e cable not run & tacked properly, junction box not secured properly, even the lid isn't on) So if one does come, I would like to know what Im on about so the wool isn't pulled over my eyes. All I want to know is what a good qualified electrician would do in my situation.

Make sure they are part P accredited either by www.niceic.org.uk or www.eca.co.uk or Napits. In order to comply with the new regulations any electrician needs to be registered with one of the above bodies.

I can appreciate that you are concerned about past expieriences, but the law was changed and it would be wrong for these forums to tell you what should be done. You might just go and do it yourself possibly injuring yourself and your property, if you get it really wrong you could kill someone.

[Guest]

Spurring of an immersion is a bad idea and the socket that's there is incorrect for starters, that's if it is an immersion. You mentioned "boiler (immersion)". They are 2 completely different things and if it was actually a boiler then as long as everything else was in order you could maybe under certain curcumstances run from that circuit.

Best bet, as you can easily kill yourself or someone else, would be to get someone in for what it would cost for 1 extra socket.

[Billy@Solutions4CCTV.com]

The general rule of thumb is that you must only spur off once off any one socket.

I dont suggest that you go around 'spurring off' everything, better to have the ring extended, correctly I must add and NOT into a 'figure 8' type arrangement!

As previously stated, I certainly wouldnt start spurring off an immersion switch, better to take a new supply back to your distribution board if you could???

One final note.... is your supply, close to your projector, surge protected? They aint cheap if they blow themselves off your ceiling!!!

Hope that Helps

Billy

[Guest projectfocus]

OK so let me get this right. The only thing you are having as a issue with the install as it is currently is that you get interfearance across the input signal.

Yes it will need to be surge protected and RCD on the spur maybe a good idea. But ralistically you sould not run audio visual in the same run as the power. This will cause interfearance everytime. All audio cable should be run atleast 1 meter away from power. You could try and install noise suppressors but runing the cable away from the power will make the biggest differance. This is normally because the audio or video cables are not proper grade screened cable.

Anyway that is only my take on things. If in doubt of anything have a word with a electrician.

[techmandan]

dont forget as well as sorting your mains supply out properly,

make sure the audio and video cables are a good high quality type of cable,

what video feed are you supplying your projector with?? vga or composite?

[arfur mo]

hi all,

i'm not a sparks, but as it draws only 3 amps and he wants to see if the mains he hooked into is causing a problem, i suggest an extension lead as a temp supply to see if the noise problem dis-appears.

to test properly, you need to disconnect your original feed from source, but honesly please get a sparks in. we aint innto funerals on here (apart from mine that is a alarmgard )

regs

alan