On Tuesday, February 11, 2014 8:32:39 PM UTC, Johny B Good wrote:


If you're fitting a 13A socket in the loft or attic, it's usually for
the purposes of providing power to something like a masthead amp or TV
aerial distribution amp both of which would be more than amply served
by a half amp fuse[1] which minimises the risk of a house fire should
a fault develop on the (now fused) 13A socket spur.

2A and below suffer much more frequent failure, I expect one of the reasons for the choice of 3A fuses in the 40s.

Of course, there still remains the risk of a fire from a fault in the
amplifier kit itself but, provided it has been designed to the
mandatory safety requirements for such 'domestic appliances' this
aught to eliminate such risk.

no

The only problem is that, unlike a radio
or hairdrier, it is operating 'out of sight' of any human supervision.
I'd be inclined to mount such devices on a metal shelf with heat
resistant deflectors (steel sheeting) to stop any flamage from
reaching any flamable construction materials and, for good measure,
install a loud smoke detector above, but to one side of said kit,
ideally with a repeater just outside of the loft hatchway or attic
doorway.

Biscuit tins are relatively easy to apply. Snip & bend back the 3 tabs for each hole. They restrict airflow, so a signifcant fire size cant happen. Things can get hot, but fire heat wont add to it significantly.


[1] If you needed to provide power for powertools, you'd just plug in
a suitable mains lead extension into one of your regular 13A sockets
unless you were planning on turning your attic into a workshop (in
which case we wouldn't be discussing the use of a lighting circuit
feed for a 13A socket now, would we?).

I've seen whole flats here running on a 5A feed. A pain, but workable. In eastern europe its standard practice to have an 8A feed to flats.


NT