Power to loft. Spur of 60A shower feed?
 

All,

I need to get some power in to the loft. Well, perhaps I dont NEED to, but
I want to.

I'd like to run my wireless ethernet access point from up there, and move
my network switch out of the way as well, and eventually move the CAT5 from
hanging over the top of door frames to proper sockets in the wall all going back
to a point in the loft.

I could also do with some lights up there.

The previous owner had an electric shower put in, and there is a small CU
with a 50A trip running up the inside of the house, in to the loft, over the
ceiling and back down in to the bathroom.

The shower is 9.5kW, which by my reckoning uses 40A. The 10mm T&E is, I think,
rated at 57A, so with a 50A trip in the CU, this leaves me 10A to play with?

Could I take a fused (10A) spur off the shower feed in the loft and stick
a couple of 13A sockets on the end, and perhaps a 3A fused spur off this to
run a couple of light bulbs. I've got some old Ikea table lamps that are
basically a bulb holder on the end of a wire with a 40W Max bulb in. I was
planning to re-use a couple of these as that will give plenty of light for my
needs.

The load on this lot would be fairly low, a couple of DC transformers for the
networking gear (about 1A max), the bulbs (say another 1A to be on the safe
side) and thats about it, so I could even replace the 10A spur with a 5A?
(just thinking aloud).

Is it do-able? If so, where can I get a 50A (min) rated connector? I can
only find 30A ones.

Thanks a lot,

Will

Power to loft. Spur of 60A shower feed?
 

"Will Cooke" wrote in message
om...
| All,
|
| I need to get some power in to the loft. Well, perhaps I dont NEED to, but
| I want to.
|
| I'd like to run my wireless ethernet access point from up there, and move
| my network switch out of the way as well, and eventually move the CAT5 from
| hanging over the top of door frames to proper sockets in the wall all going back
| to a point in the loft.
|
| I could also do with some lights up there.
|
| The previous owner had an electric shower put in, and there is a small CU
| with a 50A trip running up the inside of the house, in to the loft, over the
| ceiling and back down in to the bathroom.
|
snip

If you want lights in the loft, can't you take a feed from a lighting circuit?
Presumably there are ceiling roses accessible from the loft...

As for power to run network kit, you _could_ take a feed from a lighting circuit for that too.
You'd need suitable protection, labelling and I would recommend a filter. It's not the best way
to do the job, but it would work for the low power devices you're talking about.

You could get "power over ethernet" device so you could take power from a
feed near a LAN point and use the CAT5 to get the power to the switch....or you could
run a long LV cable (bell wire) up in the wall to the switch and simply extend the wires
from the plug-in transformer....

As an aside, watch the temperature limits on switches and wireless access points etc.
Lofts can get very hot (especially this weather) and very cold. You may find reliability
impared.