re: plastered walls
I can see the point of putting low-voltage computer cables in conduit
because of the pace of technological change
but is it prudent to put electric cable (lights, power sockets) in conduit?
seems none of the existing electric cables are, except lighting cables in the sitting room, encased in aged metal conduit
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Not usually in most modern domestic properties, which are designed to have a 60 year lifespan. The life of modern PVC wiring is that or greater, so in theory houses shouldn't need to be rewired.
Even if you had a buried conduit installation you'd have to dig out plaster if you wanted to add new points.
Different if you have a historic property which you hope will last for another few hundred years. IIRC the Houses of Parliament are wired in copper conduit.
Owain
There is no hard requirement to do so - you can plaster PVC cables directly into a wall if you want.
People often use capping if wiring before plastering - its not as good as conduit since its not so easy to pull in new wires, but it does protect the cables from the sharp edges of the plasterers trowel!
And you want it to last for another few hundred years?
Yes - but here's a trick people often miss. When the conduit's plastered over, put the cables /outside/ the conduit. This has a couple of advantages:
In the 1930s, some people wired using wooden conduit. The thinking was that wiring could be inspected, replaced and upgraded more easily in future. By the time rewire came around, wooden trunking was known to not be safe enough, it was no longer legal to use, and modern T&E didnt fit, and of course the amount conduit fitted in the 30s was far from adequate anyway.
In the 1950s, some people wired using steel conduit and rubber twisted pair. The thinking was that wiring could be inspected, replaced and upgraded more easily in future. By the time rewire came around, the steel trunking was rusty inside, and feeding in new wire was unsafe. The paint glued joints were also unacceptable on safety grounds. And of course the amount of conduit fitted in the 50s was far from adequate anyway.
I detect a pattern!
If I look into the future, this can only be an educated guess, again I can see present day conduit being quite inadequate in terms of layout and amount.
This is why I'm not a big fan of conduit for mains wiring. What I do think is a good plan is lots of LV wiring or conduit, as technology changes very fast in that area, and I expect its likely that houses in the nearish future will start needing way more low v wiring than is normal today. One app just waiting to use this is a heating system where every single component talks to a central controller, and the actions of each and every part of the system is computer controlled for maximum comfort yield and minimum energy use - something that present systems fall a fair distance short of. By 'systems' I include everything that is relevant to the indoor climate, ie also bathroom fan, kitchen extractor, windows, vents, everything, and probably room by room occupancy sensors too.
NT
It's an excellent building for what it was intended - a gentlemen's club.
And taxes are already high enough without having to pay to replace it.
Owain
very useful contribution
Snag with most conduit - or rather the sort you're likely to use in a house - is that pulling through new cables many years down the line won't be easy. And then it's unlikely there will be conduit to where you want all the new stuff to go. The only exception is light switch drops down a wall - they can be very useful for later use.
Indeed...
I put in as much conduit as there were top facing knockouts in the boxes :) Heck, oval is so cheap I couldn't see a reason not to.
I also checked that I could get common ELV cables into the size of oval I chose (20mm) and with straight runs, you can easily get 2x cat5e in, aerial, light flex (useful for ELV power drops). By dimesions, it should be good for Cat6a though it's on the borderline.
Given I have 35mm backboxed double sockets every 2m-2.5m and closer in certain areas like the kitchen, I don't expect any future problems.
So far, my socket arrangements have been very comfortable even as we have rearranged rooms.
I also have a blank 35mm box over nearly every power socket, so when SWMBO wants a TV/media player in some unheard of position, I will be able to say "ha!", lift a few screwed down floorboards and BYU.
I've plastered my cables in, but I also put a number of empty conduits from under the floor downstairs up to the airing cupboard upstairs - an easy route for anything that I want to add later that needs to pass between floors.
SteveW
I'll pop it next to the "it is cheaper to install cables outside an empty length of conduit" file.
50 years time. let's see:
Option 1: The survivors will use candles, or the light of an open fire in their caves.
Option 2: The distributed lighting will be completely automatic, the computer will read your mind and set the lighting to the desired level.
Andy
Option 3. The battery laptop will light the candle...
And have a meltdown when there is more than one person in the room? :)
Option 4. I'll be in an institution where they won't let me have a candle.
And nursey will apologise for the tidemark round the walls where a previous patient caused a nasty flood with a hacksaw.
Owain
Mutter mutter. One of my tenants has decided to rotate her living room through 180 degrees, moving the TV and associated crap next to the doorway and not in the TV nook that I had specifically supplied with four double power sockets specifically to remove the need for multi-way adapters and trailing flexes.
JGH
I had to clear up after someone doing that - four double-sockets run as a spur from a single, no less. Probably not actually a problem since it was only the DVD, TV etc plugged into it, but not good.
The same house had had the kitchen turned round, too, so the sink was right up the far end of what was originally a kitchen/diner instead of under the window. The waste ran right round the room behind stuff with a drop of about 2" in around ten yards. It wasn't nice.
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