Power to loft. Spur of 60A shower feed?

[Will Cooke]

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

[Nigel Mercier ®]

I agree, plus there will be some huge spikes on that circuit when the shower turns on and off, not very good for sensitive equipment.

I'm lucky in that I live in a bungalow and all my power goes via the loft. This means that I've got several power points up there, and can plug the loft lights into a choice of rings.

[Nigel Mercier ®]

Because having a choice of power points in the loft can be handy.

Get out of bed the wrong side?

[Me]

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.