So, how many sockets in a living room?

snipped-for-privacy@razorworks.com (Jeff Sheard) wrote in news:69ac012c.0502161417.cc60170 @posting.google.com:

Going from all the frustration sockets give me, I would say a minimum of 8 doubles, two in each corner on adjacent walls.

May need a bit of Xmas treeing,but at least there'll be one shortish unobstructed run to wherever you need to go - unless someone knows better ;-)

(you're welcome to do a field trial by installing in my hovel)

mike

I put two twin socket outlets in each corner and still find I need splitters.

Colin Bignell

(I just put 8 in each of the two bedrooms I just built!)

On 16 Feb 2005, John Rumm wrote

In system terms, what are the practical advantages to having each appliance plugged into a separate socket (as opposed to putting, say, the 4 stereo plugs into a trailing socket)?

I'm more interested in the safety/functionality trade-off than in "theoretical flows as measured by an oscilloscope", as cable control is, I think, a lot easier with 4>1 than 4>4.

The solution is to do what everyine else does and get a mini distribution board for all the electronics, and plug it in to one 13A socket.

None whatsoever. I used toi buodl computer racks - we used banks of rack munted IEC and 13A sockets, and one flying lead from them to a socket in the floor.

Provided the total rack draw was under 13A, its all fine.

Are you bothering with Part P ?

I guess you can't answer that ;-(

Nick

lounge and 3 in a Dining room

CRB

If you're clueful enough to wonder, there's no advantage ;-)

That is: Nanny would like you to know that daisychaining one 4-way adaptor into another into another into another is bad for you (each link adds some contact resistance, since many cheap 4-ways form their contacts with little more than bendy tinplate), and some numpty somewhere will plug a 3kW fanheater into the last one of such a chain.

So Nanny knows that in the limit, it's better to festoon the wall with lots of double sockets (at Regulation not-too-close-to-the-floor height, natch, thereby increasing the trip hazard...)

But if you avoid doing anything silly, consolidating multiple low-load appliances into a single feed through a 4-way, 6-way, or whatever is perfectly sound, can look better, and makes it more convenient to turn off multiple appliances which would otherwise draw 'standby' or wall-wart-loss currents uselessly.

None in particular from an electrical point of view (not for low power devices anyway).

In fact there may be occations with todays highly interconnected AV setups in living rooms, where commoning a number of devices back to the same power point can help keep hum under control.

The advantage of lots of sockets verses "just about enough" is more ease of cable routing, reducing trip hazards, and having somewhere to plug the vacuum cleaner in etc.

You can take it to extreams however... a couple of doubles in each corner does not look the excessive, however enough to satisfy the socket requirements for a big AV or HiFi setup will start to look silly because you typically want them all bunched together.

Personally I use multiway sockets fixed to (for example) the HiFi rack so that only one power lead comes off it even though it uses eight.

It also says 6 - 10 for a kitchen

In article , nightjar writes

Wire two low-current devices into one plug - for example, Freeview box and video recorder. It helps if they have detachable mains cords.

I think this is quite safe if done neatly and the fuse in the plug is the correct rating (for example, a Freeview box and video will each have a 3A fuse. You'll still only need a 3A fuse with both wired into one plug as each only takes a very low current.)

Also safer than plug-in adapters and those nasty 4-way socket strips you see for 99p in DIY stores and pound shops.

I prefer not to. It reduces flexibility.

...

The splitter strips I buy cost considerably more than that.

Colin Bignell

Thanks for all the advice.

I've got a good idea now about what's sensible and what isn't. 6 or 7 doubles will suit the size of the room. It doesn't sound as excessive now as it did when I was looking at the current installation of only 5 single sockets in total!

Jeff.

Single sockets are one of my personal hates. Why would you ever put in a single socket, with the exception of areas that cant accommodate a double obviously?

1. They look better in hallways for the vacuum cleaner.
2. They are useful for single use spurs, such as fridges/dishwashers/washing machines, where you don't want the hassle of using an FCU.

Christian.

On Thu, 17 Feb 2005 06:57:31 +0000, Mike Tomlinson strung together this:

Don't do this, it's rough and wrong.

Anything is, don't anyone use those.

Buy some decent ones then.

Time to ask The Question.

If there were plugs and sockets that took up half or a third the space of today's, and were fully compatible with 13A plugs/skts, meaning you could plug either kind of plug into any and all sockets, and they were to all the usual BS etc, would you choose to use them? Why?

NT

Probably not, firstly because I don't find the current ones that objectionable, secondly, you can see any attempt at size reduction will be thwarted by the first wall wart to come along.