No power in the loft

[pjgtech]

Hi I am about to have a loft aerial fitted in my loft, via BT, as I did not realise that BT requires one for its BT TV service to get normal / freeview channels.
The house is only four years old and every room has a tv point fitted and the tv cables all meet in the loft, but are currently not connected to anything, hence the impending loft aerial install....

At some point I would like to install a splitter or tv amp in the loft to provide tv to the other rooms.
My understanding is that they would require mains power, I do have two lights on a separate fused / switched circuit in the loft, but no power sockets / outlets in the loft.
From a little bit of Googling the tv amps all appear to be low voltage (eg: 12v 3A) but I assume that they will still require a proper plu socket and should not be run off the existing loft lighting circuit?

There is a double socket in an airing cupboard on the first floor landing, so I assume it would be fairly easy to run a cable from the airing cupboard socket, up inside the airing cupboard into the loft above and then install another socket in the loft?
Cheers for any info.

 

[Petej999]

Hi I am about to have a loft aerial fitted in my loft, via BT, as I did not realise that BT requires one for its BT TV service to get normal / freeview channels.
The house is only four years old and every room has a tv point fitted and the tv cables all meet in the loft, but are currently not connected to anything, hence the impending loft aerial install....

At some point I would like to install a splitter or tv amp in the loft to provide tv to the other rooms.
My understanding is that they would require mains power, I do have two lights on a separate fused / switched circuit in the loft, but no power sockets / outlets in the loft.
From a little bit of Googling the tv amps all appear to be low voltage (eg: 12v 3A) but I assume that they will still require a proper plu socket and should not be run off the existing loft lighting circuit?

There is a double socket in an airing cupboard on the first floor landing, so I assume it would be fairly easy to run a cable from the airing cupboard socket, up inside the airing cupboard into the loft above and then install another socket in the loft?
Cheers for any info.

Is this double socket a spur off of the Ring circuit.
is it part of the Ring circuit,
Is it on a dedicated circuit sorry for all the questions, if it is already a spur you can extend it but not add to it,best get an electrician to check and install a FCU in the loft for the Amp.

 

[DPG]

My aerial amplifier in my loft is run from the upstairs lighting circuit.

Tin hat on.

 

[buzzlightyear]

My aerial amplifier in my loft is run from the upstairs lighting circuit.

So it mine, flack jacket on.

 

[Clive P]

So is mine...................................................................

 

[Simon47]

There are quite a few amplifiers/splitters which can be line powered up one of the coax cables - you have a power inserter behind one of your TVs, and it feeds power up the cable to the amp in the attic (or on the aerial pole).
And I currently have a dist. amp, a network switch, and a wifi access point all powered off the upstairs lights.

 

[pjgtech]

Is this double socket a spur off of the Ring circuit.
is it part of the Ring circuit,
Is it on a dedicated circuit sorry for all the questions, if it is already a spur you can extend it but not add to it,best get an electrician to check and install a FCU in the loft for the Amp.

Erm, yeah, don't know, sorry.
My nephew is currently training as an electrician, I will ask him to have a look at it.

 

[littlespark]

My attic socket is off an old immersion heater circuit.

Do you use both sockets in the airing cupboard?
Just run an extension lead up into the loft and plug into that.

 

[freddo]

Use a masthead amplifier with enough outputs for each of your rooms, connect power supply by the TV in one of the rooms and the amplifier gets its power up the coax cable. No need to install any mains wiring.

 

[telectrix]

Use a masthead amplifier with enough outputs for each of your rooms, connect power supply by the TV in one of the rooms and the amplifier gets its power up the coax cable. No need to install any mains wiring.

too easy.

 

[timhoward]

My attic socket is off an old immersion heater circuit.

Do you use both sockets in the airing cupboard?
Just run an extension lead up into the loft and plug into that.

I deliberately changed one to this arrangement, it was an older unit that never seemed to recover from losing TV signal, in an area where a decent storm can weaken the signal sufficiently to upset it. It needed a power cycle to 'find' the signal again. This was happening every 3 or 4 months.
The customer didn't want to buy a new unit, so the compromise of being able to reset it without climbing into the loft was reached!

 

[brianmoooore]

Why is there a double socket in the airing cupboard? Strange place for a socket.
FCU with 3A fuse off of the lighting socket is fine for the loft equipment.

 

[DPG]

Why is there a double socket in the airing cupboard? Strange place for a socket.
FCU with 3A fuse off of the lighting socket is fine for the loft equipment.

I've got a double socket in the airing cupboard. I fitted it when the immersion heater and cylinder were removed.

Have got the combi boiler and some bath panel lights plugged into it.

 

[pc1966]

Why is there a double socket in the airing cupboard?

I wonder which came first, the double socket or the cupboard?

 

[DPG]

I wonder which came first, the double socket or the cupboard?

I reckon airing cupboard was built first with a tank and immersion. Then this was probably ripped out when a combi was fitted. Then the feed for the immersion was used for a socket.

 

[Simon47]

That's exactly why we have a double socket, on it's own 16A radial, in our airing cupboard. Since fitting the thermal store, I now have the option of plugging in an immersion heater for emergency use - it's only been used a few minutes so far to test that it works.