Any electricians?

Lakeland

Lakeland

Lakeland

Soldato
Joined
1 Nov 2005
Posts
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I need to extend a socket at work and I'm unsure how long of an extension I can legally use without overloading the cable.

I'll check precisely tomorrow, but the length I need is roughly 10-12 meters and I need 4 to 6 sockets at the other end. There are 10m 6 gang available to buy, would it be OK if I bought a 1m 6gang and then replaced the cable with one which is long enough for my needs?

In terms of what power I will be drawing from the socket.. I intend to plug in 4 to 6 mobile phone chargers/router psu's, circa 5-6v DC. These are to power some small electronic flashing light circuits.

6-Gang-Socket-Block-Unwired_large.jpg


The other option is to use an old PC PSU which means I would only need a one gang socket and I could power all circuits from one PSU though I'm not sure how to go about this at the moment.

Any help on either idea is great, as you can probably see I'm trying to do this as cheap as possible as I have to fund this myself!
 
I would just use some soft core 2.5mm cable and put the 6 gang extension at the end of it. The stuff you plugging is is very light power wise anyway.
 
Yes, 2.5mm 3 core (including CPC) cable. Anything over a rating of 13A each and you'll need really thick grey 3.5mm 3 core wire (used in walls for sockets etc)
 
Emphacy said:
Yes, 2.5mm 3 core (including CPC) cable
Click to expand...
You'll struggle to terminate 2.5mm in a plugtop..


Anything over a rating of 13A each and you'll need really thick grey 3.5mm 3 core wire (used in walls for sockets etc)
Click to expand...

-There is no such cable size as 3.5mm²
-6242Y should *not* be used as an extension lead
-That power strip is only rated to 13A anyway

1.25mm² is fine for a lead upto 12m, 1.5mm² upto 15m... according to IEE code of practice for in service inspection and testing of electrical equipment

Also consider implications of making a lead up for use in a commericial enviroment, your employer would/should at the very least require it to be PAT tested... does your place have a maintenance electrician on site.. consider asking him to make up and test the lead for you?
 
Adam_151 said:
You'll struggle to terminate 2.5mm in a plugtop..




-There is no such cable size as 3.5mm²
-6242Y should *not* be used as an extension lead
-That power strip is only rated to 13A anyway

1.25mm² is fine for a lead upto 12m, 1.5mm² upto 15m... according to IEE code of practice for in service inspection and testing of electrical equipment

Also consider implications of making a lead up for use in a commericial enviroment, your employer would/should at the very least require it to be PAT tested... does your place have a maintenance electrician on site.. consider asking him to make up and test the lead for you?
Click to expand...

This man speaks the truth :)
 
Depends how the cable is going to be installed/located but 1.25mm² multi-core p.v.c.-insulated cable is more than enough, 1.5mm² is overkill imho.
 
Adam_151 said:
You'll struggle to terminate 2.5mm in a plugtop..




-There is no such cable size as 3.5mm²
-6242Y should *not* be used as an extension lead
-That power strip is only rated to 13A anyway

1.25mm² is fine for a lead upto 12m, 1.5mm² upto 15m... according to IEE code of practice for in service inspection and testing of electrical equipment

Also consider implications of making a lead up for use in a commericial enviroment, your employer would/should at the very least require it to be PAT tested... does your place have a maintenance electrician on site.. consider asking him to make up and test the lead for you?
Click to expand...

That's great thanks! Funny thing is I've been trained to pat test to keep costs down so I'll be able to test the lead myself once its made up.

Thanks for the daisy chain idea also lol, for the info of anyone else reading you should be made aware that you're not allowed to link extension cables.
 
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