Is it too hot and dusty for a switch in the loft?

Relentless81

Relentless81

Relentless81

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Hi,

I'm thinking of getting a cable run from the router in the front room, up the outside wall and into the loft where it will terminate to either a basic panel or some form of switch, from there a cable will run out down the outside walls and back in to the box room and my sons room.

Couple of things -

Does it get too hot in the loft for a switch and will it better to just use a patch panel? Is the switch just another point of failure to go up into the loft and have to restart it when its playing up?

Other than not looking particularly nice is there any issue having these cables running on the outside walls? Doing it this way prevents any need for plastering etc

Thanks
Chris
 
If you're running cables outside make sure you use external grade cable. As long as you do that you should be fine.

Only you know how hot it gets in your loft. If you look at the specifications for the switch it'll tell you what the temperature operating range is. If you end up reducing the life of a £15 switch that isn't going to be the end of the world.

Dust won't be a problem unless you buy a fan cooled switch (very unlikely on a small unmanaged switch).
 
bremen1874 said:
If you're running cables outside make sure you use external grade cable. As long as you do that you should be fine.

Only you know how hot it gets in your loft. If you look at the specifications for the switch it'll tell you what the temperature operating range is. If you end up reducing the life of a £15 switch that isn't going to be the end of the world.

Dust won't be a problem unless you buy a fan cooled switch (very unlikely on a small unmanaged switch).
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Ok thanks, its hot in the summer, I might buy a thermometer to give me an idea as I didnt think of checking what its rated for, I'm just a bit paranoid about having electrical equipment running up there 24/7 in the summer
 
I've seen some switches in horrific places that seem to keep running without a problem, so I wouldn't worry. I have a little Netgear switch in my loft and it's fine, I probably wouldn't put something expensive up there and draw 300w of PoE through it, but you should be OK with a little unmanaged switch.

In a house I rented and cabled I managed to get the cables down the boxed in soil stack on one side of the house, and boxed in central heating pipes on the other which made it all really easy.
 
Caged said:
I've seen some switches in horrific places that seem to keep running without a problem, so I wouldn't worry. I have a little Netgear switch in my loft and it's fine, I probably wouldn't put something expensive up there and draw 300w of PoE through it, but you should be OK with a little unmanaged switch.

In a house I rented and cabled I managed to get the cables down the boxed in soil stack on one side of the house, and boxed in central heating pipes on the other which made it all really easy.
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Thanks for the info, I actually work in IT would you believe :) Its mostly the heat I'm concerned about, we dont have any kit in warm locations so appreciate the info

I've got Soffits in the way and I'm scared to death heights/ladders so I'm going to have to pay someone, bit annoying as I can do most stuff myself but no way am I going that high up ladders
 
From the OP it appears you want two rooms upstairs cabled. If that's it couldn't you run two external cables directly from downstairs to upstairs instead of going via the loft?

You'd only have two external cables instead of three.
You wouldn't need to go as high. Skirting board level upstairs is much more easily reachable than the soffits.
 
bremen1874 said:
From the OP it appears you want two rooms upstairs cabled. If that's it couldn't you run two external cables directly from downstairs to upstairs instead of going via the loft?

You'd only have two external cables instead of three.
You wouldn't need to go as high. Skirting board level upstairs is much more easily reachable than the soffits.
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I wish I tried it when all the carpet was up and being replaced but unfortunately thats going to have to go down as a missed opportunity and there is no way I'm lifting it now

Its two rooms cabled for now but I'll also be expanding, I'll need a 3rd cable dropping into the master bedroom where I'll be gutting a fitted wardrobe to install my PC and I would also like a DVR if possible in the loft too adding more cable to the original two cable runs to the cameras but I've not fully thought about that yet
 
Don't put a switch in the loft: it's a fire risk. Imagine an insect crawling in, getting electrocuted, and the switch bursting into flames. In my case it was a PC / server and my house only survived because I was at home at the time and caught it before the flames started.
 
If switches (or any electronics for that matter) were in the habit of spontaneously combusting when an insect crawls by there'd be fires everywhere.

Any electronics in the loft is obviously a greater fire risk than no electronics, but not because of insects.
 
Quartz said:
Don't put a switch in the loft: it's a fire risk. Imagine an insect crawling in, getting electrocuted, and the switch bursting into flames. In my case it was a PC / server and my house only survived because I was at home at the time and caught it before the flames started.
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Are you saying an insect crawled into your PC/Server and it set on fire? Was it in the loft? That could happen anywhere I've seen spiders web's in desktops plenty of times

If thats what happened then you must have been extremely unlucky
 
Relentless81 said:
Are you saying an insect crawled into your PC/Server and it set on fire?
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It hadn't quite got to that point by the time I reached it; I got there in time.

Was it in the loft?
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Yes.

That could happen anywhere I've seen spiders web's in desktops plenty of times
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But being in the loft it is much less likely to be quickly noticed, thus giving fire time to start and spread.
 
Quartz said:
Don't put a switch in the loft: it's a fire risk. Imagine an insect crawling in, getting electrocuted, and the switch bursting into flames. In my case it was a PC / server and my house only survived because I was at home at the time and caught it before the flames started.
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Bloody hell that puts me off but i have a couple of nest smoke alarms to make use of so if i ever do that one is going up there.
 
Quartz said:
If you've wanting power for a light or something that's only going to be on while you're up there, that's fine.
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There is already lighting up there, I discussed having power installed to the loft to power a switch and a DVR and also an additional socket dropping from that into the master bedroom
 
A Nest smoke alarm has about the same chance of catching fire as an unmanaged non-PoE network switch. An insect could crawl through it at any moment and dance on the mains connections.
 
Yeah sorry I agree you have to be extremely unlucky for something like that to happen. Im not going to let that worry me, you could say the same about light fittings etc

You can install boilers in lofts, my old house did along with all the relevant power plus a water pump and that loft had a skylight and was ridiculously hot and dusty
 
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