Trying to reconfigure room layout and it’s proving tricky. Several years ago had a separate mains supply installed for Hifi. Now contplating moving boxes to opposite end of room to sockets. The plan is to take a feed from the first socket and run it behind skirting to feed new double socket at new location for 272/250. I will also need to run ethernet cable along same route to get from switch to streamer. I will use 8 metres of Blue jeans cat 6a. I plan not to have it running right next to power cable. Will try and seperare by a few inches if possible or run it external to the skirting board. Will this have any adverse effects?
Hi Stu, it should be OK, especially if you do keep a few inches separation.
I have power & ethernet running together over about 2m, they are in separate plastic conduits with about 50mm (2 inches) separation, I also have screened power cable.
The latest rev of EN 50174-2 has been simplified and if power is single phase 230V and <32A and there is no strong source of EMI nearby then no separation is required between power and IT/ethernet wiring.
Separation is not normally required in domestic installations as its most unlikely to have a run of of power cable carrying 32 amps & ethernet longer than 15m, however some separation can always be considered worthwhile & these are useful guidelines from the regs.
With no metal separation (conduit or trunking)
Unscreened power cable & unscreened ethernet - 200mm
Unscreened power cable & screened ethernet - 50mm
Screened power cable & unscreened ethernet - 20mm
Screened power cable & screened ethernet - 0mm
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Thanks Mike, I was hoping you would reply. I presume all BJC are screened? When I got the separate radial installed I used 6mm cable rather than 10mm. Would you recommend bog standard 6mm cable from first MK unswitched socket to new socket (8 metres away) or is it worth using more specialist screened cable?
Forgot to mention they will run close together for the full 8 metre run.
No, Cat6 is unscreened, Cat6a is screened but its floating (not connected to anything), so without a ground (earth) connected I don’t see that as fully screened, but maybe better than bare unscreened.
If you can keep power & ethernet separated by 50mm, I would go with regular 6mm T&E. But no harm to use a screened cable if you can find one.
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Can you double 6mm into the existing socket in order to extend? Or would it be better to convert the existing into a switched fused spur and then run on from there? A fused spur gives separate “in / out” connections so you wouldn’t be pushing a pair of 6mm wires into a single terminal.
Hi Robert not sure I quite understand. I’m useless at technical stuff. I currently have 3 double MK unswitched sockets. I presume the first one feeds the second and third somehow. My plan was to keep the first socket, remove the other two (using one for new location) and connect the socket in the new location as the original second socket was wired (if that makes sense)???
You may well find that there is little or no difference when you put the Ethernet cable close to the power cable, especially if there is at least a small gap between them. It wouldn’t be too hard to test screened power cable as well as screened Ethernet.
My network cable has to snake its way theough the mass of T&E cables that come out of the back of my consumer unit, and this doesn’t seem to cause any problems…but I use optical instead of copper Ethernet cables.
You may find it easier to run a single cable to a single wall socket. Then just run a decent power block, or maybe a Graham’s Hydra, from there.
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Back of a mains socket you will have 3 terminals for L, N, E. If you chain 2 together, you will have 1 of L etc going in to the first socket, and then coming out again to supply the next socket. “Normal” mains uses 2.5mm wire and it’s relatively straightforward to double up. With a pair of 6mm wires in each terminal, it can be harder to fit them both, tighten them securely into the terminal and fit the whole socket into the back box. 6mm t&e is a lot thicker than naca5!
Will your electrician come back to do the work? DIY with 2.5mm is ok but 6mm is tough stuff to bend. I guess if you have 3 sockets already then someone has done it successfully.
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I once managed to fit two 10mm cables into the terminal of an MK socket, just to prove a point. In practice, I agree that it’s perhaps not the best idea. Pushing the socket onto the back box is tricky, and I think you would really want to custom build an extra large back box to accommodate the loose wires. That might be an argument in favour of a single plug with a mains block running from it.
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OK so a good quality screened extension cable 8 metres to a good quality two gang extension block would easier. In people’s experience would this be just as good as extending the socket?
Its what I do, plus the dist board is my own DIY (with some enhancements)
The largest screened cable that’s easily available is limited as are the 13A plugs that can take large cables.
Considering Mark Grant to make up an extension cable and block using DSP 2.5, seems to be a good quality cable. Connect that to a 2 gang block with powerline lites into block.
Could I ask one more technical question as the science of physics has always eluded me. Would using an 8 metre run of 2.5mm extension cable provide enough voltage(?) for the 250? Would this squash some of the dynamics of the amplifier driving the speakers?
It’s to do with amps. There are only 2 circuits in a UK house that require larger cross section wire than 2.5mm and that’s cookers and electric showers. Lighting circuits are 1 or 1.5mm as the load is lower. Run of the mill radials/ ring circuits are 2.5mm and will quite happily power a 250/300/500/statement. I’m not aware of any requirement to install new domestic electric circuits when buying Naim.
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Thanks Robert. 
Requirements, no. If there were requirements, they would never sell anything. There were recommendations though. A dedicated circuit with 10mm T&E cable is what they suggest.
The other option I have is to completely disconnect my current dedicated radial then run some armoured 6mm or 10mm cable externally to the new location. This may actually be a better option I think my current radial cable crosses paths at multiple points with cables on the main house circuit maybe picking up some interference. Running externally would allow a completely isolated route.
It’s always worth doing the job properly if you can. So yes, I think running a new cable to a socket in the right location would be a good idea. Presumably your dedicated mains has its own separate consumer unit, not just a circuit breaker on the main one?
You may find that the regs have changed since you installed your last dedicated mains, so you should check with your electrician that he is able to instal what you want.