Hidding Cables

[mdj1]

Hi All,

I'm just about to refit the kitchen / dining room and we are going to wall mount a 27 / 32" TV.

The TV will be mounted on an outside wall below an upstairs bedroom, do you think it would be a wise idea to run the cables through a conduit of some sort into the ceiling void, so IF I did need to run a new cable in I could take up the floor boards upstairs and feed the new cable in?

Which conduit would you use or are their any really good wall plates with umpteen different types of connectors?

 

[echoes]

Are you talking about the aerial cable, the power cable, or both?

In any event, you should keep at least 50mm of separation betwen power and aerial.

You could run the aerial cable in surface trunking, which might be unsightly but may be OK if the TV set hides it. Or you enbed the aerial in trunking in the wall and run it to the ceiling void, but you need to consider how you will split the aerial feed to the new TV.

However, I would just run the aerial cable on the outside wall and you can connect it to wherever you split the aerial e.g. loft.

 

[echoes]

[Power in kitchen notifiable, part P etc etc]

For the power cable, it depends very much on your existing circuit, but you could provide a socket on a spur off the existing kitchen circuit.

I think that connecting a kitchen socket to the upstairs circuit via the ceiling void is not good, espacially if you're having you kitchen refitted anyway (unless your kitchen power also runs in the ceiling void).

 

[mdj1]

I was talking more about audio / video than power.

Power will be taken from the new kitchen circuit and will be separate from the video feed. The ceilings comimg down so new power is not a problem.

 

[echoes]

I see! What/how many AV cables will you need to connect to the TV? And where will the other ends be connected from?

 

[mdj1]

This is it, to start with HD / composite for sky but I don't want to be left with a situation where i want to add something and cant.

 

[echoes]

I don't want to be left with a situation where i want to add something and cant.

In that case, providing it doesn't spoil the look of your new kitchen, I would run the AV cables in minature surface trunking up to the ceiling void as you suggest, which would be a simple job.

Else you could go for something like this for a professional finish. You could run some generously wide conduit enbedded in the wall which would give you a chance to run extra cables or replace cables without too much bother.

 

[ericmark]

413.3.4 Flexible cables and cords shall be visible throughout any part of their length liable to mechanical damage.

When hiding flexible cables or cords consideration must be given to the heat and although unlikely with the low current of a TV it still needs to be considered.

Any AC power will radiated RF which can be picked up by any close cables and consideration must be given to using screened, or braided cables. Or using some earthed metal trunking or conduit if the cables are close.

Burying a cable in a wall needs special cables or RCD protection. The socket in a new house will be RCD protected anyway but with an older property you may need to fit an RCD plug.

There are TV's where only power is required to screen and it is wireless connection to a control box with all AV connections.

 

[echoes]

413.3.4 Flexible cables and cords shall be visible throughout any part of their length liable to mechanical damage.

When hiding flexible cables or cords consideration must be given to the heat and although unlikely with the low current of a TV it still needs to be considered.

Any AC power will radiated RF which can be picked up by any close cables and consideration must be given to using screened, or braided cables. Or using some earthed metal trunking or conduit if the cables are close.

Burying a cable in a wall needs special cables or RCD protection. The socket in a new house will be RCD protected anyway but with an older property you may need to fit an RCD plug.

There are TV's where only power is required to screen and it is wireless connection to a control box with all AV connections.

Useful stuff - think the OP was having his socket fitted by his kitchen people which I assumed would be done to correct standards! He was after a solution to neaten the AV cabling and both methods would minimise the risk of mechanical damage.

Have advised to keep a sensible distance between power and AV cables, which I agree should be screened in this (or any other) position.

 

[mattgreenwood]

If you want to view an HD source from a remote location you can do it two ways if the length is less than 10m you can use an HDMI cable, you can fit most HDMI cables down 37mm oval conduit as long as they don't have ferrite blocks on them. I have done this to feed Sky HD to my bedroom TV from my living room. Use a flush mount box above where you want to mount your TV so you dont drill holes in it when mounting your TV and use a brush outlet plate. If you have la onger run the only way is HDMI over CAT 5. This is where you have a decoder at either end of a Cat 5 cable. If adding an Aerial cable Use rg6 so you can use it in the future for Freesat ect.