My living room AV install. Work in progress with pics.

Ah, slumming it with a video projector until you get the plasma I see? Poverty, sheer poverty, you poor thing! ;)
 
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To true, hence the video cable joined to those coming from the chimney breast.
I've still got the Plasma TV in another room though, I've just not fitted the wall bracket yet ;)
P1010140.jpg
 
Looking excellent, I like the furniture and fire and you've got the flooring down too. Great stuff! So where in the house is the projector going when you've got the lounge finished?
 
Perhaps he could do a "Gail Porter" on the side of his house?
 
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AdamW said:
Perhaps he could do a "Gail Porter" on the side of his house?

Now there's a thought. It would work too as it's a white house :evil:

Bob: Since you ask, the projector will be pointing at the wall to the right of the chimney. You can see on the top RHS of the picture below where the mains and S-Video cable come through the ceiling where the projector will be mounted.
The pic is about 2 weeks old BTW, so excuse the mess :oops:
Livingroom2.jpg
 
Projector AND plasma all in one room? Some people are happy with picture-in-picture! :LOL:

I can appreciate why though. A plasma is great for watching TV on, but a projector is a little inconvenient. However, in a darkened room, nothing beats an 8-foot picture to watch a movie.
 
That's about the size of it Adam. These days projectors are capable of making really good pictures without having to go into complete blackout. It will mainly be used for playing the X-Box on whilst watching TV on the Plasma, but as they are both connected to my AV amplifier I can also switch the feed from my DVD recorder to the projector for watching movies on.
 
muffking said:
Thanks.

That's a true enough point too, but keeping the video cables to a minimum legnth seemed to be the most logic step at the time and there's nothing that I'll be hanging onthe wall other than the Plasma TV, but I've mapped out the brick layout on the chimney breast so I know exactly where to drill the fixing holes. In the future if/when I eventually move out that the next owners will see that the trunking is horizontal behind the face plate and will know to check with a cable finder as the TVs mains cable is also in the same place, which means that they should be able to follow its route with a mains tester.
Sorry, chum - it doesn't matter what or how you document it, or what you think is reasonable to do in terms of looking for buried cables, if there are power cables in that trunking they are not in an approved zone, they are not (AFAICT) more than 50mm deep, and they are not mechanically protected.

You've broken the law.

Well done.
 
Why is his cable not in an approved zone? It runs vertically up from the socket and horizontally from the outlet plate. The regs as I understand them permit this.
 
1) Look closely - you'll see it doesn't start at the socket:

IMGA0217x.JPG
IMGA0249x.JPG


2) In any event, the rules say that cables can run vertically or horizontally between one accessory and another - not is a series of V/H doglegs.

The wiring he's done is in serious breach of the regulations, and is unsafe.
 
Muffking,

Whatever the legality of the electrical work carried out, congratulations on acheiving a sweet looking room.

Can i ask how you completed the flooring? u take the original floorboards up or board over the top of them?
 
howellsn said:
Whatever the legality of the electrical work carried out, congratulations on acheiving a sweet looking room.
I expect Jenny Tong's daughter thought she had a sweet looking kitchen...
 
Thanks Howellsn, it's nice to know that it's not just to my taste.

Now I'm no builder and I've probably broken a few regs but that doesn't mean it ain't safe. The Plasma's mains lead for example has a one peice mains lead which is fused at 5A and is connected to a surge protecting extension block which has a 13A fuse and is plugged into the mains socket which has a breaker on the consumer unit, so as far as I'm concerned it's safe.
But if you take how the electrics were before I moved in, there was a single flush mains socket which was fed diagonally from another socket further up the wall. This was done to provide power to the central heating pump when it had a back boiler. Now that was a bodge, so I've had the lot ripped out, had a Combi boiler installed and had the mains points rewired.

Regarding the floor Howellsn, it's over the original floor. I used 7mm fibreboard as the underlay and raised the hearth of the fireplace on blocks to allow the new floor to slide underneath by a couple of mm so that it looks like it goes all the way under the fire (which of course it doesn't, otherwise that would a serious breach of the building regs wouldn't it). Anyway, it was the first time I have fitted laminate floor and was surprised how easy it was, so I would now definately recommend using a fibreboard to level the floor first.

Other than that, I've finally got my projector mounted properly. These pictures were taken today at around 1pm when the sun was shining outside, so it just goes to show how good projectors are these days.

(The TV is temporary BTW, it's not the one going on the wall).
P1030084.jpg


P1030087.jpg


P1030089.jpg
 
BAN

why is this install illegal? If completed prior to part P.

Bad pratice yes, but not illegal.

Salem.
 
I still don't see what's wrong with it at all.

I take on board ban's comment that the vertical run does not start at the socket, but am assuming there is a plate at the point of entry similar to the one behind the mounting point of the TV, therefore both are "accessories" in their own right.

Now take this picture, for example:
diagram.JPG

The regs state that unprotected cable runs must go horizontally or vertically from an accessory. No mention is made that this can only be between accessories, what if these in question were the only ones in the room, they'd have to be fed from somewhere. Therefore the red and blue lines in my drawing are all acceptable runs for unprotected cable from those accessories.

There is therefore nothing wrong with the route (shown in yellow) which muffking has chosen.
 

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