Changing a 2 plug to a (more) plug faceplate?

Jeepers_Creepers

Existing sockets are, what?, around 8mm stick-out? These converters will be thicker - around 23mm thick - so's they can take the pins of the plugs. You'll hardly notice, and it's a lot neater than extension sockets.

As always, the TOTAL load shouldn't exceed 13A.

JustAnotherSaver

Gracias.

As for what will be plugged in....

TV, DVD, BT TV, Amazon Fire Stick, fish tank bits - light, heater & pump.

The one behind the TV right now is a bit of a nuisance. The extension is stretched, it's fully loaded. Another socket is taken up completely with fish tank stuff - heater, light & pump. We have more than 1 fish tank in the living room so each time that is 1) heater 2) light 3) pump per tank.

This is totally for the living room, so no kitchen appliances.

The hoover will occasionally be plugged in. I think that's about everything.

Ectophile

You can get converters that simply plug in to an existing socket, but they are likely to be a bit wobbly, and will stick out more.  Others are intended to be wired in as a replacement to a double socket.

If you don't mind things not being flush to the wall, then an electrician could screw as many back boxes as you like to the surface of the wall.  You could have the entire wall covered in sockets, all wired up to the ring, if you really wanted.

Jeepers_Creepers

JustAnotherSaver said:

Gracias.

As for what will be plugged in....

TV, DVD, BT TV, Amazon Fire Stick, fish tank bits - light, heater & pump.

The one behind the TV right now is a bit of a nuisance. The extension is stretched, it's fully loaded. Another socket is taken up completely with fish tank stuff - heater, light & pump. We have more than 1 fish tank in the living room so each time that is 1) heater 2) light 3) pump per tank.

This is totally for the living room, so no kitchen appliances.

The hoover will occasionally be plugged in. I think that's about everything.

That will all be absolutely fine.

JustAnotherSaver

Ectophile said:

If you don't mind things not being flush to the wall, then an electrician could screw as many back boxes as you like to the surface of the wall.  You could have the entire wall covered in sockets, all wired up to the ring, if you really wanted.

How does that work?

I assume you mean those box sockets that sit proud of the wall? We had one in our living room before it all got ripped out.

So ok there's a box over here and i want one over there. They put this back box screwed to the wall as you say. How do they power it without running cable on show from the one already in place being all unsightly?

Just trying to understand the situation a bit better.

Jeepers_Creepers

If you want ADDITIONAL sockets like the ones you currently have fitted in a room (ie 'flush' sockets in 'sunken' backboxes), these will need to be hard-wired. The cables will be extended from the existing wiring which is usually a 'loop' (a 'ring' circuit) that runs around your room. This is usually under the floor out of sight, or sometimes they're run in the ceiling.

To get from the 'ring' in the floor or ceiling to the sockets, the cables are run in the wall. If it's a solid block wall, this is in channels 'chased' into the walls and then plastered over. If it's a hollow/dry wall, then the cables usually run in the void that's behind there.

So, to add new sockets in the same manner as you currently have, you need to (a) get access to the 'ring' and (b) bring the cables up to each new socket. You'd also need to sink new backboxes into the wall so the new sockets are as flush as the existing ones. Obviously this is a fair bit of work, and can be messy and disruptive, but if what you really WANTED was MORE sockets that look just like the existing ones, then that's the thing to do.

You can also 'spur' off an existing socket, once, to a new socket fitted nearby; instead of taking the wire 'loop' up to each socket from wherever it's located, you simply take a single cable from behind an existing socket and run it to the new one. This is easier, but also required chasing/hiding of the cables and sinking of the boxes.

That's the 'flush' approach.

If you don't want to chase in to your walls/lift floorboards, you could 'surface' wire all this so's the cables are all visible - very ugly indeed. Or you can 'hide' the cables inside surface ducting - again, very ugly indeed.

What Ecto was saying is that you don't have to sink the boxes so's you have flush sockets; you could surface-mount them instead. This involves a white plastic box screwed to the wall so's it sticks out by around 25mm. You then fit the normal socket to this, so the overall stick-out is around 33mm-ish. These, in my view (and I suspect yours) are very ugly. And you still need to get cables to them, which means chasing into walls or surface-running. Yuck.

So, by FAR the best solution for you (unless you want to go to the expense of having 'proper' new sockets added) is to swap your double sockets for the 3 or 4-gang converter ones shown earlier. Yes, they stick out a bit - 25mm-ish in total - but that's all. Not too bad.

AND they are cheap, AND your wife can do this if you make her a cuppa.

Ectophile

JustAnotherSaver said:

Ectophile said:

If you don't mind things not being flush to the wall, then an electrician could screw as many back boxes as you like to the surface of the wall.  You could have the entire wall covered in sockets, all wired up to the ring, if you really wanted.

How does that work?

I assume you mean those box sockets that sit proud of the wall? We had one in our living room before it all got ripped out.

So ok there's a box over here and i want one over there. They put this back box screwed to the wall as you say. How do they power it without running cable on show from the one already in place being all unsightly?

Just trying to understand the situation a bit better.

JustAnotherSaver said:

Ectophile said:

If you don't mind things not being flush to the wall, then an electrician could screw as many back boxes as you like to the surface of the wall.  You could have the entire wall covered in sockets, all wired up to the ring, if you really wanted.

How does that work?

I assume you mean those box sockets that sit proud of the wall? We had one in our living room before it all got ripped out.

So ok there's a box over here and i want one over there. They put this back box screwed to the wall as you say. How do they power it without running cable on show from the one already in place being all unsightly?

Just trying to understand the situation a bit better.

It all comes down to how nice you want it to look and how much money you're willing to spend.

Yes, you can take a white plastic socket box and just screw it to the wall.  My old flat had several sockets done like that.

The cables can be buried in shallow channels in the plaster.  It's less work than digging out deep holes into the brickwork for back boxes.

If you don't care how it looks, you can run cables on the surface.  The "twin and earth" cable used in the UK has a tough outer sheath and is perfectly safe unless it's in a place where it's likely to be bashed.  You can also hide the cables in mini-trunking, but I'm not convinced that's much of an improvement over the bare cables.

JustAnotherSaver

I think i'm genuinely surprised that i followed each and every word JC said on an electrical topic

Agreed with everything you said too about what looks right and what looks ugly. I'll not be having wires on show. I hated having wires on show when i moved my dash cam over to the new car so i'm not about to be having that in the house.

Need to have a measure up and a see of what exactly is going to be plugged where and then i'll put the kettle on

Jeepers_Creepers

Why, thank you :-)

Hey, hang on... :-(  

I think it'll come down to - IF all you need is additional sockets in the same location, then these socket converters makes huge sense; job done for less than a £enner each.

If, however, you need additional sockets added to different parts of the room, you are talking about a lot more cost and disruption especially if it's to be done neatly and invisibly.

JustAnotherSaver

Yeah I know.

I know the Amazon fire stick has to be pretty stretched and wedged to fit in at the moment which i'm not keen on.

Hopefully these converters can help out