socket from light circuit

[stallone]

i am putting an aerial booster in loft .i need a socket for power for booster.i only have a lighting circuit in loft.is it possible?

[Bob A Job]

Possible.... Yes
Legal......... No

[KARL]

See other threads on international comparisons of electrical circuitry. If you extended your socket circuit into the loft (with all the dancing round it three times clockwise, seven times anti-clockwise, etc.) everybody in Britain would tell you it was pukkah, lovely lad, well done, etc. But any smoking phenomena would go unobserved there in any case. In any other country, not only would taking the tiny power consumed by the booster (significantly less than a 100W bulb most likely) off the light circuit actually work but nobody would bat an eylid - if you asked them they would likely think you are a bit dim. Fitting it through a shaver socket or plug (1amp fuse) together with a smoke alarm sitting close to or on top of it would normally keep the most neurotic happy (but again those unsafe foreigners would think it hilarious). "Don't do this at home folks" - OK for anyone but you.

[stanleyman]

As a sparks with 45 years experience I can tell you that it is perfectly acceptable to run a very small load like this from the lighting circuit. Fans, shavers and even small bathroom heaters have been run from the lighting provided the total load is within the cable capacity, although I wouldn't run a heater on it these days.

It does not need to be separatley fused but for independant isolation I would connect it through a switched fused spur with a 3 amp fuse. There is no more likelyhood of this lightly loaded circuit smoking than there is in the lighting.

[Ray the DJ]

Why not fit the aerial booster next to your TV, I presume there's a socket there.

[buildersmate]

Usually folks want the booster in the loft because it has multiple outputs that enables them to connect several aerials from different rooms in the house and these converge in the loft.

[jake-the-peg]

If you use a masthead amplifier you can power it from a transformer in the house that supplies power to the amplifier via the arial cable.

Can you not do that instead?

http://www.maplin.co.uk/searchpages/MASTHEAD_BOOSTER.htm

[Tweed]

Stanleyman is correct. Low load appliances are often run from the lighting circuit. If, however you are wiring to a socket, it is good practice to fit a 5 amp socket, rather than a 13 amp.