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Original poster

Do you have enough plug sockets?

46 replies

TheEmpressofBlandings · 26/05/2015 22:28

If you do, how many do you have?
Just been asked how many we want for a house rewire, not a clue.
I'm counting up our electrical items but how many extra should we allow for things like plugging the Hoover in? How many tv points, how many phone points? Argh!
We don't have a huge number of electrical things, no TVs upstairs for example but guess we should allow
For that in future maybe?

OP posts:
Twistedheartache · 26/05/2015 22:36

Enough yes. Will count up in the morning.

In the right place? Not in the slightest - far too many ended up behind the logical place to put furniture in a room

HayFeverHell · 26/05/2015 22:42

We rewrired our house and made sure there was a double socket on every wall in each room. So for instance, our living room has 4 double sockets. The kitchen is an exception, we put a double socket every 2.5 metres of counter top and a double socket on the kitchen island.

Hope that helps. Smile

grumbleina · 26/05/2015 22:44

We rewired this year and I got TOLD on a thread on here, about sockets. I ended up almost doubling my initial idea and it was totally the right thing to do. And I don't even have a TV! or a hairdryer!

So: two bed flat. Number of individual sockets (halve it for the number of double socket plate things):

Living room: 14
Bedroom: 10
Kitchen: 14 but two of those are undercounter for fridge/cooker and two are in a cupboard for boiler/random.
Spare room: 4 I think, maybe 6

In hindsight: I'd have put even more on the kitchen countertop. We have eight. I should've done ten. We don't run out but we do get nearly to max cap.

DEFINITELY put one somewhere handy for the Hoover. We put one in the kitchen (it's not a big flat) near the door and it's super.

Plug in all your stuff then double it. Then add a couple in random spots you think 'might be useful one day'.

TazTheFairy · 26/05/2015 22:44

Yes, we do, DH is an electrician and v good at planning stuff. Kitchen is small so has 4 doubles. Utility room has 3 doubles. Lounge has 4 doubles, phone point, sky point and aerial point. Dining room/play room has a lot more for all the gadgets! Hallway and landing one double a piece, bedrooms a double in every corner plus aerial point (even though only one in use is our room).

MrsLeighHalfpenny · 26/05/2015 22:49

You can never have enough sockets. We have !pads of extension leads, even in the new bit of the house where we thought we'd gone overboard with sockets. When you think you've planned enough, add a few more. Its better to have too many than not enough

PlainHunting · 26/05/2015 22:53

Lots and lots (far too many to count) apart from 2 bedrooms where they're very low and some modern integrated plugs won't fit.

HellKitty · 26/05/2015 22:55

Extra in the kitchen. We don't have enough, one double has the toaster and his charger always in. Another double has the kettle - no workspace extra for anything else needed there. And one lonely one on my main worktop. It shares its sorry self with the slow cooker/mixer/can opener/actifry/liquidiser. Pain in the bloody arse. We're moving soon though and I will be counting the sockets.

FrankTurnersGuitar · 26/05/2015 23:00

I've just replaced some double sockets for doubles that also have 2 USBs built in, saves a lot of plugs.

HellKitty · 26/05/2015 23:08

Christmas tree lights! I know it's not essential but nothing worse than trying to find an extension lead when you've just got the tree out of he loft Grin

openthecurtains · 26/05/2015 23:10

We rewired the whole house and put 2 double sockets on every wall. So each room has 16 sockets. I feel reasonably future-proofed for a while with that. I should have had all the bedroom ones put at waist height though rather than above the skirting board as it would be much better for hair dryers etc.

ghostspirit · 26/05/2015 23:14

living room i have 2 double sockets. used for tv and skybox... they are in stupid places!!

kitchen i have 2 single i double. not enough! have to use them extention with extra sockets..

box room has 2 double and 1 single! just need tv and playstation/tablet plugged in kettle,toaster,microwave,washing,machine,fridge

medium room has 1 double 1 single just need socket to charge phone

large room has 1 double 1 single. need them for sky box and tv. and tablet

dining room has 1 double 2 single ...needed for tv and charge phone.and for stereo

hall has 1 single...use extention for router and freezer

CQ · 26/05/2015 23:15

Extra in the office if you have one, or at your workplace where the PC sits. I've just been scrabbling round under our desk and there's SEVEN plugs down there on jacks into just 2 sockets. Fire waiting to happen.

One each for PC, printer, phone, wifi router, shredder, pop-up electricity tower thingy, surge protector and external hard drive.

I wanted to plug in a wifi signal booster that's supposed to go in its own socket next to the router. Not a bloody chance.

So yes, OP, put several hundred extra sockets in your office space.

Permanentlyexhausted · 26/05/2015 23:16

Yes, although we could still have more. We had loads put in when we had an extension built.

Living room - 12
Kitchen - 15
Bedrooms - at least 6 in each (10 in master bedroom)
Utility room - 2 (although there must be another 3 somewhere with the washing machine, tumble dryer and boiler plugged in!)

laracroft2001 · 26/05/2015 23:19

13 double sockets in a 2 bed flat plus a shaver socket thing in bathroom and ensuite

laracroft2001 · 26/05/2015 23:22

Sorry 15 double sockets. Missed one by telly and forgot undercounter one in kitchen

Cant say have ever ran out

emwithme · 26/05/2015 23:25

We will have soon. We're doing a full renovation and we're going for 6 double sockets minimum in every room; more in the kitchen! Bedrooms are having two doubles on each "side" of where a double bed could conceivably go in the big bedrooms. I counted up what I needed and then added two double sockets...

I cannot wait until I can get rid of my zillions of 4 way extension leads.

TheOneWiththeNicestSmile · 26/05/2015 23:29

Kitchen has loads but not always in the right places - there are spares going begging but I need a 4-gang plug-in thing on the clean/dry counter for phones etc.

House was rewired 30 years ago, most other rooms got 3 double sockets, but these days one each of most of those has at least a 4-gang trailer in & some have 6-gang.

Around my PC there's an 8-gang heavy duty Stanley trailer & one of the things plugged into that is a plain 6-gang Shock (I suspect this is not best practice but they're not things that use a lot of power). Of those 14 sockets 11 are occupied. Computers/accessories/phones use loads!

DS2 has a roomful of electronic stuff - TV & Xbox, laptop, amps, guitars, guitar pedals, record player. & phone of course. I think he has 10 trailing sockets available.

I'm not sure if having more sockets would actually help us that much. It's more useful to have the 6 in one place from a trailer (& having those switched is also useful).

purplemeggie · 26/05/2015 23:32

This made me smile. I'm the daughter of an electrical engineer and, growing up, if there was a shortage of sockets, the plug fairy appeared in the night and wired in another one. I didn't know what an extension lead was until I left home! First thing I did when I bought my house was to have a LOT of extra sockets put in.

We have eight (four doubles) in the living room and a four-way extension lead plugged into one of them, so no - not enough! We're having a new kitchen put in at the moment and have asked for eight double sockets (I think).

madamginger · 26/05/2015 23:42

We put sockets everywhere when we rewired.
4 double sockets in the bedrooms, in the living room 3 doubles behind the TV unit plus 2 more doubles on other walls. A double at the top and the bottom of the stairs and 4 doubles in the kitchen.
You will need more than you think. We put enough in that we don't need any extension chords

Mitzi50 · 27/05/2015 00:00

I had loads put in when I had an extension and rewired so that we don't need to use extension leads - 11 in kitchen for instance. Some of the more useful ones are high level sockets for wall mounted tvs with tv point, a floor socket near the kitchen table which is regularly used for laptops and saves trailing wires and an outdoor socket in the back garden. I wish I'd had put an extra shaver socket in the bathrooms and an outdoor socket for the front garden.

echt · 27/05/2015 07:51

Too many sockets is like having too much money, not possible.

I live in Au, the home of shit sockets supply. The problem here is the very big rooms with inadequate sockets, hence 1) trailing wires all over the shop 2) reliance on overhead lighting which I cordially detest.

A few years ago I read an article on houses for life, and one of the things they mentioned was lots of sockets so you can have lamps where you actually change the fecking bulb when you're, ahem, older.

DH and I are not yet doddering, but we've had a gazillion sockets put in against the day.

VeryPunny · 27/05/2015 12:50

We have just had our extension redone and put in a bazillion sockets, including several combined socket/USB port thingies. We also got one high up in the wall behind where the TV goes, so we can wall mount the flatscreen and you won't be able to see any wires. Whatever number you think you need, double it!

TreadSoftlyOnMyDreams · 27/05/2015 13:35

We put in gazillions of the things everywhere but I neglected to put a landing socket in at the loft level, as it was a) tiny and b) there were sockets for the hoovers all round it.
First thing I realised when the electricians left was that I couldn't put a night light in on the landing so now the overhead one is on a lot while we wean DD off it/stop her crashing down the stairs in the dead of night.

We have 2 x double sockets each beside our beds, it's not enough already. I think in total in one bedroom we have 10 sockets. some have ended up behind furniture but at least we can move things around.

Stuff like a socket at the end of the sofa - make it a double so you can plug in a lamp but also have a phone/ipad/laptop on charge while you use it.

VeryPunny - we did that but all the electrical TV plugs were huge - surge protection I think? So we've ended up with wires anyway. Gah

WishUponAStar88 · 27/05/2015 13:41

We have barely any it's a pita.
One double in all bedrooms
3 doubles in living room
1 double in dining room
4 doubles in kitchen
A double upstairs and downstairs hall/ landing which is useful for hoovering

specialsubject · 27/05/2015 14:15

I would suggest:

bedrooms:
a double either side of a double bed, and a double on each of the other walls. Do watch that teens don't daisy-chain extensions and encourage TURNING THINGS OFF.

living room:
think TV and all the associated boxes, lamps, sound systems. A double on each wall. Perhaps a 'charging station' so all can be turned off at once, and to keep screens out of bedrooms?

kitchens:
loads - we are appliance light but still need kettle, toaster, microwave, coffee maker, plus there are two others for occasional things like mixers. Fridge has a socket behind it, oven separately wired.

utility room:
freezer and washing machine, so that's one double. another on the opposite wall is handy for the vacuum. If you have a dryer add another.

hallways:
a double in each hallway, so one socket has a nightlight and the other can be used for a vacuum cleaner.