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"Lending" a domestic supply to community CCTV project

NigelWard
A friend asked me what he should look out for if he agrees to allow a new communal CCTV system to be powered from his home supply.  I wonder if any of you more expert than I has any wisdom to pass on?


The CCTV system is to be installed on a shared piece of land owned by the surrounding residents and needs power.  One option that the installer says is frequently used is to take off a feed from the domestic ring of the nearest house, via a meter to measure how much power has been used so that the kind resident isn't out of pocket.  In principle, if properly installed, it sounds OK and a pragmatic solution.


However, I wonder if that might be storing up trouble because any earth leakage in this spur could trip the RCD of the main house circuit and be a pain to fix.  Outdoor cable length might be up to 50m depending on routing.  (How deep should it be buried by the way?)  The power requirement is not likely to be more that a couple of hundred Watts, so I don't think voltage drop is a concern.  A more difficult installation could take a feed from a separate MCB on the consumer unit, but the cable run would be longer and more disruptive than making a hole in the nearest wall as proposed.


I wondered about the merits of inserting a back to back isolating transformer as the supply leaves the house - any thoughts on that?
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    It is not uncommon to go to an estate of former council houses where the was a communal TV aerial with a supply taken from the end of terrace house that had the mast and amplifier mounted on its gable wall.


    The electric was accounted for as a reduction on the rent, my mates sister lived in an end of terrace council houses back in the 70’s and without realising what she had done went off to get some paint having thrown the main switch just before the cup final started on the telly. There were irate neighbours waiting for her when she got back.


    When I was doing EICRs for a housing association over in Hereford I used to take a can of intumescent squirty foam with me to fill the holes in the internal gable walls where the co-ax went through, that were big enough to put your hand through, rather than write it on the report as they only wanted satisfactory EICRs as otherwise the house or flat could not be let out, so we repaired as we went along and added it to the bill.


    So yes you can probably do it, but not have total control over the supply.


    Andy Betteridge
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  • 0
    It is not uncommon to go to an estate of former council houses where the was a communal TV aerial with a supply taken from the end of terrace house that had the mast and amplifier mounted on its gable wall.


    The electric was accounted for as a reduction on the rent, my mates sister lived in an end of terrace council houses back in the 70’s and without realising what she had done went off to get some paint having thrown the main switch just before the cup final started on the telly. There were irate neighbours waiting for her when she got back.


    When I was doing EICRs for a housing association over in Hereford I used to take a can of intumescent squirty foam with me to fill the holes in the internal gable walls where the co-ax went through, that were big enough to put your hand through, rather than write it on the report as they only wanted satisfactory EICRs as otherwise the house or flat could not be let out, so we repaired as we went along and added it to the bill.


    So yes you can probably do it, but not have total control over the supply.


    Andy Betteridge
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