Loft conversion - will powerline adapter still work with new electrics?

[#1]

Hi.   We are doing a loft conversion and I am worried that our powerline adaptor will no longer work.  

The electrician has mentioned he is putting a new panel or fuse board (not sure what it is called) in our loft, rather than do a costly upgrade on the central panel downstairs.  

Until now, we have had a TP powerline adaptor for our CCTV NVR in our loft and it has worked great.  However I am not sure if the new electrical circuitry will prevent the powerline adapter from working properly in future.

Do you think it would still work?  

Or should I try and run an Ethernet cable from the loft downstairs to the router?  If I did this it would be right along side the mainelectrical wiring up to the loft, so I am not sure if this would cause further problems? Also, whilst this option would potentially solve the CCTV to router connection problem, I may still have problems with wifi signals for mobiles and tablets up there, so I a powerline adapter really is my best option

I need to sort this our quickly while the carpets are up and the cable paths are accessible in the walls, before the plasterer arrives this week.

All help appreciated!

Thanks!

[#2]

If you have the chance to run an Ethernet cable up there then I would say that has to be the best option - it also gives you other options for Wi-Fi later.

[#3]

Bit worried that I might have left it too late to run the ethernet cable, without creating bigger mess and a lot more cost.

Please someone tell me that the powerline adapter will work....

[#4]

No one is going to tell you that - the only way of finding out is trying it - and then it will be too late to do anything else - suck it up, get that Ethernet cable run in..

[#5]

Ok, you have convinced me.  I’ll run a Cat 5 cable up to the loft.  That’s my Sunday Afternoon sorted.

The easiest route is following the path that the electrician hacked out of the wall for the cabling of new circuit panel thing. Not sure if this is could cause issues?  Thought I’d ask now before it’s too late...

[#6 · Accepted solution]

running it alongside powercables isnt ideal but workable, just make sure you buy good decent quality shielded cat5e to run in the wall.

Or ask the elctrician if it is at all possible to have one power socket fed from the main fuseboard, you could then use that solely for the powerline adapter. Explain what its for and that it needs to be on the same wiring circuit as its partner (at least on the same fuseboard)

Also if the walls will be getting plastered, run 2 cat5e lengths, so if one fails you have a backup without rerunning later. 

[#7]

Ah, good idea about running the 2 cables.  I'll do that this afternoon.  I should be able to get hold of the electrician tomorrow to see if he would have time to run another cable from the main fuseboard up there before the plasterer comes.  

Thanks for your help!

[#8]

Another option is to run a spur from the existing ring main into the loft and plug the powerline into that.

I have my TV in the original part of the house and the Router lives in the extension, which has a separate Consumer Unit. Powerline works between the two but fairly slowly.

I fitted a socket behind the TV which is just a spur from the extension ring main (a simple hole straight through the wall), and that works fine. Not sure about it's legality under building regs however.

[#9]

If you run an Ethernet cable you could then install a switch in the loft for extra Ethernet sockets. One for the CCTV, one for some form of wireless extender and others for anything else that might like a wired connection.

Brian

[#10]

No problem, glad to help.

you cant beat wired tbh, lowest latency, highest possible bandwidth etc. you could always feed a secondary switch on the spare pairing. leaving a single cable for your main pc. Or extend on the new fuseboard using another pair of powerlines in their on setup to extend further. Just be aware the more powerline adapters you extend with share total bandwidth.

[#11]

I concur direct wire is best, OR you could

Run a power line extender with a WI-Fi output (like TP Link) on an 'old circuit' socket below the loft and use that. Not the highest speed but it depends what you want to do.

In my experience, some installations with two consumer units work fine; and some don't. I do not know a suitable test to determine other than trial (and unfortunately sometimes error.)

[#12]

Yes - cable is best! If you have trouble with an internal cable run, it is often very easy to run cable down the outside of the house and fit a proper RJ45 socket at either end: just use exterior grade Cat 5e (I also use an Ethernet cable lightning protector just in case...)