Hey guys, Im in the process of moving to a new place. The wall where I want to mount TV doesnt have any power socket, but there is indoor A/C unit just next to it. Can I just connect a power strip cable to A/C unit terminals and use it as a socket for my LCD TV? Is there any risk Im not aware of?
I live in EU and have 220V AC mains. AC is ~1kW indoor unit and also ~1kW outdoor unit. TV is just regular 43" LCD.
I have a general knowledge about electricity (high school), but have no experience with A/C units.
Cheers
The most important consideration is that your home may have earth leakage protection for the outlets, but not for the hardwired AC. It likely depends on when it was built, for example in Australia the regulation to provide RCD, residual current device, protection on AC was introduced relatively recently.
This protection is a must for any pluggable device. The LCD TV may be double insulated, but you would be tempting fate with such a useful outlet…
EDIT: I mean, fuck, personally I would 10000% re-use the AC cable for a 4 gang outlet. It’s a no brainer. But this is terrible advice to provide right? If you insist on doing it, buy an RCBO protected power strip. Little more expensive but much safer if you are unsure about upstream protection. And press the test button!!
EDIT: To clarify, personally (and minimally) I would take a 10A RCBO protected power board and cut it’s plug off halfway down the lead, disconnect the AC wire entirely and join into the power board cable with a rated junction box. Then I would take the cut off lug and half lead and terminate into the AC, and plug it into the power board. This has the benefit of guaranteeing (press the test button!!!) some sort of earth leakage protection (via the RCD component in the RCBO), and current protection (via the OL component of the RCBO) for infrastructure (I saw some concern about a 70W TV burning your wires lol, but yeah if you plug a heater or hair dryer in, this will save you from that… and although the upstream protection really should I am assuming nothing!).
EDIT: Please don’t die. If you insist on doing this, turn off EVERY switch or remove EVERY fuse (be careful with fuses) you find in your board, and lock it. Then try the AC to confirm it is isolated. Then turn the switches back on and confirm the AC works. Then lock it out again and confirm isolated. If you have a multi meter, test it on a known live outlet first (multimeters can fail!) then on the AC terminals (rinse, repeat) Then proceed!
EDIT: I missed that 10A is still 2.2kW sorry, if you do the work then determine the cross sectional area of the wire and see if they can even handle 10A, the downstream overload protection might be useless.
Thanks for writing this and dont worry Im not gonna die <3 I trust myself that much to be safe and not die. I have multimeter and I was doing some simple wiring in school and at home. If I cant disconnect mains, Im not touching it, period. Im also thinking I should pay electritian for this work, but still want to know whats going on.
It was built this year, so everything is new, but still doesnt mean it was built by following any regulations. You know, I live in one of crappy countries on balkan…
I think my mains cable 3x2.5 mm2 goes from 16A switch (behind 40A RCD) to outdoor unit. Then 5 lead wire is going from outdoor to indoor unit. 3 of 5 cables are mains and ground afaik N+L+GND. If I go that route I should add one more (probably 10A as you said, but have to be checked) RCBO next to my indoor unit and connect mains from outdoor unit to RCBO, then connect AC and TV after RCBO? Sounds good, but it might require some creativity to fit everything inside or next to indoor unit.
Btw, my AC looks like its grounded. There are some pics (AC = klima at F9):
https://flic.kr/ps/42WA6a
Edit: I said what I think how its connected by reading how it is usually connected, I never checked wiring myself. I just took pics few minutes a go. I need bit more research
Or, just…call a sparky.