power to computer desks

[infinity]

I have been called out to a regular client today, commerical, basically a big room full of desks and people on PC's.

They are having a move around at the weekend and want to tidy up the desks and ensure the power is adequate for the new computers.

The desks come away from the wall in a T formation with the first dest plugged into the wall then about 6 extension leads plugged in cnnecting the row of desks up! Terrible

The data has been slung in and is actually hanging on the floor! Apparently it was only done last week!

now i am trying to think of the best solution to this as i have to do it the weekend, they have left it to the last minute to ask me to sort it.

I was thinking DADO trunking from the wall, under the desks. i could run T&E through it to power points along the desks and also tidy the data up, my only concern is that the desks are obviously only pushed up against the wall so i cant wire it like a permanent fixture.

Has anyone else had to do anything similar and found a decent solution for this type of setup?

Thanks

 

[Tiny Spark]

What we do at work in the offices is run Mita Dado trunking down the wall, Then a internal angle at the bottom and dado along the floor.
Depending on the desks you may have to mount the trunking on top hats to allow the desks legs to slide underneath.
Looks nice when its all done, But obviosuly once its in thats it.

 

[EastAnglian]

Dado trunking at floor level with both power & data cables run in separate compartments

 

[infinity]

Thanks guys, Good idea i never actually considered fitting it to the floor!

May be a bit tricky due to the desks being butted up against each other but where there's a will there's a way!

thanks

 

[Tiny Spark]

Move em out of the way and theres no problem
We usually end up with banks of 4-8 desks with so many one side and so many the other so you cant even see the trunking once they are in place.

 

[telectrix]

kango... dig... floor sockets...... ssssimmplesss'.

 

[Andy78]

If you cant fit dado on the floor because of it's width, use 100x50 or 100x60 trunking with internal fillet to separate data and power. It's a lot cheaper too.

 

[dazza1981]

2 compartment trunking along the walls is the way to go here i think mate...... im not sure how many computers there are in that office but remember that computers do have earth leakage and can trip the rcd if there is to many on one circuit, so you may want to consider 2 ring mains!!

 

[infinity]

Floor sockets would be lovely! but completely out the question in this concrete floor :s

There is no RCD, it has been there a while and all surface mounted.

I like the compartment trunking idea, it has to have fairley decent seperation from the data as they are starting to use IP phone Data talk (or something like that) apparently its the new thing and power effects it a lot more than the usual data situation

 

[Tiny Spark]

Be great full you have a nice concrete floor.
Some time ago I was asked to install floor sockets in a first floor meeting room.
They didnt seem to understand that by kango'in out the floor to chase the sockets in that it would end up making a moat in the middle of the room allowing you to wave to the people down stairs!!

 

[dazza1981]

It doesn't take long to install dado trunking and it actually looks ok once its finished and its mostly hidden by desks and other crap anyway

 

[Flanders]

The last one we did the customer wanted all the sockets and cat 5 sockets on the wall then made up IEC leads and patch cables to the correct length then used basket under the desks to run the cables in we did 8 twin socket per RFC