Sharing a Sky dish with a neighbour

[davidn]

Hi All,

I want to get Sky, however I've been told that I can't put a satellite dish up outside my flat, however there are some dishes already out the back.

I was wondering whether I can safely use a spare connection on one of these (with the neighbours permission of course) safely?

I've seen on some old threads (2007) that I've seen that there is some electrical safety issue with joining two circuits from different houses into one satellite dish. Is this still true?

Hopefully I can get some advice on this.

Thanks,
David.

[nodrog]

a friend of my daughter moved into her own flat and ordered sky tv and broadband the sky engineer when he arrived said because of a tree in line of sight he could not put a dish on her part of the flats wall and as she was 2 floors up he could not put dish any higher on the roof anywhere without getting a special hight team in costing extra for install he spoke to a neighbour in the next block who had a dish which was not affected by the tree they only had a single feed lnb she agreed for the sky installer to fit a quad lnd and now they both share the one dish..... so the answer to your question is yes but get neighbour to agree as problems may arrise if one of you want tv in another room as a qud lnb will rule out multiroom you would then need an octo or 8 feed lnb for this

[Smithy99]

No problems at all, just needs the spare feeds or as advised if needed an octo LNB can be fitted to allow upto 8 connections.

[Old_nick]

I've seen on some old threads (2007) that I've seen that there is some electrical safety issue with joining two circuits from different houses into one satellite dish. Is this still true?

Yes it is ! If this is your only option, consult an electrician !

The reason behind this is that electricity companies use a 3-phase supply. Domestic properties generally only use one phase, and to split the load, the electricity companies connect different properties to different phases. In a block of flats, it is possible that different floors could be wired to different phases. If you measure the voltage between phases, it is in excess of 400 volts, which could exceed the insulation rating of cables and boxes in use. A good electrician should be able to advise you on whether sharing a dish would be a safe thing to do.

[Proppinupthebar]

Yes it is ! If this is your only option, consult an electrician !

The reason behind this is that electricity companies use a 3-phase supply. Domestic properties generally only use one phase, and to split the load, the electricity companies connect different properties to different phases. In a block of flats, it is possible that different floors could be wired to different phases. If you measure the voltage between phases, it is in excess of 400 volts, which could exceed the insulation rating of cables and boxes in use. A good electrician should be able to advise you on whether sharing a dish would be a safe thing to do.

DC is DC. Theres only a DC feed to the LNB. No issues whatsoever with supplying the dish from two flats.

[Brian69]

DC is DC. Theres only a DC feed to the LNB. No issues whatsoever with supplying the dish from two flats.

On the face of it you are quite correct, there is no problem. However with two or more receivers operating in different dwellings, it is possible that one could develop a fault and result in the whole system becoming live. For this reason, it would be a good idea to earth the screen of the co-ax at a central point, as is done with proper shared dish systems. It's a good idea in all systems.

[davidn]

Thanks for all the replys, although I'm left a bit confused as to whether it is ok or not.

The first reply post states that a Sky engineer did join two flats into one dish. Does this mean that it is ok, or would he have checked to see if the flats had the same circuit?

For this reason, it would be a good idea to earth the screen of the co-ax at a central point, as is done with proper shared dish systems. It's a good idea in all systems.

With this, is a Sky engineer able to do this, or would this be an electrician's job?

If I ask a Sky engineer if it's ok, will they know about the risk of joining two flats together?

Thanks,
David.

[Brian69]

I would consult an electrician and explain what you want to do.

[Smithy99]

There is no problem in doing as you wish, you have just as much chance of the system being hit by lightning as there being a problem with the electric supplys, they are connected via a DC supply so there is no issue over the phases etc, the DC convertor would melt before this became an issue.

1000's of people share dishes without any problems.

[simonmpoulton]

I agree with smithy on this one, the chance of the AC current going through into the dish is extremely slim (if at all possible).