Electricity & television in your French home

The book you quote is out of date &, in my opinion, is not an overly informative guide to anyone wanting to wire a house in France with no previous/other knowledge. What follows is an edit from my old blog, updated slighty (I haven’t slaved for hours just for this answer…!).

There is often confusion &/or denial about the requirements for TV & telephone (PTT) outlets here in France. Hopefully what follows will clarify things.

French domestic wiring regulations (NF C 15-100) specify certain minimum amounts of power sockets, lights, communications outlets (TV & phone points) etc. These minimums apply to new builds & total rewires of existing property if they are to comply with regulations in force at the time of inspection.

The normes specify that there should be a “prise de communication” (deemed to be an RJ45 type socket) in all “pièces principal”. So, that means that all obvious rooms such as lounges, dining rooms, bedrooms, studies, etc. need to have one (kitchens have been excepted since Amendement 5 in 11/2015 & bathrooms have never had the requirement despite what the quoted book says), with the minimum total for one “lodgement” being two (for a small apartment; see below).

However, this is not to be misinterpreted to mean that all rooms need both a TV (coax) & a phone/communications point. This is because a “prise de communication” is ultimately intended to supply all communications needs from the one outlet i.e. phone, computer network/internet & TV signals. If the cabling used for these outlets isn’t up to the necessary standard to take the higher frequencies required for terrestrial TV &/or satellite TV signals it will still be necessary to install TV outlets (“prises de type coaxial”) where they are required. As you’d expect, there is also a minimum specification for this, being:

Two coaxial outlets for accommodation up to to 100m² habitable area.

Three coaxial outlets for accommodation over 100m² habitable area.

A place with under 35m² habitable area is allowed to get away with only one TV outlet.

All communications &/or TV outlets need to be placed adjacent to a power outlet to allow easy connection of associated equipment i.e. cordless phone base stations, answering machines, computers etc. The same principle applies to TV outlets if they are in separate locations.

Don’t forget if you wish to record from satellite TV whilst watching a different channel you will need to have two dish feeds installed to your receiving equipment.

Personally I think this is all quite sensible & takes future needs into account, but I appreciate that the whole multi-purpose communications socket thing is a bit confusing at first.

I find a mixture of hard wiring plus wireless access points makes for the best solution. The idea of installing 3 x RJ45 outlets in a salon is a bit daft - one simply puts a local ethernet switch behind the TV, that way you can plug in an Apple TV, Smart TV, local wireless point etc. However, such a solution would not work if one wanted to use that particular RJ45 as a ‘phone outlet as well.

*Any new build or renovation that has had a permis de constuire logged on or after 01/01/2008 needs to have RJ45 outlets rather than the old style inverted T-shaped phone points, & have the points wired in Cat 5e (or better) cable. Any new build or total rewire then has all the TV & phone cables wired back to a central point (the “tableau/coffret de communication”) where they can be patched accordingly. This might sound complicated but it is a bit of “future proofing” & is there to enable such points to be multi-purpose phone, LAN & TV outlets if so desired, as already mentioned.

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As you say all common sense really. Personally I would go for CAT6 rather than CAT5 as costs are fairly similar but it will give slightly more longevity - who knows what data requirements we will have in 5-10 years? We all certainly have different expectations now than 10 years ago in terms of data.

So now the internal data is covered - time to look at the external slow 2mb Internet connection - one day VDSL may arrive!

Thanks Jonathan. You have identified exactly why I asked for updated guidance. I also have “Electricite Raccordements” Fleurus Systeme D as a Kindle e-book.

I am in the “fortunate” position that I can plan and chase the “gaine” in the “renovation part” of the house before I put up the dry wall and, as I can attach my active speakers through Cat cable (Cat 6 is cheaper than the propriety manufacturer cable) I will have an extensive network cabling with industrial WiFi repeaters to the old parts of the house that are in stone and I do not want to chase.

I will be sourcing much of the materials from brico in France and paying 20% VAT. I am entitled to a reduction to 10% (applied by the architect’s tradesmen - requisite form completed".
Am I entitled to refund on the materials I buy at 20%?
Do I present the form at the brico on purchase for the reduction - I ask because I will be placing an order for “carrelage” and adhesive, and drywalling system that will exceed 5000 euros?

Or is it part of the balance between overcharging tradesman and diy?

You only get to pay 10% TVA on materails supplied to you by a registered artisan, via their factures, & as part of their works. You cannot obtain that reduction buying directly from a supplier. Artisans still pay 20% on all the materials they buy & then get to charge you the lower rate. As the balancing up with the impots doesn’t occur until May/June of the following year an artisan can end up carrying the spare 10% for a long time if they aren’t making any moeny on materials…

P.S. - one of the better books to buy can be found here, Amazon, or many stores.