Most desks are sold with, at best, a very limited cable management system, but more often with nothing at all.  A simple system might be a horizontal beam system for your cables and power sockets, and two cable ports in the desk top to get the wires onto the desk.

Sometimes you might even get a vertical section of trunking which will tidy away the wires from the floor up to the underside of the  desk.
But effective cabling on any desk is essential for ease of use and for safety.  And once the power and data has been successfully brought up to underneath the desk, what then ?

It really isn’t practical to be scrambling under your desk every time you need to charge your phone or plug in your laptop.
So it makes real sense to think about how you use your office furniture and what can be done to make it even more practical.

Desk top power and data sockets really will transform your life, and won’t cost as much as you think.
And  you really shouldn’t be using DIY trailing sockets, plugged in to each other to get your main power to your desks.

There are specific products for office installations which are safer, more efficient, and which can be properly daisy chained for multiple workstations. Each individual socket is fused so that there is no chance of overload, reducing the risk of component damage and fires.

Using a standard wall socket and cheap extension leads means that your delicate electronic equipment is being protected, more often that not, by a 13amp fuse, which is not ideal.
The equipment only takes a few amps at most, and more often less than an amp, so the fuse should be rated nearer to this level. Any surges or spikes should kill the fuse and not the equipment.

The other advantage of having the correct fuse rating for the sockets intended power requirement, is that the danger of overloading the extension leads or wall sockets is removed.

Too many times we see countless items of electrical equipment plugged into a daisy chain of white extension sockets. Amp hungry electric heaters, coffee machines, and mega shredders, all on the same circuit as the wireless router. A real recipe for disaster for the delicate low power electronics and a potential fire risk

There are so many cost effective solutions around today that businesses really should treat this aspect of their office refurbishment project as importantly as getting the correct shape and size of desks, or making sure that work areas are screened from each other for improved privacy and noise control.

Most businesses now recognise the importance of getting the right office chairs for their employees, rather than the badly designed and unsupported offerings we all endured not that many years ago, but desk power cabling really should be treated as equally important.
After all, the consequences of an overloaded DIY wiring system can be much more serious than some back- ache, and could even prove fatal for your business, or worst of all, for your employees.

So the next time you speak to your office furniture dealer about some desks and chairs, also ask him about your power and data cabling, and what can be done to improve it.
You will be glad that you did