Living Room Electrical Points: Planning the Hall, Point by Point

Living room electrical points: the short answer

Living room electrical points are the lights, fans, switches and sockets that the main room of a home needs: a large switch board at the entrance for the lights and fans, sockets at both ends of the sofa, a TV wall, an AC point, a bell push at the main door, and often a dining corner with its own points.

In most Indian flats the living room, or hall, does more jobs than any other room. Guests sit here, the family watches TV here, children study here in the evening, and in many homes the dining table stands at one end. That means more lights to switch in groups, more places where something gets plugged in, and the largest switch board in the house.

This guide goes point by point: what the main board carries, how to group lights and fans, where the sofa sockets go, what the entrance needs and how the room splits into circuits, with the MRPs of the parts we make at our works in Marol, Andheri East, Mumbai. Heights and plate colours have guides of their own, which we link rather than repeat. Wiring is a job for a licensed electrician, with the MCB off and the circuit tested dead first.

How many electrical points does a living room need?

A typical Indian living room needs around fifteen to twenty points: three to six light points, one or two fan points with regulators, six to eight 6A sockets across the sofa, TV wall and dining corner, one or two 16A sockets, an AC point, a bell push and a TV and data point at the TV wall.

Count from the furniture layout, not the walls: sofa, TV unit, dining table, showcase and any reading chair. Our house electrical layout plan puts the living room into a whole 2BHK. Add one spare socket per wall you might rearrange.

What goes on a living room switch board?

A living room switch board commonly carries switches for the main lights, cove and accent lights, one or two fans with their regulators, the entrance or passage light, and one socket, which often needs a 12M plate at the main entrance, or two smaller boards if the switches fall into separate groups.

For a plainer finish, VIZA ROYAL V398 is a 12M plate at ₹299. A long board is easier to use when split into two 6M boards, one per group of lights. Our plate size calculator does the sum; looks and colours are in switch board design ideas and switch board colour for every room.

How should hall lights be switched?

Hall lights are best switched in groups, with the main ceiling lights on one or two switches, cove or false-ceiling lights on another, wall or accent lights on a third, and the entrance light on a switch of its own, so the room can be fully lit for guests or softly lit for watching TV.

Common groups: main lights, cove lights, accent or picture lights, dining pendant and entrance light. A passage from the hall to the bedrooms longer than a few steps needs a 2 way switch at each end; our 2 way switch wiring diagram shows how.

For cove or accent lights you may want to dim, KEMPS K212, a Duro 650W dimmer, is ₹425 MRP and the K211 Tiny 450W ₹275. Use them only with fittings marked dimmable. How many fittings a hall needs, and at what wattage, is in how many lights in a room; we do not repeat it here.

How many fans and regulators does a living room need?

A living room up to about 12 by 14 feet is commonly served by one ceiling fan, and a larger or L-shaped hall by two, each on its own switch and regulator so that the sofa end and the dining end can run at different speeds, unless the fans come with their own remote control.

Each fan gets a switch and regulator side by side on the main board. KEMPS K213, a Tiny EME 4 step fan regulator, is ₹405 MRP, and K214, the Duro EME 5 step, is ₹450. For a conventional board, VIYONA 137 is a mini 4 step fan regulator at ₹215. Two fans means two 2M regulators, which is often what pushes the board to 12M.

A BLDC fan usually comes with a remote and may not suit an old regulator; our BLDC fan regulator guide explains why. Step versus electronic regulators are compared in fan regulator types.

Where should the sofa side socket go?

A sofa side socket goes at one or both ends of the sofa, beside the side table rather than behind the sofa itself, so a phone, laptop or floor lamp can be plugged in without moving furniture, and it is commonly paired with a USB charger and a switch for a lamp or wall light.

Plan both ends of a three-seater, and one end of each chair group. A 6A socket covers phones, laptops and lamps; KEMPS K192, with shutter, is ₹110 MRP. A USB charger saves an adapter: VIZA V305, rated 2 A, is ₹650 and KEMPS K207 ₹750; our USB socket for switch board guide covers the neutral it needs.

If the sofa will float in the middle of the room, a socket on the wall is metres away; a floor box is the usual answer, and that must be planned before the floor is laid. Heights for sofa-side and low sockets are in switch board height from floor.

Which points does the TV wall in a living room need?

A living room TV wall commonly needs four to six 6A sockets for the TV, set-top box, router, sound bar and any console, a TV antenna socket, an RJ45 data point and, for a wall-mounted TV, a box behind the screen, all grouped on one board at the height of the TV unit.

The TV wall is a board in its own right, and it is the one most often under-planned: too few sockets leaves a spike guard behind the unit. Our TV wall electrical points guide goes through it device by device.

On a KEMPS board the signal modules are the K201 TV socket at ₹102 MRP and the K205 2M RJ45 jack with shutter at ₹284. The jacks themselves, RJ45 versus RJ11 and the colour code, are in our RJ45 and TV socket guide. Keep data and TV cables in a separate conduit from the mains.

Which point does a living room AC need?

A living room AC needs its own point near where the indoor unit will hang, on its own circuit and MCB from the distribution board, and because halls are larger than bedrooms the AC is often a bigger unit, so the electrician sizes the cable, MCB and switch from that unit’s rating rather than copying the bedroom.

The point is usually a 16A socket and switch or a DP switch; KEMPS K116, a 32AX DP switch with indicator, is ₹360 MRP and VIZA V1250, a 32A DP switch with indicator, ₹330. The indicator shows from the sofa that the AC is powered.

Mark the unit first: a hall AC often sits above a window or on the wall facing the sofa, and the pipe route to the outdoor unit decides it. Our MCB for 1, 1.5 and 2 ton AC guide gives common pairings, and wire size for AC and geyser the cable.

What does the main door and entrance need?

The main door commonly needs a bell push outside, the bell itself inside the living room, a light outside the door on a switch inside, and a switch for the hall lights on the latch side of the door, so anyone arriving in the dark can light the room before stepping in.

For the bell, a modular bell push outside the door suits a modular board; KEMPS K103 is a 10AX bell push switch at ₹105 MRP. The bell inside can be a ding dong or musical type: VIYONA 231, the Royal ding dong bell, is ₹220, and our door bell guide lists the range.

The outside light is switched from inside, ideally with an indicator so you can see it is still on; VIYONA 108, a nano indicator lamp, is ₹30 MRP. A shoe rack or entrance cabinet with a light or a charging point needs its own socket planned at this stage.

How many circuits does a living room need?

A living room is commonly served by a lighting circuit for its lights and fans, a socket circuit shared with nearby rooms for the sofa, dining and TV sockets, and a separate circuit and MCB for the AC, with the TV wall sometimes given its own socket circuit so a fault elsewhere does not cut the router.

The split matters most when there is inverter backup. Decide which hall points run on backup, usually some lights, the fans and the router socket, and ask for them on circuits the inverter can feed. Our inverter for home guide draws those circuits.

VIYONA 401 is a single pole 10 kA MCB, 6A to 32A, at ₹145 MRP. Earth leakage protection needs an RCCB, which we do not make; fit one where your electrician advises. Ratings by circuit are in which MCB for home.

What does a dining corner in the hall need?

A dining corner in the hall commonly needs a light point centred over the table on its own switch, one or two 6A sockets near the table for a toaster, a food warmer or a phone, and a 16A socket if anything that heats will be used there, such as a hot plate or a water dispenser.

Centre the pendant point on where the table will stand, not on the room; a point off-centre means a hook and a loop of cable later. A separate switch lets the dining light stay on while the TV end is dim.

A water dispenser or a hot case is a heating load and belongs on a 16A point. Our 6A vs 16A socket guide goes appliance by appliance. KEMPS K193, a 6A and 16AX universal socket with shutter, takes both plug sizes at ₹205 MRP.

Living room electrical mistakes to avoid

The most common living room electrical mistakes are one long board with no grouping, too few sockets at the TV wall, no socket at the sofa, a pendant point that misses the dining table, no 2 way switch on the passage, and an AC sharing the hall socket circuit.

Each shows up on the first evening: unlabelled 12M board spike guard behind the TV no sofa socket pendant off the table AC on a shared circuit no 2 way on passage.

If you are taking possession of a new flat, our electrical checklist for a new flat turns these into a walk-through. For the rooms beyond the hall, see bedroom electrical points and balcony electrical points; the kitchen has its own kitchen electrical points guide.