Browse Forums Building A New House Re: What electrical things did you think of/added/wish you had? 21Aug 03, 2009 8:19 pm just a quick tip from a sparkie! *try put powerpoints on internal walls in bedrooms etc... its easier for us to add a powerpoint on a cavity wall later if needed... *think about putting them in places also where we can double up and go directly behind for the next room.... Re: What electrical things did you think of/added/wish you had? 22Aug 03, 2009 8:21 pm lina_321 What a great topic. I'm doing my electricals in a couple of weeks. I love the idea of having powerpoints in the vanity cupboard and in the linen cupboard. I am putting a few more in the pantry so we can charge mobile phones. and having at least 8 points in study. * Are we there yet ? Demolition has come and gone ! yippeeee..hang on that was months ago !! come on Mr Builder, dig a hole at least Finaly ! Hole Dug ! well done darren 20/06/2010. Slab is down ! Framing is complete 20/10/2010 we are progressing like a snail on heat - excited and determined but very very slow Steveo Re: What electrical things did you think of/added/wish you had? 23Aug 03, 2009 8:23 pm Mr Smith just a quick tip from a sparkie! *try put powerpoints on internal walls in bedrooms etc... its easier for us to add a powerpoint on a cavity wall later if needed... *think about putting them in places also where we can double up and go directly behind for the next room.... I was told that piggybacking p/pts allows transferrence of noise between rooms & should be avoided at all costs. Built the Eden Brae Cambridge 34 Family with Boston Corner Facade Re: What electrical things did you think of/added/wish you had? 24Aug 03, 2009 8:33 pm Southies Mr Smith just a quick tip from a sparkie! *try put powerpoints on internal walls in bedrooms etc... its easier for us to add a powerpoint on a cavity wall later if needed... *think about putting them in places also where we can double up and go directly behind for the next room.... I was told that piggybacking p/pts allows transferrence of noise between rooms & should be avoided at all costs. iv never heard of anything like that...mayb on brick walls its not an issue, but it wont make that much of a difference Re: What electrical things did you think of/added/wish you had? 25Aug 03, 2009 8:57 pm Thanks everyone!! You have brought up heaps of stuff I hadnt thought of And Im glad to see its a useful thread for others too! Feel free to add more! Custom European Cabinets - Melbourne Kitchen Specialist PM for business details as website currently being updated! Our Crazy Owner Builder Journey! Re: What electrical things did you think of/added/wish you had? 26Aug 03, 2009 9:38 pm If you start adding extra points in later off existing ones you might overload the circuit. Better to have the wiring planned at build so the sparky can design the system adequately. I'd put at least 2x double PP's anywhere there is a TV or computer gear, in some cases even 3x. Adds up quick, especially in the lounge if you have TV, DVD, Amp, and a console or 2. If you're not doing a built in microwave, then add a double PP in the pantry if you decide to get one later and don't want it on your bench top. If there is a chance a large cupboard or storage room will be used to house computer/networking gear, put power in there too. One double point is enough if you're running all the gear on a UPS. Inside the bathroom cabinetry (ie under bench) for stuff like electric toothbrush or shaver so they're out of sight. Also have a double above the bench so the ladies can use their precious hair dryers and straighteners....I don't dare mess with those items hehe Of course you cannot have enough points in the garage. Do a couple doubles around the place, they're always going to come in handy. I'd do one at each end of the garage so if you're using a high pressure water hose (using tank water of course) you don't need extension leads. And double water proof points outside are a must for entertaining or using a hedge trimmer if that's your thing. Re: What electrical things did you think of/added/wish you had? 27Aug 04, 2009 1:52 am Our holiday house had all the power point about kneeheight up the walls- GRRR!!! GRRR especially in the bedrooms cos if a bed is against the wall where the pp is you either ; cant plug anything in it or ; have to move the bed away away from the wall if you want a bedside light which is not very practical esp when there are 3 beds in a small room Plus i would also put the bedroom ones more towards a corner cos i'm i bit funny about the 'electro magnetic field' thing. Not good to have electricity running behind bedheads(and apparently it still is there when the pp is off!) Thankgod i sold my last house cos the meterbox was on the wall where my bedhead butted up to & there was no other way possible to place my bed-THE most silliest, non-thought out house EVER!!!!!!!!!!! All i heard at night was tick tick tick...... Re: What electrical things did you think of/added/wish you had? 28Aug 24, 2009 8:00 pm Quote: Thankgod i sold my last house cos the meterbox was on the wall where my bedhead butted up to & there was no other way possible to place my bed-THE most silliest, non-thought out house EVER!!!!!!!!!!! All i heard at night was tick tick tick...... I'd kill to have hearing that good! This has been a fantastic thread. I'm keeping a word document going in the lead up to starting our build. It will have all this kind of info in it... questions for the builder... the pool people... the bank... things to thing of before going to builder... things to do after we move in... That way it's all on paper and I can sleep at night without it all swirling around in my head!!! Carol & Bruce Will be building with Allworth Homes "Lachlan Elite" House: http://www.MaisonDeBritts.blogspot.com Photography: http://www.pbc.carbonmade.com Relocatable house 4 sale (Newcastle): http://www.283waratah-bayway.blogspot.com Re: What electrical things did you think of/added/wish you had? 29Aug 24, 2009 8:50 pm TV point, double PP and HDMI cable in the alfresco! I can't wait to watch TV out there on a balmy summer's evening! Everyone else has pretty much covered what I was thinking, especially the importance of 'ease of vacuuming'! I have also 16 internet points throughout the house (I hate wireless...), and made sure there were 2 in each of the minor bedrooms next to GPO's so that if/when the kids decided to swap their furniture around, they could use another internet point without having a cable across the floor. I've always said you can never have enough GPO's. I have four in the formal lounge (no TV point either) purely incase I want to move the furniture around and add lamps on tables and things. I chose not to have TV points in all the bedrooms (except ours), as the kids will have their own TV area, and I (personally) don't want them to have TV's in their rooms until they are old enough to buy their own! We can then install them via the roof later. Think about external lighting, not just on the front facade. Have them installed all around the house, especially where the doors are, the garage external door to the side and also under the clothes line. Nothing worse than coming home from work in the dark and not being able to see to bring in the washing! Make sure when you draw them on the drawing, they are evenly spaced between windows, but don't interfere with downpipes. Even though I'm yet to live in the house, there's not much I probably would add. I did get the sparkies to add an extra at bench height in the laundry. I'm sure things will come up as we settle in, though! Henley - Wilshire Mk 3 ... I love my house!! Site start: 4th Feb 09 Handover: 10th Sep 09 Blog: http://stormygirlscastle.blogspot.com/ Build Thread: viewtopic.php?t=7166 Re: What electrical things did you think of/added/wish you had? 30Aug 24, 2009 9:58 pm So does having 3 phase power installed to run ducted air con also mean we can have heaps of pp's? Our current house trips whenver we have jug & microwave + 1 other appliance on at the same time. Does anyone know if having 3 phase help stop this sort of overload or is it exclusively for the air con? Cheers Kim Re: What electrical things did you think of/added/wish you had? 31Aug 24, 2009 10:30 pm this is an awesome thread... i will be adding all my little scrawled notes into a book i think so that they are all in one place instead of all over hubbies nice clean (or it was, atleast before i got to it) desk. hahah. We are adding a double to the top shelf area of each of the kids bedrooms so that we can put their stereos up on a shelf out of the way. The speakers will be also tucked out of sight though not in a place where the sound will be jeopardized. They all have remotes for their equipment and if its not having to take up room on a shelf etc, it gives them more room .. Building the NBG Hotham 26 (altered by us) through CitiWest Re: What electrical things did you think of/added/wish you had? 32Aug 24, 2009 11:18 pm wish I could afford to fully automate my house, with a centralised music system! Maybe, by the time I pay off my reno, home automation will be all wireless progress viewtopic.php?f=31&t=20401 sculptures viewtopic.php?f=36&t=26607 pole trouble viewtopic.php?f=3&t=25988 Re: What electrical things did you think of/added/wish you had? 33Aug 24, 2009 11:51 pm OMG So does having 3 phase power installed to run ducted air con also mean we can have heaps of pp's? Our current house trips whenver we have jug & microwave + 1 other appliance on at the same time. I understand the 3 phase for the aircon is entirely independent of the rest of the house. You just need several normal power circuits in your house. Probably best to check with your builder. Your present house circuits sound incredibly poorly designed, unless there is some other problem that should be investigated. How many power circuits do you have in your present house? Re: What electrical things did you think of/added/wish you had? 34Aug 25, 2009 12:10 am cyberman OMG So does having 3 phase power installed to run ducted air con also mean we can have heaps of pp's? Our current house trips whenver we have jug & microwave + 1 other appliance on at the same time. I understand the 3 phase for the aircon is entirely independent of the rest of the house. You just need several normal power circuits in your house. Probably best to check with your builder. Ok thanks will do. Your present house circuits sound incredibly poorly designed, unless there is some other problem that should be investigated. How many power circuits do you have in your present house? Had 2 sparkys look & both reckon its just too bad? - Just another reason I want to move! Cheers Kim Re: What electrical things did you think of/added/wish you had? 35Aug 26, 2009 12:03 am Like most other people have mentioned I did the outside lights (don't forget garden lighting as well as spotlights), thousands of power points and other various things. We also did some networking... Here is a word from my sponsor (boyfriend) on how/why to network a home: *A good read if you know very little about networking or why you should. I'd get a coffee about now!!* At least one network point to all rooms - even the fridge! (Come on internet fridge!) Most important place for a network point in the home theatre/main TV viewing point. By the end of the year Foxtel (Telstra), IInet, Optus will all have a device which you can use to receive TV via the internet, not a lot of homes will get this straight away but within the next 3 to 5 it should be relatively commonplace, especially with the governments $42b Fibre to the home investment. If you're looking for an excuse to install those points now you have any game console (Wii, PS3 or 360) and while you can use wireless the data point costs about the same as wireless adapter for a 360 or Wii. Wireless also offers a lesser speed and quality of connection, a cabled connection is still the way to go. Also if you want to stream movies that you download on your computer to your TV, you'll do this across a network. Additionally all of this years TV's and a few of last years are internet enabled and often have partnerships with content providers so that you can view things like the weather, youtube, and netflix on your TV. In the next couple of years you will see the line between Internet Service Providers (BigPond, iiNet, Westnet, TPG, AAPT etc) and content providers (Foxtel, Netflix, Channel 9, 7, 10 etc.) blur significantly. You'll have data points in most rooms of the house and through that point you'll be able to get internet, TV, Movies, Phone (VOIP rather than traditional landline services) and a range of other services through a single channel. You don't necessarily have to install multiple points in every room as later on down the track you can buy a small 4 port switch which you can think of as being like a power board but for a network. Ideally you should probably install two points in each room as if you want a traditional phone connection plus a data connection for a computer/TV/games console, they are wired slightly differently. A VOIP phone, a PC, an xbox 360 and a TV plugged into a 4 port switch on the other hand will all work fine together. To give you an idea as to what we did, here's a quick rundown of where and what we installed. Garage: Main termination point for all cabling - Here we have a patch panel which is where all of the cabling in the house terminates as well as all the services coming into the house. Some people prefer to have this inside the house, often in the top of the linen closet or somewhere equally out of the way but still accessible. This allows you to "route" a connection or incoming service to anywhere in the house. You might have bought one phone number with two points from Telstra which both terminate at the cabling box. What you can do is connect the first point to the study and the second point the master bedroom. If one day you decide you want to move the master bedroom phone point to the kitchen you simply move the cable in the cabling box from the master bedroom point to the kitchen point. If you're having trouble imagining how this works, think of the old telephone switchboard operators how they would accept a call from one point and then plug it into another point establishing a connection. Theatre: 4 data points (2 panels) - 4 is probably overkill but they came free with the starter package offered by the builder. At the very least I would recommend two points for the theatre, one on either side of your entertainment unit (assuming you aren't using a projector). Two allows for one point to fail and you to have something to fall back on while also keeping things neat and tidy, bandwidth (speed) is rarely ever going to be an issue, but its a negligible cost for a little bit extra. Master Bedroom: 1 data point, 1 data/tv point - There is a single data point behind the master bed. This is primarily for internet enabled devices that might sit on a bedside table. While we don't currently own one and they aren't particularly common just yet, internet enabled alarm/bedside clocks do exist and do things like supply internet radio, weather reports and updates, stocks, news and traffic reports. The data/tv point is on the wall opposite the master bed should we ever decide to put a TV there. Again the data point allows streaming of content either from a home server or internet supplied service. Main Living: 2 points - Again as supplied by the builder however handy for TV's, games consoles and steaming content Bedrooms 2-4: 1 data point - Originally we had this as a combination TV/Data and 2 data points per room but it became too costly. We've gone a single point in every room so there is some connectivity initially. Additionally its very little effort to expand a single point from 1 port to 2 or even more, the ducting is run, the plate cut into the wall, essentially you just run more cable, drop it down the hole and replace the face plate. Kitchen - Fridge Recess - 1 Data point - This is a bit of an unusual one and no its not for an internet enabled fridge (at least not yet). In our house the Fridge Recess is the most central part of the house making it the most ideal location for a Wireless Access Point. Having it in the middle of the house gives a few benefits. - The wireless network should be accessible from every room in the house with no "dead" spots - The signal strength is maximised across the entire house by minimising the distance between the wireless access point and device, hence giving the best possible speed. - The wireless network is out of range for most of our neighbours and the street. This isn't a huge concern but wireless networks can be broken into relatively easily, especially poorly configured ones. This can mean anything from someone simply looking around your network, to them using your internet connection to download things which might lead to a hefty bill or as a worst case scenario the police looking into why illegal activity took place from your internet connection. Again this is pretty unlikely but its something you should keep in mind. And a really big caveat here. In our home our ADSL router (the device that establishes the internet connection) will be in the Garage with a separate Wireless Access Point in the fridge recess. Most homes (90%) will use a Wireless ADSL Router which combines these two devices. If you decide that you want your wireless network to be in the centre point of your home and you use a Wireless ADSL Router you will need a minimum of 2 data points at this location, preferably 3. The first point is used for delivering the phone line that carries the ADSL connection to the router, the second is used to carry the internet connection through your home network. The third is a just in case for some scenarios that can crop up. Study - 2 x 2 Data points - I doubled up the points in this room simply because the desk could go on the north or south wall. Given that I didn't want to lock myself into using one wall over the other I installed a double point on either. Again a single would suffice a double is always a plus if its within the budget. Under utility bench (computer closet) - As we have a home server and a few other centralised devices we installed a 3 port point under one of our utility benches. We'll be putting doors on this to hide the mess of computers and cables but you should probably think about where you might want to put a server one day. A lot of people put them in their home theatres or studies but some prefer to hide them away. As we live in WA and are building a brick home we installed at least 1 data point on any single brick (internal) wall that we foresaw ever needing a point on. Installing data points into single brick walls at a later date is costly and far from easy. That said installing them into double brick external walls is particularly easy so if there's a double brick wall near enough to where you might want a point then it may do (keep in mind you can't put a point under a window, again at least not easily). Now for the really long term view of data enabled homes in the future. As we move towards better energy efficiency and power saving methods we'll eventually see "smart" devices enter the marketplace. The simplest example of this is things like washing machines, pool pumps, dryers, dish washers, hot water systems, air conditioners etc that can talk to the power utility or a device in your home to make the smartest use of power, particularly during off peak periods. A lot of these devices already come with timers that you can set so that your washing machine does start at 3am in the morning however there are other benefits as well. Your air conditioner for example might talk to the weather monitoring device installed on your roof to determine the best possible way to cool your home for your estimated arrival of 5:26pm as instructed by your mobile phone, when it detected that you walked out of your office, hopped into your car and set the GPS destination as Home. Alternatively you might realise that you have an event to get to at 6:30pm and that you need to get the oven pre-heated in order to get dinner on as early as possible so you would log into your home and instruct the oven to turn on and heat to a temperature of 200C. You might also want to check your security system or security cameras remotely. Your fridge would also track items that go in and out of it, as well as expiry dates, if you forgot to pickup the shopping list from the kitchen bench, you can just download the one the fridge made for you automatically. Finally the devices can report faults, either once they've occured or as they are about to. Wouldn't it be nice to know that your washing machine had detected a problem with the drive motor and was expecting a failure in the next 15 days. You could call the repairman out before it breaks rather than lugging your dirty clothes over to a friends on the weekend while you wait for Monday to come around so you can call someone, best of all the washing machine probably notified the manufacturer which part was failing so they already despatched it to the local warehouse so that you aren't hit with two callout fees a 3 day wait for the part to arrive. All of this is a long way off and could happen very differently then we imagine it now. By that stage all of these devices will probably use wireless technology, and the amount of data they would be transmitting is insignificant however it is still food for thought. *Built with Gemmill Homes in WA* Slab - 1st June 2009 Plate Height - 17th June 2009 Lock Up - 18th August 2009 PCI - 5th October 2009 Hand Over - 15th Oct 2009 https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=20844 Re: What electrical things did you think of/added/wish you had? 36Aug 26, 2009 2:05 am Wow great post. Looks like that will really future proof you house Manda (+BF). I put a 6 point plate in the study. Two will be for incoming telstra phones (2 lines), the other 4 will be data to HT, family, games and kitchen. I like the idea of the patch panel in the garage....maybe I can do this later and have 4 data points in the study. Hmmm Re: What electrical things did you think of/added/wish you had? 37Aug 26, 2009 11:11 am My suggestion is the addition of a network point in a central location so you can have a network printer in an easily-accessable place for all. We only have one printer (which is a colour laser/scanner/fax machine), so having it in the family room seems a logical place to me. Obviously (as it's a fax machine as well) we'll have a phone point next to it, too. Re: What electrical things did you think of/added/wish you had? 38Aug 26, 2009 11:22 am Only two things I wished I had thought of beforehand...... Two way switch for the Garage (one in the garage and one in the house near the door) Two way switch for the hallway, I leave a hall light on upstairs for my youngest two when they go to bed. I wish I had of put another switch for that light downstairs. If your bedroom is large, consider putting a two way switch for the light near your bed then you don't have to walk back to turn it off before jumping into bed Happy at Home Re: What electrical things did you think of/added/wish you had? 39Aug 26, 2009 5:53 pm My suggestion is really basic- Upgrade your overhead light in the garage to a double fluro light (the long ones). Make sure there is a switch somewhere inside the roller door area and one near entry to house. After tripping around in the dark a few times after a few drinks looking for the switch and then having bugger all light to see by, i have learn't my lesson! Building a H3nl3y Charleton- its a home, not a house. Re: What electrical things did you think of/added/wish you had? 40Aug 26, 2009 11:07 pm Hijacking this thread a little but attached is my electrical plan. Any comments are welcome. I think I would add more lights to the entry. I have just looked at your plan and I do have a comment. My kitchen bench shape and position of your table are exactly the same except that I have been living with mine for 10 years now and it drives me nuts.... To have to walk back around the bench when you forget the sauce, then one of the kids wants a fork or a drink or a face washer (catching on yet!!!) drives me insane. i have found that if I had of left a gap to make it a shaped island bench which is what I was going to do until I got talked out of it, would of been way more functional. as a result the kids sit up at the bench way more than using our table and it sits uselessly idle a lot. Just a point - prob too late anyway! I can't wait for a decent pantry... No. It's not original. Circa early to mid 90s would be my guess and maybe even as late as early 2000s 1 3664 That is a really good attitude Akin to you catch more flies with honey than vinegar. I do enjoy watching that tik tok inspector from Victoria but he does go a little… 12 72515 i wouldn't be worried, you'll definitely miss something, no matter how many times you review. we've spent close to 5 months ensuring everything got reflected in the… 5 9457 |