Browse Forums Building A New House Re: What electrical things did you think of/added/wish you had? 41Aug 27, 2009 2:55 am Some thoughts to add to Manda's post about networking. Rather than have redundant runs in case of failure, use conduit in cavities and leave a pull-though in each. This also leaves the way open for upgrades. I am concerned by the number of people who plan to use their garages for locating their modem, router and/or server. Often garages are not insulated, and the temperature on hot days can easily exceed the maximum temperature ratings for these devices. (Dlink rate many of their devices to operate up to 40 C. Garages can exceed 50 C on hot days.) We have already owned a UPS and a modem that would fall over in hot days inside our house without exposing them to the temperatures that garages experience. Relying on a weak signal outside the house to increase security of a wireless network troubles me a little. It is relatively easy and cheap to buy or build a high gain directional antenna that would overcome this. If you don't know how to set up a home wireless network securely, than pay for someone to do it for you. The consequences of not having a secure network, as Manda says, are too high to not get this correct. (Use proper encryption, decent passwords on the modem and router, and specify the network card IDs that can access your network.) Pfiff Finally making progress again, with a clothesline (yippee) and some much needed little things being attended to over the holidays. 40 C on New Year's eve? We love our a/c! Re: What electrical things did you think of/added/wish you had? 42Aug 27, 2009 1:05 pm Fiffaro Some thoughts to add to Manda's post about networking. Rather than have redundant runs in case of failure, use conduit in cavities and leave a pull-though in each. This also leaves the way open for upgrades. I am concerned by the number of people who plan to use their garages for locating their modem, router and/or server. Often garages are not insulated, and the temperature on hot days can easily exceed the maximum temperature ratings for these devices. (Dlink rate many of their devices to operate up to 40 C. Garages can exceed 50 C on hot days.) We have already owned a UPS and a modem that would fall over in hot days inside our house without exposing them to the temperatures that garages experience. Relying on a weak signal outside the house to increase security of a wireless network troubles me a little. It is relatively easy and cheap to buy or build a high gain directional antenna that would overcome this. If you don't know how to set up a home wireless network securely, than pay for someone to do it for you. The consequences of not having a secure network, as Manda says, are too high to not get this correct. (Use proper encryption, decent passwords on the modem and router, and specify the network card IDs that can access your network.) Yeah .... what he said. Totally agree. Re: What electrical things did you think of/added/wish you had? 43Aug 27, 2009 1:22 pm We are a little different in that we don't have any tv outlets in any rooms other then home theatre / living / toy room / main bedroom. The kids have their own dedicated toy room so that is where their tv is going - not in their bedrooms. We did get phone outlets in main bedroom / home / theatre / living area / study - more for foxtel then anything else. We also got power points under the eaves in 3 places - great for Christmas decorations outside. I looked at everything carefully and considered where all furniture was going as well as incidentals - like Christmas trees. Then made sure that the powerpoints were place strategically. Double powerpoints beside every vanity - one on each side of the main ensuite vanity. If you have 3 phase power, get a 3 phase outlet in the garage. Good for things like mig welders etc. Plan your outside even before the house is built - allow for pools / pergolas / bbq areas. This way you can place PPs / lights where they will be needed. More people are having large pantries / butler pantries - always allow for adequate lighting if there are no windows (we are having two large fluoros) as wellas ventilation (we are installing an exhaust fan) Some things are worth waiting for. Re: What electrical things did you think of/added/wish you had? 44Aug 27, 2009 1:27 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. Does anyone know if having 3 phase help stop this sort of overload or is it exclusively for the air con? Cheers Kim I dare say that if you have 3 phase istalled that all your other circuits (Light & Power) will be spread accross all 3 phases to ensure load balancing. In theory it should allow you to run more appliances and thus have more GPO's but it does depend on the overall aupply amperage (rating of the cable and master switch) coming into the house. And yes a well planed and evenly balanced setup would see you avoid your overloading issue Blog: http://funmore-residence.blogspot.com/ Forum: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=21109 Construction Start - 19/09/09 Slab Poured - 21/10/09 Frame Completed - 25/11/09 Lockup - 22/12/09 Fixing - 22/02/10 Handover & Moved In 30/04/2010 Re: What electrical things did you think of/added/wish you had? 45Aug 27, 2009 1:57 pm To help give a visual of parts Manda's description, I developed this block diagram when I was figuring this stuff out for our home.... We have put a large niche in the garage so this can all be hidden behind a cupboard door. Also, power points are provided over on the far left of one side, with the networking cables on the far right to avoid any interference issues. The bottom of the niche doubles as a shelf for routers / modems etc. The location is quite central also, so the happy with the WI-FI being here. Data Plan.JPG Im not overly concerned about locating networking equipment in the garage either. Some sensible natural cooling and protection from dust and I don’t expect any issues. If it becomes an issue, buying more rugged networking kit is an option. Re: What electrical things did you think of/added/wish you had? 46Aug 27, 2009 2:06 pm One thing most people forgot, and the builder normally don't include is the door bell/chimes. A wired one is certainly much better than the wireless one which runs on battery and have lots of problems... Also you might want to consider the external antenna on the roof and the wiring of it, to connect to all TV points in the house. Another luxury option is the intercom system. You might also want to have a external outdoor power point at the front/back of the house. Re: What electrical things did you think of/added/wish you had? 47Aug 27, 2009 4:43 pm building.our.first.house One thing most people forgot, and the builder normally don't include is the door bell/chimes. A wired one is certainly much better than the wireless one which runs on battery and have lots of problems.... ditto. wished I'd thought of this... Re: What electrical things did you think of/added/wish you had? 48Aug 27, 2009 5:39 pm Sierra Im not overly concerned about locating networking equipment in the garage either. Some sensible natural cooling and protection from dust and I don’t expect any issues. If it becomes an issue, buying more rugged networking kit is an option. My garage gets extremely hot. It is the biggest room in the house that is not airconditioned. Bring home one car and the heat from the engine is fierce. Bring home a second car & the sky's the limit. I don't know of any computer equipment that is "rugged" enough to take that sort of temperature. It's not that many years ago that computers had to be kept in very carefully air-conditioned rooms. I think people forget the needs and specifications of the equipment and wonder why their computer equipment misbehaves. I suggest don't take the risk. You can't really change the wiring later. Put the modem, router, etc in a cool place in the house - not the hottest. Re: What electrical things did you think of/added/wish you had? 49Aug 27, 2009 8:04 pm cyberman I suggest don't take the risk. You can't really change the wiring later. Put the modem, router, etc in a cool place in the house - not the hottest. that's the main reason I made the top shelf of the WIR in the master the main spot for all the network wiring/switch etc etc. Bit safer in there too.. no kids will be mucking about in our room up the top shelf (they could get to it in a garage though)... Re: What electrical things did you think of/added/wish you had? 50Aug 27, 2009 10:42 pm True, but computer equipment has come along way. You can buy computers that are rated for max temps of 60 degrees now. I have friends with the StarServe unit sitting in a metal cabinet in their garage that worked happily through last summer. Its a popular spot to put them, especially in the fibre optic estates. Just checking online then, this equipment is only rated to max temps of 50 degrees which is the same as my modem and router. I think the bottom line with this stuff is that you want it hidden and out of the way, it’s a home not an office. When you weigh up the alternatives on where it can go, the garage is a good spot. She’ll be apples…. Re: What electrical things did you think of/added/wish you had? 52Aug 27, 2009 11:56 pm Oh we also put a 25mm conduit without a face plate at the front door for alarm. It doesn't have a face plate as lots of alarm panels are tiny these days so the face plate hole is too big. *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 No. It's not original. Circa early to mid 90s would be my guess and maybe even as late as early 2000s 1 6933 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 82151 Depends what you're current inclusions are, but we're not including wardrobes and will just use second hand ones until we can save later on to get them built. Also have a… 3 11994 |