Construction - Electrical
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We created an electrical plan (23k) for the electrician to work from. We found it extremely useful. We made a couple of very minor changes during the pre-wire and would like to make a couple more now.
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Take Photos
Take photos of electricals so you know where to find things if you ever want to change anything once the house is completed.
Tips and Tricks
- Think about the layout and your requirements well before you have the electrician arrive. Don't try to work it out on the fly.
- HPM and other companies make 4 gang power points for things like computers and stereos. We have about 6 of them!
- HPM also make a remote control (infrared) dimmer. We have one in the bedroom :) They cost about $75.00 (a normal dimmer will cost you about $35-$40). It is well worth the investment ;)
- We used halogen downlights throughout most of the house. Each light fitting has to have an individual transformer and power point in the roof. You can buy electronic transformer which allow you to run 2 lights at a time but they cost more than twice as much so we couldn't see the point! If you want to dim your halogens you should use a non electronic transformer. If you use an electronic one check that it is suitable for dimming and that the dimmer is suitable for them!
- Dimmer are rated according to how many lights you can hook up to each one. Check with your electrician about loads before buying the switches.
- We ran conduit through the top plate and the noggins on some walls where we thought that we may want to run wires (speakers, data etc). If you don't do this you cannot install additional point lower on internal walls. External walls are OK as you have the brick cavity.
- Across our entrance way is quite long and narrow. Before we gyprocked the ceiling I installed a 3 metre length of 100mm sewer pipe across the roof space with draw strings in case we wanted to run more cables or plumbing across it in the future.
- We installed networking points in the bedroom, library and office for the computers and laptop. We will go wireless one day. When we did this the equipment was still quite expensive.
- We have installed provision to have 10 driveway lights. We ran these cables while the services trench was open.
- You can never have too many powerpoints :)
- Take photos of your electrical cable before sheeting. We have referred to them many times already, same goes for plumbing.