house re-wire
- Thread starter jonny1
- Start date
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plenty of spotlights, but make sure they are LED or low energy ones, GU10s cost a fortune to run.
sockets all over the place and dont forget some uplighters on the outside of the house.
sockets all over the place and dont forget some uplighters on the outside of the house.
1) The rewire should be done very early on, before any decoration/replastering/repairing or replacing floors etc. Are you living there or having this done before you move in? An empty house devoid of furnishings where power does not need to be restored each day, and the electrician can use dust making machines on the walls, will be quicker & therefore cheaper to rewire.
2) Not sure about spotlights - however you slice it they are inefficient in terms of how well they light the room. Start looking for luminaires which take fluorescent lamps, not CFLs, with high frequency control gear, and consider dimmable ones and maintained emergency ones for landing/stairs/hall.
3) Uplighters outside? Why?
4) Specify that all wiring is to be in conduit for ease of future changes.
5) Think hard about where to have sockets - it's difficult to have too many, and also about what circuits to have. The items on the list below won't all apply to you, but they are worth thinking about:
Plus a few spares on RCD & non-RCD sides for expansion beyond that for future unforeseen needs.
Consider also specifying a CU with separate sections, not a split-load, to increase the granularity of RCD protection, or the extensive use of RCBOs on a per-circuit basis.
If you live somewhere where supplies are dodgy in the winter, have the lights, the boiler supply, and a socket in each room wired to a separate CU, or a separate section in a large one, that can be supplied by an emergency generator - lights, heating, TV and a kettle/microwave make life a lot more bearable.
6) Not an electrical topic, but if you are doing a major refurb, complete with plumbing all through the house, have a sprinkler system installed.
2) Not sure about spotlights - however you slice it they are inefficient in terms of how well they light the room. Start looking for luminaires which take fluorescent lamps, not CFLs, with high frequency control gear, and consider dimmable ones and maintained emergency ones for landing/stairs/hall.
3) Uplighters outside? Why?
4) Specify that all wiring is to be in conduit for ease of future changes.
5) Think hard about where to have sockets - it's difficult to have too many, and also about what circuits to have. The items on the list below won't all apply to you, but they are worth thinking about:
- Upstairs sockets
- Downstairs sockets
- Kitchen sockets
- Radial for appliances
- Cooker circuit
- Non-RCD circuit for F/F
- Non-RCD circuit for CH boiler
- Dedicated circuit for hifi
- Dedicated circuit for IT equipment
- Upstairs lights
- Downstairs lights
- Immersion heater
- Loft lights
- Shower
- Bathroom circuit
- Alarm
- Supply for outside lights
- Supply for garden electrics
- Supply for shed/garage
Plus a few spares on RCD & non-RCD sides for expansion beyond that for future unforeseen needs.
Consider also specifying a CU with separate sections, not a split-load, to increase the granularity of RCD protection, or the extensive use of RCBOs on a per-circuit basis.
If you live somewhere where supplies are dodgy in the winter, have the lights, the boiler supply, and a socket in each room wired to a separate CU, or a separate section in a large one, that can be supplied by an emergency generator - lights, heating, TV and a kettle/microwave make life a lot more bearable.
6) Not an electrical topic, but if you are doing a major refurb, complete with plumbing all through the house, have a sprinkler system installed.
Plus interlinked smoke alarms with a heat alarm in the kitchen.
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And distribution of TV/SAT/DATA/TELECOMS?
That's a good idea.
Talk to your local BCO before you start to ensure you don't make any mistakes with, for example, switch/socket hights, smoke/heat detectors, boiler spec, oil tank siting etc. Might even be some planning issues (chimney removal?).
Part M does not apply in this case.
plenty of RCBOs
A CU with lots of room for future expansion
In the kitchen, a row of sockets at 150/200mm above worktop height all round the room, with switches feeding sockets below everywhere you have, or might one day want, an appliance under the counter
a dedicated Freezer circuit with no RCD
A CU with lots of room for future expansion
In the kitchen, a row of sockets at 150/200mm above worktop height all round the room, with switches feeding sockets below everywhere you have, or might one day want, an appliance under the counter
a dedicated Freezer circuit with no RCD
Consider a ring circuit in to the loft area should it be feasible to do a loft conversion in the future.
If the Sky and TV aerials need better routing (ie not down the outside face) then re wire them via internal routes.
Consider a riser to link cables from under ground floor to loft, since pipe work will be replaced then planning for a boxed in riser with compartments for pipes, electrics and signals (TV distribution, data / Cat 5e and BT / voice sockets.
Make sure you know where beds will be positioned in the rooms, so that the sockets and Tv locations work
Best way tends to be to draw up a floor plan and mark everything out. Certain locations such as TV's (flat screen half way up walls), studies, centralised comms areas (for network kit, hubs, TV amplifiers, Sky box, Media Servers) will have higher socket volume requirements, so it's important to get the locations right 1st time.
If security- Alarms, CCTV, External lights are needed then that needs bundling in with the rest of the work, as will outside service for garage, shed etc.
Providing conduit throughout is a nice dream, but expensive and time consuming.
The half way house is to provide conduit back boxes and conduit drops to the sub floor void. Then in future years you can rewire without wall fabric damage- but you will have to lift floors .
If the Sky and TV aerials need better routing (ie not down the outside face) then re wire them via internal routes.
Consider a riser to link cables from under ground floor to loft, since pipe work will be replaced then planning for a boxed in riser with compartments for pipes, electrics and signals (TV distribution, data / Cat 5e and BT / voice sockets.
Make sure you know where beds will be positioned in the rooms, so that the sockets and Tv locations work
Best way tends to be to draw up a floor plan and mark everything out. Certain locations such as TV's (flat screen half way up walls), studies, centralised comms areas (for network kit, hubs, TV amplifiers, Sky box, Media Servers) will have higher socket volume requirements, so it's important to get the locations right 1st time.
If security- Alarms, CCTV, External lights are needed then that needs bundling in with the rest of the work, as will outside service for garage, shed etc.
Providing conduit throughout is a nice dream, but expensive and time consuming.
The half way house is to provide conduit back boxes and conduit drops to the sub floor void. Then in future years you can rewire without wall fabric damage- but you will have to lift floors
.
Yes - apologies - that's what I meant - PVC conduit in the walls, not a full conduit wiring system.
I've heard a Fire chief say "people don't get sprinkler systems because they're afraid of their things getting water on them.
So they have a fire, and their things get burnt, and then we come along and put water on them."
So they have a fire, and their things get burnt, and then we come along and put water on them."
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