I never realised how much thought goes into an electrical plan, it was like doing a brain teaser – I was exhausted after the meeting with the electrician.
We were presented with a recommended electrical plan from Pivot just prior to contract finalisation. This was a standard recommendation to base the quote and contract on. We were fully aware that this would alter after a detailed meeting with the electrician and result in a contract variation. Because we were trying to fast-track everything to get the loan sorted before our baby was due, a lot of meetings and details were pushed to after contract signing.
Pivot arranged a 1 hour meeting with the electrician and someone from Pivot (Chloe) to run through the proposed electrical plan, and discuss our options, which included:
– switches and which switch will turn on which lights . Where to put 2-way and 3-way switches (this was the brain numbing bit),
– external sensor lights,
– outdoor lighting (feature vs. spotlight),
– down lights vs pendant vs fluorescent,
– exhaust and ceiling fans,
– power points (how many, where to place them, and style),
– connectivity within the house eg. wiring between computer and TV (for sharing data),
– wiring for wall mounted TV & speakers,
– garden lighting.
– location of the external meter box, and the internal switch box.
We made a lot of changes. I didn’t realise how personalised an electrical plan can be, it is directly linked to your preferred living habits and planned movement through the house.
The original plan we were presented with looked like this:
When meeting with the electrician we had to make decisions about a lot of different things that led to some changes, like:
- To determine where to put the light switches, and which lights to connect to each switch we needed to work out how we would move around in a house we have never lived in. It sounds simple, but you need to work out which lights you will need switched on (when it’s dark) to walk from the garage, through the laundry, study and up the hall stairs to the kitchen – and then a convenient way to turn them all off again once you are there! Which lights you want connected to the front sensor to provide guests with enough light to walk up the driveway. When going to bed at night, you want to make it easy to turn off the lights and not have to walk in the dark across a room to your bedroom. Where you want dimmers for some lights. All the decisions we made can be seen in the final electrical plan at the end of this post.
- How many down lights do we need in each room? eg. avoiding shadows cast over the bench in the kitchen. We added, removed and replaced some down-lights. We chose low voltage brushed chrome fittings (the external down lights are stainless steel):
- Where do we want Pendant lights? We decided to have three over the dining room table to create some intimacy. We chose three Jacob Drum Pendant lights in oak/white:
We also purchased a floor lamp and bedside lamps to match this fitting:
- Where do we want fluorescent lights? eg. laundry, pantry, walk-in wardrobe.
The fitting chosen for these locations:
- Power points internal and external eg. How many, where, single or double and the style? (keeping in mind where we might want to have a table/bedside table with a lamp, or a floor lamp/night-light for kids/guests and for vacuuming. also any outdoor work that requires power).
We chose standard power point fittings throughout the house:
Except for the two double points located within the splash-back in the kitchen, these will match the splash-back glass (white):
- Where do we want ceiling fans, and the switches for them?
We chose to have stainless steel ceiling fans in the family room and the master bedroom – to push the warmth down in the winter (with the high ceilings), and circulate cool air in Summer.
- Where do we need exhaust fans? eg. bathrooms and pantry (because we will have the toaster and microwave in there):
The exhaust fan for the pantry:
The exhaust fans for the en-suite and bathroom are combined with lights/heaters:
The exhaust fan for the toilet:
- Where do we want our external lights, and what style should they be – floodlight/spotlight (functional), feature light (architectural), entertaining light (functional and architectural). What type of light eg. LED or Halogen globe, and the material they are made from and its suitability for the location eg. coastal sea breezes will cause corrosion and require more upkeep. We chose the following external lights:
For the entertaining areas and to light up the feature garden next to the front door (Halogen Stainless steel directional baton light):
Either side of the garage door (Halogen stainless steel vertical baton light):
To light the utility area (clothes line/rubbish bin storage):
- Multimedia considerations eg. how many TV /Pay TV access points do we want and where? Internet points and where, phone points and where? Do we need wiring to allow connectivity between our computer and TV – for sharing music and movies etc (as my husband pointed out, we have an Apple computer, for $99 we can buy an Apple TV, and save ourselves about $1500 in house wiring in the slab!). All these details can be seen in the final electrical plan below.
- Do we want to have feature lights in the garden, or at least wiring to add them down the track? We decided not to bother with garden lighting and wiring at this stage.
After all the detailed discussions with the electrician and Pivot the final electrical plan looks like this:
I must say that the electrical decisions have been the hardest aspect for me – it was something I’ve never had to consider before, so required a lot of digestion and thought before a decision could be made. In saying that, if these were the hardest decisions we’ve had to make to build our house then that’s not so bad at all!
The cladding should be going up in the next week or so, which will bring us to lock-up stage – Yay!!
Until next time…
Bernice
http://www.heybernice.com
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