Plan help

[Sunshine12]

Currently planning first fix in new build.


Can any electricians or self-builders give me some tips or recommendations so I don’t forget anything to put on the plan for when we obtain quotes!


We’re after all the latest gadgets/mod cons (whatever they are!).


Trying to think outside the box, have seen a few things such as lights up the stairwell, lights around the bottom of the bath and usb plugs. Cables for alarm and internet.


Any other ‘new’ product electrics you would recommend or wish you had installed?


Many thanks in advance

 

[winston1]

Aerial and satellite cables. Speaker cables. Cables or at least empty conduits for central heating controllers.

 

[John D v2.0]

The usual one is double the number of sockets you think you need! But I think installers charge north of 50 pounds a point, so if someone else's doing it you might not want to do that.

 

[Iggifer]

I'd still go for double what you think you need in the lounge for certain and possibly kitchen. Then a couple more in each of the other rooms.

We did a rewire a couple of weeks ago and put two sockets in 3 of the bedrooms, it pained me. I've got at least 6 or 7 things plugged in at once in mine.

We often do ethernet + coax to the same box for TV points in each room, means you can hardwire your sky box/smart tv etc. Wire this back to a cupboard somewhere and take the aerial feed to there and a BT point, then depending on the size of the place, a little patch panel or just some boxes with cat5e outlets to patch into the router. Can always have points for wifi access points if you have thick walls/big house.

I wouldn't bother with smart light switches/rf sockets etc, I don't think it's a) all it's cracked up to be or b) reliable enough. You can always add Philips hue at a later date if you decide you want more control.

I do like Nest smart stuff, but opinions on here vary

 

[John D v2.0]

Something else I'm planning is to take pretty much all the main lights back to a central point so I can easily connect them to home automation later if I want to. I think for lights it's doable, but I doubt it's worth it for sockets! This wouldn't apply if you're only into the traditional lighting layout, as it will use more cable.

 

[Sunshine12]

Iggifer some of that has gone completely over my head!

It's a big house, 5 bed 3 floors. I agree I think definitely double up on sockets.

Are those sensor lights worth having or just a novelty?

Can We put speakers into the lounge, dining room & kitchen & connect all to one sound system?

 

[Sunshine12]

How do we get sky in all of the bedrooms (but without paying for lots of boxes!)?

Think we are going with a z-wave lighting kit later down the line just for fun really!

 

[JohnW2]

How do we get sky in all of the bedrooms (but without paying for lots of boxes!)?

Distributing the output of a single Sky box all over the house is not a problem. Creatring a way of being able to control the Sky box (e.g. change channels) from different places is more of a problem, although there are some commercial solutions available. I use some very old ones (which just require replacing one of the batteries in a Sky remote with a transmitting device, and then having a 'receiver' near teh sky box), which are very effective but, as far as I can make out, are no longer available.

Kind Regards, John