Time for installing new electrics - give me your wish list!

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Hi

I put this on the wrong forum so here goes again.... sorry.

We have just bought an old farmhouse and are currently ripping down all lath and plaster walls to insulate - see our blog if you'd like (address below).

We have to re-wire too so now is the time to get creative with regards to electrics. I am planning to have some kind of circuit so that I can switch on all lamps from one switch at the door. We also plan to wire for speakers in some rooms.

What would you do if you were me? What do you wish you had done before you had reinstated your walls?

Any suggestions will be gratefully received!

Thanks for now,
BB


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We have just bought an old farmhouse and are currently ripping down all lath and plaster walls to insulate - see our blog if you'd like (address below).
I'd strongly advise external wall insulation. It works better as you end up with your walls as a thermal mass on the conditioned side.

Internal insulation will make the rooms smaller, it will leave you with permanent problems with fixing things to the walls, with de-rating cable capacities due to thermal insulation and with the challenge of maintaining a vapour seal where you sink back boxes and pass cables and pipes through (because if you don't do that you'll get condensation on the cold walls which will lead to mould growth. Maybe even mushrooms.)


We have to re-wire too so now is the time to get creative with regards to electrics. I am planning to have some kind of circuit so that I can switch on all lamps from one switch at the door.
All of them?

Why, and how would that work? Assuming that you'd also want to switch them in the rooms they're in how would you know if they were already on if you couldn't see them, and if therefore the switch by the door was actually turning them off? And it would mean a lot of wiring unless you went for radio control or the complexity of some kind of automation.

Mind you - a lot of people are anal enough to want precisely repeatable settings of light levels and lazy enough not to want to get up and walk to a switch for their to be a market for both of those. Just avoid X10 like the plague.

One of the regulars here has a site where he describes his automated lighting system in detail.

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
  • Circuit 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
  • Lighting circuits with switches in the usual places but with 3A/5A round pin sockets at low level.
  • Immersion heater
  • Loft lights
  • Shower
  • Bathroom circuit
  • Alarms
  • Supply for outside lights
  • Supply for garden electrics
  • Supply for shed/garage
Plus any peculiarities brought about by your house layout & construction - e.g. in mine because of solid floors and where the socket circuits run, I have a radial just for a socket in the hall, the doorbell and the porch lights.

Unless you want to go to the expense of RCBOs throughout, the CU should have at least 3 sections, 2 on RCDs and one not into which you can install a mix of RCBOs and MCBs.

It can be a good idea to put all wiring in conduit for ease of future changes. And if you specify metal conduit for switch drops, or BS 8436 cable it removes the need to have RCDs where you'd rather not.

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.

Flood-wiring with Cat6 or Cat6a cable is worth thinking about.

"The plan here is to dig out some of the earth, and then lay a concrete foundation on which the joists will sit (with a damp proof course in between). "

No insulation?


"However, we plan to replace it with a concrete lintel. "

Concrete is very "non-green".


"The heat source will be from an air source heat pump"

If you've got the space, and are turning the place into a building site anyway, wouldn't a GSHP be better?

And you really should think about some kind of backup heating for when the electricity goes off.


" I don't think there is one surface throughout the whole house that is dust free!"

You'd better get used to that..... :D
 
Heated mirror in the bathroom so it doesn't mist up when you're in the shower.

PJ
 
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2 way switching over each bed.

5 amp sockets in reception rooms so you can plug in additional lighting which can be controlled by a light switch.

Plenty of outside lighting.

Plenty of communications wiring, run extra cables for future proofing.

Bathroom pull switch in bathroom, not some annoying switch outside so all and sundry can turn it off.
 
Wall light wiring in reception rooms.
If you think you may want them in the future fit conduits, etc.
 
Position the CU in a place that is easily accessable and has some spare slots for the odd thing that you dont know you want yet.
 
Heated mirror in the bathroom so it doesn't mist up when you're in the shower.

PJ

Or a decent extractor fan. I fitted a heated mirror during my renovation as I also thought it would be a godsend after a lifetime of shaving at my parents on a mirror more like a water feature. Also fitted a decent bathroom extractor fan during the renovation. Never needed to use the heated mirror :rolleyes: :)
 
Billy_Gibbons.jpg
 
Ooh and 42" ceiling fan light fittings for bedrooms and the lounge. Best thing ever. Thankyou Asia.
 
I had the job to do some wiring in a farm house and I considered the lighting problem where if the generator was not running then no lights. So I installed a bank of Nickel Iron batteries and Ex-Bus 4 foot fluorescents in every room. Each bedroom lamp also supplied the hall lamp through a diode bank so if any visitor left the light one then we would be aware it was left on. Rutford wind charger and a pair of Lister engine generators one 4KVA the other 12KVA for when shearing was being done.

I also ran heavy duty wires to the VHF radio so it could run full power at 30W PEP and opted for a strong arm rotator.

I will guess little of what I did will be required for your farm house but this is of course the problem to work out what some one else needs is always hard.

I have while ceiling were down in my parents house installed cables ready to start a re-wire however then it was decided to run sub-main to the kitchen so those cables will likely now never be used. And anyone but my son and I would not use them anyway as they would not have installed the cables so could not sign the paperwork.

And so in hind sight there is no point in installing anything for the future because things change and what seemed a good idea 5 years ago now seems pointless. At one time we would fit phone lines and network lines now wireless means no longer needed.

However some good ideas I have seen is to split lighting into two sections 1/3 on one switch and 2/3 on the other so giving three light levels without need for dimming switches.

But will every idea there are always pros and cons and I have two ring mains and two RCD's protecting my house and I have had one RCD trip and not realised I had lost power to that group of circuits. Had this been powering the freezer it could have caused problems and although using RCBO's and radial circuits one to each room would seem to be a good idea the same problem arises where you can lose a circuit and be unaware of it's failure.

It's all a compromise and each person will have a different view as to what is required.
 
At one time we would fit phone lines and network lines now wireless means no longer needed.
Not so. Wireless is not, and never will be, as good as wired - it is and always will be less reliable and has and always will have a lower bandwidth.
 
Wall light each side of master bed.
Less clutter on bedside cabinets.

Switched two-way with the door of course (as mentioned earlier).

And an extra switch at side of bed for some 'mood lighting', if you know what I mean :D
 
Thank you for all your replies! Some fantastic ideas. I will definately apply some.

While I'm here, anyone installed a moisture-sensitive extractor fan for bathroom? Seem like a good idea and would avoid the drone of a fan going on when it doesn't need to be on!

Thanks again everyone,
BB
 

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