Electrical Planning for a New Home or Major Renovation

Why it matters

Get Your Electrics Right the First Time

Building a new home is incredibly exciting and extremely stressful. You're suddenly consumed in everything design, completing tasks given to you by the builder, choices, project management and functionality.

We are here to help you out with the electrical side of things. It's important you get this right the first time and don't overlook its importance. If you get it wrong, you will face consequences that range from a minor inconvenience to major health and safety risks.

Point 2

Choose the Right Wiring System and Switchboard

2. Properly understand the wiring system you require

Make a list of all the electrics you will be using in your home including those that need to be hardwired like ovens, dishwashers, cooktops, rangehoods etc. Are you a gamer who requires family ports and circuits to accommodate multiple devices at once? This is important so your electrician knows what size switchboard you require to run your home safely. You may also want to think about surge protection in your switchboard to protect all your expensive investments straight from the hub. Safety switches on all circuits is also recommended to prevent electrocution — especially if you have children and animals.

There are three main types of wiring systems: lead sheath, surface conduit and concealed conduit. Concealed conduit is hidden and the most popular option from an aesthetic point of view. It can also offer extra protection. It's important that you talk to your electrician about the system that's right for you.

Point 4

Think About Energy Efficiency From the Start

4. Think about your energy efficiency

The price of power will only keep increasing alongside its environmental impact, therefore doing your bit to help reduce emissions and keep costs down is vital. Home energy management systems (often referred to as HEMS or EMS) are a great and smart way to save some money. Good quality systems allow you to control your devices, lights, swimming pool, air-cons etc remotely from the home and give you insights into how much power you are using and what it's costing. They can also take your solar panels into account. Make sure you do some research and discuss these options in your electrical meeting.

Bonus tip

Bonus Tip: Smoke Alarms!

All new builds and renovations mean compliant smoke alarms. New legislation states when replacing smoke alarms, they must be of a photoelectric type which complies with Australian Standard (AS) 3786-2014. Not all alarms are the same — there are better brands, higher quality and many different functions. For the full legal requirements, see our guide to Queensland smoke alarm laws.

Smoke alarms must be installed on each storey:

• In each bedroom; and
• In hallways which connect bedrooms and the rest of the dwelling; or
• If there is no hallway, between the bedrooms and other parts of the storey; and
• If there are no bedrooms on a storey, at least one smoke alarm must be installed in the most likely path of travel to exit the dwelling.

However, you may and can put smoke alarms in any room you want. Sometimes the basics are not enough. Depending on your floor design it may not be safe to just have the basics.

For example, in our home we have a fireplace in our living room. Our living room is at the front of the house and all hallways, bedrooms etc are at the other end. Legally, we don't require a smoke alarm in the living room. A piece of cardboard placed too close to the side of the fireplace caught fire. The smoke alarms never warned us as they are all on the opposite side of the home. If it was night time and we were asleep, half the house would have been on fire — the front half where all the safe escape routes are.

Luckily, it was in the afternoon and Chris putting out laundry at the time could smell it and investigated. Already there was a decent size fire brewing, we are very lucky there was no damage or the entire living room wasn't up in flames. That afternoon, smoke alarms were installed in the front half of the home: the living room, dining/kitchen and sitting room that are all in a passage to the hallways connecting to the bedrooms.

You may not want a smoke alarm in a kitchen due to nuisance alarms — to avoid this we can install heat type alarms that sense changes in extreme heat from a fire rather than smoke and steam. If you have high ceilings and cannot disable or test your alarms properly, there are wall panels that interconnect with them and allow you to control them all, isolate the affected alarm and troubleshoot any issues with ease. There are a tonne of different modules and options. A builder will give you the basics, but the basics may not be enough.

Speak to us today to discuss some options and a more suitable smoke detector plan. It's always easier to plan before the build.

Further information

References

• Clipsal – Iconic Switches and Power Point Range

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