External electrics and power points

[vivienz]

Following on from @lizzie's topic on external roller blinds, I've been wondering about the best way to run the power source to these.  There will be 2, both on the south side of the house, one upstairs (south east corner) and one ground floor (south west corner) but both on the same face.  I had a quick chat with MBC and it's a choice between something coming from under the slab, then wired along the outside of the building under the cladding, or penetrate the wall and use grommets and seal before the insulation goes in.

 

I'm also wondering whether I need any external power points.  There will be some in the garage, but nothing on the south side.  I'm not sure what I would use these for, but that doesn't mean I won't want or need any at some point in the future.

 

Any thoughts, anyone?

 

[jack]

From memory, the power for our external blinds goes through each window aperture, between the top of the window frame and the overhead reveal. It's held in place by the low-expansion foam that seals around the window, and sealed by airtightness tape. Not sure that's the best way - a conduit through the insulation would probably be better, especially in terms of airtightness - but we weren't sure of where and how we'd need to connect the blind motors, so left it until the windows arrived after the insulation had been installed.

 

I find external power points useful for things like pressure washing, power tools, electric garden tools, temporary lights, stereos and chargers. I wouldn't flood the place with them, but I do think that one in each place around the house where any of these sorts of things would be used is helpful. The one outside the garage gets used a fair bit. We also have one near our front door which can be used for Christmas lights. 

 

This is also the time for putting in conduits through the walls for things like:

• External lighting (including wall lights, but also garden lighting if you haven't left one or more conduits through the slab to run that)
• External sensors
• CCTV (including front door intercom if likely to ever be of interest)
• Taps - I wish we'd put in more of these. We have one on the left side of the house, and another at the back. We could have done with one on the right, at least. Also, if you're having a water softener, consider putting a softened tap to where you wash the car (if you do that at home). A hot tap (which will also be softened if you have a softener) would also be useful. I wish we'd put a hot tap in to rinse the dog. We thought we'd be clever having a shower installed in the mud room, but the amount of dirt that comes off the muddy-puddle-loving dog most days means that it's a lot of effort cleaning up after giving her a rinse. It'd be a lot easier if this could be done outside in an area where a bit of dirt wouldn't matter.
• Doorbell - I've lost count of the number of people I know who've built houses or done substantial renovations, only to realise that they didn't run a wire for a doorbell! They end with with cheap plasticky doorbells stuck to their lovely new front door frame with double sided adhesive.

 

[Dudda]

10 minutes ago, jack said:

• A hot tap (which will also be softened if you have a softener) would also be useful. I wish we'd put a hot tap in to rinse the dog. We thought we'd be clever having a shower installed in the mud room, but the amount of dirt that comes off the muddy-puddle-loving dog most days means that it's a lot of effort cleaning up after giving her a rinse. It'd be a lot easier if this could be done outside in an area where a bit of dirt wouldn't matter.

I like the idea of an outside hot tap and never saw one before. Good for dogs and washing cars particularly on hot summer days when it's free hot water.

Added to my todo list!

Edited June 5, 2018 by Dudda

[vivienz]

27 minutes ago, jack said:

• Doorbell - I've lost count of the number of people I know who've built houses or done substantial renovations, only to realise that they didn't run a wire for a doorbell! They end with with cheap plasticky doorbells stuck to their lovely new front door frame with double sided adhesive.

 

Yup, that's me, completely forgot about a doorbell!  Not that I think we'll get many visitors being so much in the middle of nowhere, but you never know.

 

Thanks for the list, Jack, really helpful.

[jack]

19 minutes ago, Dudda said:

I like the idea of an outside hot tap and never saw one before. Good for dogs and washing cars particularly on hot summer days when it's free hot water.

 

If you ride, it's also great for giving the bike a quick rinse at the end of a ride. Not an issue in summer, but washing a bike down with cold water in winter can be a very unpleasant experience.

[Ferdinand]

On this subject, what about paths for future internet and satellite TV etc?

 

Does anyone run those to the various potential media centres?

 

F

[ProDave]

2 hours ago, Ferdinand said:

On this subject, what about paths for future internet and satellite TV etc?

 

Does anyone run those to the various potential media centres?

 

F

Yep, under my stairs.

 

All tv and satellite cables enter via a hockey sick built into the foundations which comes up in the under stair cupboard.

 

Still a work in progress but nearly there.

 

The hifi unit is in pieces as I am still awaiting the bluetooth receiver to incorporate into it so the girls can play their music from their phones.

 

Everyting is remote controlled, just out of shot high up on the left is the receiver part of a powermid IR extender set, this re generates IR remote controls and sends them to all the stuff shut in the cupboard.

 

CD storage built into the thickness of the stud wall.

 

The broadband wifi router is up in the ceiling structure of the half landing pretty much right above my head where I was taking the photo from, as near to the centre of the house as possible and seems to give a good wifi signal everywhere. I am only using the built in LAN ports on the router at the moment, but LAN cables is installed to each room and if I need to use more I will install a switch, again mounted high up out of the way.

 

Just out of shot to the right is the tv aerial distribution amplifier.

 

3 satellite receivers, the Sky HD box is the main one that will link directly to the 2 main tv's via long hdmi cables already built into the walls.  The sky mini box above that is essentially there just for satellite radio channels and it's audio links to the hifi. Above that is my "other satellite" receiver for Astra 1 and hotbird for such things as watching F1 live via the German channel RTL on the days when channel 4 are not showing it live here.

 

Network printer sits here out of the way can be accessed by wired or wireless lan from any computer.

 

This is all part of the strategy of keeping "clutter" out of the main rooms, without compromising quality, i.e. I still insist on a half decent hifi and decent speakers in each room, even though the unit itself is hidden away.

 

It has all taken up a lot less space than I thought, so there is still a good amount of useful storage space in the under stair cupboard.

[joe90]

Ha, well done Dave, never thought about the router under the stairs, perhaps next time ( not!).

[Ferdinand]

26 minutes ago, ProDave said:

Yep, under my stairs.

 

All tv and satellite cables enter via a hockey sick built into the foundations which comes up in the under stair cupboard.

 

Still a work in progress but nearly there.

 

The hifi unit is in pieces as I am still awaiting the bluetooth receiver to incorporate into it so the girls can play their music from their phones.

 

Everyting is remote controlled, just out of shot high up on the left is the receiver part of a powermid IR extender set, this re generates IR remote controls and sends them to all the stuff shut in the cupboard.

 

CD storage built into the thickness of the stud wall.

 

The broadband wifi router is up in the ceiling structure of the half landing pretty much right above my head where I was taking the photo from, as near to the centre of the house as possible and seems to give a good wifi signal everywhere. I am only using the built in LAN ports on the router at the moment, but LAN cables is installed to each room and if I need to use more I will install a switch, again mounted high up out of the way.

 

Just out of shot to the right is the tv aerial distribution amplifier.

 

3 satellite receivers, the Sky HD box is the main one that will link directly to the 2 main tv's via long hdmi cables already built into the walls.  The sky mini box above that is essentially there just for satellite radio channels and it's audio links to the hifi. Above that is my "other satellite" receiver for Astra 1 and hotbird for such things as watching F1 live via the German channel RTL on the days when channel 4 are not showing it live here.

 

Network printer sits here out of the way can be accessed by wired or wireless lan from any computer.

 

This is all part of the strategy of keeping "clutter" out of the main rooms, without compromising quality, i.e. I still insist on a half decent hifi and decent speakers in each room, even though the unit itself is hidden away.

 

It has all taken up a lot less space than I thought, so there is still a good amount of useful storage space in the under stair cupboard.

 

I get a slight sense that you enjoyed explaining that little lot ??‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️.

[ProDave]

33 minutes ago, joe90 said:

Ha, well done Dave, never thought about the router under the stairs, perhaps next time ( not!).

In case it didn't prove good enough there, I have installed a phone and cat5 cable from the stair cupboard to where the coat and shoe cupboard will be in the entrance hall. That will give an alternative location for the router on a shelf high up by the ground floor ceiling.

 

On the subject of hiding stuff, a filing cabinet will be going in this cupboard.  By raising one of the dwangs a bit higher, the filing cabinet will recess into the thickness of the wall so it doesn't stick out too far which would otherwise make the coat and shoe cupboard too deep.

[vivienz]

Our old hi-fi will go into the snug and stay there, no networking or anything.  OH and I don't share musical tastes and the snug is his for watching TV and listening to his music; as it is, he will need an entire wall for all his CDs and vinyl.  I will need some acoustic insulation in the walls of the snug.

[Nickfromwales]

Outside lighting and PIR sensors need to be considered, also some remote master switches for turning lights on and keeping them on eg no disco effect as you wander around outside. 

After cat5/6 to all the smart TVs and PCs etc Wifi is what I'm mostly focussed on. 

I bought a used gigabit switch after a nudge from @PeterW and now need wifi repeaters to compliment the switch and flood the house with wifi. One at the front downstairs, and one at the rear on the first floor so the garden / patio gets good signal there. 

In fairness to the VM router, which is in the dining room at the front of the house, if I line up with the living room window I can get a useable signal, but off to one side of that, zilch.

[lizzie]

I have large soffits and down lights (23) in them running all around the front and and garden sides of the house all on pir. The ‘sides’ of the house have low level lighting on pir and I have a back door wall light.  I have a wall light at the garage side door, soffit downlights at the front, uplighters in the ground along the driveway wall, 2 wall lights on the gate pillars.  Security floodlight back and front too.  Double external sockets on the terrace side, umpteen sockets at several points internally in the garage, an ev charging point on the garage side wall.  A junction box waiting for garden lighting  when landscaping done (and for power supply for potential garden studio).Gate intercom and electric gates, cctv, the list is endless!!!  Still a challenge to retro route a power supply for external blinds though........oh and I have two external taps (cold water only).  

 

Cat cabled the whole house and sky tv fed to all rooms. I have a ‘data cab’ in my plant room......I never knew I was going to have one of those!

 

Energy saving house ??

[Temp]

We have 8 external wall lights in a double brick wall. They were 12V each powered by it's own transformer which the makers say could be buried in the ground. So we have a run of SWA with 8 junction boxes and 8 transformers buried in the ground (9 boxes if you count one on the end of the SWA). All professionally installed - I watched/helped as every joint was properly "potted". Worked for a year then water got in.  Am now in the process of digging up the transformers and converting the lot to mains LEDs. Right pain and I still don't know if it will solve the problem.

 

If I was doing this again I would avoid a system that needed a transformer per light and either use mains lights or a system that uses one 12V transformer feeding a string of lights all accessible.

 

I would make sure every external circuit was on its own RCBO. You don't want the outside lights tripping out the ground floor ring (fridge, PC, TV?) every time it rains.

 

 

Edited June 5, 2018 by Temp

[vfrdave]

22 hours ago, Nickfromwales said:

Outside lighting and PIR sensors need to be considered, also some remote master switches for turning lights on and keeping them on eg no disco effect as you wander around outside. 

Im wiring a GJD system into my new place.  The folks put it in the house they built 30 years ago and their current one, it is rock solid.

 

22 hours ago, Nickfromwales said:

now need wifi repeaters to compliment the switch and flood the house with wifi

Ubiquiti for these, probably one internal would be suffice and an external one for the garden.

[Nickfromwales]

I'm going for all internal and the rear one on the garden-most wall ( below #1 sons room too as he's moaning about wifi being crap in his room ). 

Go climb a chuffing tree like I used to !!!