Looking for any advice for wiring a large 8k plus sq ft home. I will be starting soon and am looking for advice on things I may not be thinking of. Are sub panels worth it? My smoke detector circuit will have detectors 100 ft apart. I know it is a just a big house but am looking for advice on things that you may have discovered when wiring a home of this size?
Thanks
talk to the homeowner. if the house is 8k sq. they don't have a walmart mentality.
they will most likely want all the bells and whistles, if you can explain the value of
putting it in now. or putting raceways in for future. an easy money extra. think
lots of 3/4" smurf tube. lots.
and figure full documentation of your install. take pictures of EVERY wall before
sheetrock. print them up nicely, and put them in a nice binder.
the last big one i did was 7200 sq ft. full basement, in calif that is odd.
the 7200 sq didn't include the basement. two stories.
subpanels, oh my yes. one for the kitchen, one each for two floors, and the main.
walk in refrigerator, commercial kitchen. house was in riverside county, had 400 amp
3 phase main gear. 3 125 amp 3 phase subpanels
36 node cat 5. data, voice to every position.
generator, ATS, 5 802.11x repeaters spanned. this was before home automation.
this brings us to home automation.
if you don't have a pipe into lutron or celestron, find someone in your area who does.
get a system integrator on board. he brings the hardware, you bring the customer,
figure out a split that is good for both of you.
something this size can easily have 300 can lights. my wife's aunt's house in feen-x
was 6,500 sq ft, and had 400 cans.... make sure they understand the value of LED
lighting.
the house i did with 7,200 sq, we stubbed everything down into the basement, and
tied it all together there. emt, and flex, so it was really a commercial building. stubs up into
bunches of places for futures. put nema 1 gutter around three sides of the basement,
and the stubs all hit there, so everything was in the gutter.
the owner was a retired aerospace contractor, and he wanted it done right....