Wiring my own house

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Thank you to everybody who responded these are all great ideas and I have thought of some of them of course adding a ton of Light in the Attic extra circuits in the Attic dedicated circuits to each room receptacles lights and Outlets separate is what I always do I'll update you guys when the time is right


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Does anybody have experience with the night light receptacles friend of mine was telling me to put a couple of those in the hallway one or two in each room possibly they look nice I'm told

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UR house

UR house

Sws. @ 48 ins. centerline AFF(Above Finished Floor), rcpts. 18 ins. centerline AFF.

Rcpts. SABC, ktchn. counter top, 44 ins. centrline.

Rcpts. refer., DW, food waste disposer, etc. individual ckts.

4G sw. outlet boxes, max.

Plastic_porceline lamp holders in closets, basements, AHJ may flag you.
LED luminaires.

Bdrms., 1P15A ckt., run on outside walls, 1P15A ckt., run on hallway walls.
Thus:2 ckts. in bdrms.





nickelec said:
Over the years I've probably wired up 50 or so homes for customers and gave plenty if ideas and inputs as to what they should consider,put in etc. Now it's time to do my own and my mind is racing, what type of high hats square or round baffle or not what kind of dimmers and where lol. Does any have a similar experience. Any tips or ideas things to consider?


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180428-0943 EDT

nickelec:

I am with junkhound on the use of GE RR relays. I think they are too expensive, but they have been very reliable for me over the last 50 years in my home, and provide convenient control wiring from as many different points as you wish. Further they can be computer controlled if desired.

The RR relay is an electromechanical mechanically bistable device very immune to transient voltages, and requires no power or external non-volatile memory to remain in its last state. Control wiring is three wire with paralleled SPDT switches spring return to center. This is a wired OR type of logic. Control wiring is like #22 or #24.

I like putting the relays in a gang box rather than at or close to the switched location. I have gang boxes in the basement, 1st floor, attic, and garage.

I have about 50 RR relays, also about 50 QO breakers. Typically about 1 breaker per 3 RR relays. A main panel and subpanel in the basement. Two subpanels on the 1st floor, one on the second, and one in the garage. Every bench has its own subpanel with one main breaker, two 120 breakers, and one 240 breaker. The top outlets are one phase, the outlets just below the top are the other phase. and there is one 240 outlet. This puts a lot of breakers in series and their voltage drops, but provides switching convenience.

Everything is copper wire and bus bars. I would not put aluminum anywhere. I am copper from the original pole, and where the original transformer was located. Original transformer failed. New one was placed on a different pole. Wimpy wires from the new transformer location to my original transformer location. Shows up in the source impedance. Looking toward the source originally my source impedance was primarily the transformer.

On noise. Phase shift dimmers produce RFI on any type of load. Fluorescent lights produce RFI, but a low pass filter within the fixture is fairly effective. Not feasible with screw-in LEDs and CFLs. Some LEDs are very noisy in the middle of the broadcast band.

For low noise LEDs use a strip and pure DC excitation. I have a 4 ft Costco LED that is so noisy that I can not do mV measurements with my scope. Dimmers at the DC level for strip LEDs use a several kHz pulse width modulated drive. I have not tested for noise problems.

To avoid any noise problems with LEDs use a strip light with DC excitation using a Variac to control the DC supply.

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Barbqranch said:
While running power in an attic w/ no lights, for an air conditioner install, I put the first keyless on the attached garage lights. So when I climb the ladder, it is already lit. CFL doesn't cost much for the small amount of time the garage lights are on. No fumbling for a switch.
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Coppersmith said:
Yes, but it's the inrush current that kills most electrical items. Flipping it on and off more than you need to will shorten it's life. Even though CFL's don't cost much to replace, you wouldn't want to have to do it at the moment you need it.
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I was going to say that when the time comes it is needed it is probably burned out:blink:


Outside of having equipment requiring servicing, most attics are never accessed around here other then when an electrician gets asked to install something that requires attic access. At least newer construction doesn't usually have much access. For one they are filled with loose fill insulation and often have truss type rafters - so there isn't any real usable space for the owner anyway.

You may occasionally get some sort of "bonus room" over top of a garage but otherwise attics are mostly unusable.

Lots of old houses with open attic spaces and even permanent stairs - can't recall ever seeing that in a house that was newer than maybe about 1950 though.
 
heated bathroom floors, can be done even if plywood..maybe towel warmers

and more lighting than you think you need, you'll grow into it

whatever happened to central vac? we still like ours

and have often considered adding intercom
 
kwired said:
Outside of having equipment requiring servicing, most attics are never accessed around here other then when an electrician gets asked to install something that requires attic access. At least newer construction doesn't usually have much access. For one they are filled with loose fill insulation and often have truss type rafters - so there isn't any real usable space for the owner anyway.
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I while ago I drew up plans for a home a wanted to build. Among it's many attic features were:

* Full lighting
* Insulated roof, not insulated ceiling. (So the attic stayed cool and insulation didn't obscure things and fall out the scuttle hole. Further benefit: no soffit or ridge vents required.)
* Mineral wool insulation. (Fireproof, non-ichy, high R value, stiffer than fiberglass, stays where you put it.)
* All high and low voltage wiring in cable tray attached to roof so you don't step on it or kick it.
* 2x4 walkways throughout.
* Hard A/C ducts (the soft ones get crushed or strangled by strap hangers and people stepping on them and airflow volume is reduced).
* Duct mainlines connected to roof ridge lines (so they are above your head and you don't have to step/crawl over them.)
 
20A circuits....

20A circuits....

I bought my 2yr old "high end" builder's house a few years ago. Retired and didn't want to have to deal with house problems. But, come to find out many of the receptacles in the daylight basement are 15A circuits. Tried to run my air compressor to do some finish work and the thing kept tripping. Grrrr. Long runs to the panels out in the garage. Had to plug into the 20A receptacle for the sewer pump and use a LONG air hose. How much could he possibly have saved using 14/2 over 12/2.
 
Coppersmith said:
Insulated roof, not insulated ceiling. (So the attic stayed cool and insulation didn't obscure things and fall out the scuttle hole. Further benefit: no soffit or ridge vents required.)
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Hard on shingles; some manufacturers won't honor warranties of non-ventilated roofs.
 
meternerd said:
. . . come to find out many of the receptacles in the daylight basement are 15A circuits. Tried to run my air compressor to do some finish work and the thing kept tripping. Grrrr.
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I prefer 20a circuits for all receptacles, even in bedrooms.
 
I'm in NYC we only use 20amp ckts. #14 is actually prohibited to be installed for line voltage applications

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Let me correct myself. You can use 15amp breakers but u must use #12s on that breaker

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LarryFine said:
Hard on shingles; some manufacturers won't honor warranties of non-ventilated roofs.
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I've been in a couple of house that were spray foamed under the roof. Absolutely cool in the middle of a summer's day.

P.S. I would put on a metal roof. 25 year shingles last about 15 years here.
 
brantmacga said:
Have you considered any home control systems?

I’ve been doing the Legrand Intuity systems. It’s really affordable and very easy to setup. If it’s something you’re interested in I’d be glad to help you out.

https://www.legrand.us/home-automation.aspx



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Iam definitely interested in something like that not to crazy, but practical and affordable also someone that doesn't need to much programming.

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Wat ate you guys using for unfinished attic lighting. Just 4' 8' led tubes?

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gar said:
180428-0943 EDT
use of GE RR relays. I think they are too expensive,
.
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Sticker shock fer sure: Had not looked at price of the RR3 or RR7 for a few years (still have a few I bought for $2.28 in 1973) - $40 now!! wow. Still have some of the GE switches also, were 32 cents in 1973, now $10??? huh?

Same operational characteristics for devices on ebay, electronic toggle 10A SSR, for 88 cents, shipping from China included! Of course, likely not UL or code. Think I'll order a few just for kicks. Would easily be able to mount those in central panel like gar uses.
 
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