Electrical Selection

Our Electrical Plans

If you want to just get straight to the plans/costs scroll to the bottom.

Smart Home Background Objectives

So, I've had a few ideas and plans around our Electricals for our House. One of them is that we do as much Electricals after handover as possible in order to reduce the house costs and it is also one of the reasons we chose as single storey over double as it makes this option possible.

C-Bus Automation

One of the main items that I want to include in the house is C-Bus home automation but this is not something that Porter Davis will do and I can understand why when there are so many options to chose from and the complexities around programming functions for users.

For those of you that don't know what C-Bus is, effectively moves the switching function for a light switch to a central location. These central switches are then controlled using low voltage light switches in the desired locations. This provides great flexibility of being able to re program light switches and change their function should the need arise, rather than re-wiring the house. A big benefit is when multiple switches might be required to control a single light, this can become costly and difficult when over 3 switches are required. With C-bus there is no limitations to the number of switches a single light can have or the number of lights a switch can control. This is further automated through the use of light sensors, movement sensors, timers, thermometers and remote controls.

For more information on C-Bus visit:

 http://www.clipsal.com/homeowner/products/smart_home_technology


I will get PD to cable all the lights back to the Garage in order to make it easier for an Electrician to install a C-Bus after handover, I'll probably purchase all the C-Bus gear, program it myself, and run the low voltage cabling and leave the High Voltage 240v stuff to the Electricians.

Here are just a few things I am hoping to achieve:

• Automation of lighting to reduce energy costs and take advantage of lighting scenes
• Automation of window coverings internal/external to reduce the amount of heating/cooling required based on internal/external temperatures and time of year
• Automation of Scenes and timers for bathroom fans based on when the light was turned off/on/time of day etc
• Automation of Scenes to dim lights after 10PM
• Control of Irrigation Systems 
• Control of Blinds, Lighting, Dimmers, and mufti-room audio using C-bus DLT/eDLTs
• Control of lighting, watering systems, blinds all via central LCD screens,
• Control of Lighting and Appliance via the use of IPads through the Clipsal Wiser Interface
• C-Bus integrated alarm system to enable alarming of the system remotely or via single buttons.
• Monitoring of Energy usage
• Feature 1 Button all lights off and all standby devices off
• Feature 1 Button all external lights on for security

Home Theatre

The next item that I wanted to include with the house is a dedicated theatre room. I've always wanted to build one, and I'll further justify my reason as it is even harder to relax and watch movies with out waking little people around the house so having a room that I can close the doors on and turn up the volume is important to me.

I have some high level plans for my theatre room, including a minimum 2.5meter diagonal screen lit by a nice Panasonic projector, acoustically treated room, built for 11.2 surround sound and yes I know a decent 5.1 system will do but its my house ;), theatre recliners, IB sufwoofers and a dedicated equipment rack outside of the theatre room.

I have done some initial layouts of where I want my seating/speakers/screen etc, but I will go alot more detailed on this once I am in the house. I expect this to be a half year to year long project until I'm happy with my theatre room.

Theatre AV Rack

The theatre equipment rack will be housed just outside the theatre room. It will be built into the wall of the store room and will look like part of the house once finished. The rack will also be used to distribute AV around the house using HDMI over Cat6 extenders so that I don't have to run a multitude of cables that are soon to be out dated. This way I don't have to have DVD players, set top boxes, PlayStation's, WII's etc in each room. I can simply mount the TV on the wall and access the sources from the central cabinet. This will require alot of cat6 down the road.

The rack will also house all Data Points  network equipment from the rear. Free space in the rack will be utilised for DVD shelfs or remote controller draws. Having all the data points and AV in the same rack will make it much more easier to distribute AV.

Misc Electrical Plans

I also have plans to add the following items post handover so I'll ensure that non of these items are added or at least supported.

• Acton Air conditioning to zone the house into 8 zones to reduce heating and cooling usage down to as little as 1.3KW on a 20KW system. Rather than heating or cooling the entire house we heat and cool areas and not rooms that are not in use
• Network IP Security Cameras displayed on TV screen located in kitchen, but accessible via PC's, IPADs locally or via the Internet. Cameras to support low light conditions and facial identification when person is on the property record to network storage and also local SD cards.
• Intercom system to reduce having to open the door to hawkers.

Once all these steps to reduce energy usage have been done, the power usage will be monitored and then reduced to zero by installing the correct amount of solar panels. I'm expecting 3-4.5kw depending.

The Electrical Appointment.

This went pretty quickly and easily which is probably due to the fact that I didn't really want to add anything. Again Porter Davis Disappointed us buy not having our correct plans so indicating locations where we wanted points was made harder by the fact that the ensuite, lounge, and study were all different to what was on the plans provided! We added a few more data points and TV points around the house, which after the appointment I kind of wished I hadn't as I'll just be adding more later. Oh well what's done is done. The other item that I was not really happy with was the $1600 for NBN connection, which is 3 data points, some conduit, a pull line, a box and a power point effectively... seriously come on...

Anyway our plans!

Electrical Plan

Electrical Plan Icons

Electrical Selection Pricing1

Electrical Selection Pricing2

Electrical Selection Pricing3

NBN Plan

NBN Pricing - 1

NBN Pricing - 2

Tile Selection - Updated Floor Layout

We had a quick visit to the display home after our tiles appointment yesterday to try to get some last minute ideas for colours etc. One of the things we picked up was that the tile direction for the bathroom and toilet was different to what we selected in our Plan. In fact the direction of the tiles in the display looks quiet good with the tile running the direction of the bath. It means that the wall, shower, bath, and floor tile direction matches. So went back to National Tiles before our Electrical Selection to upgrade the tile layout.

Updated Tile Layout

Tile Selection

So we had our tile selections today. We had already visited National Tiles a few weeks earlier to get a feel for the selection range. We are not very comfortable with the colour selection process, in fact I disliked choosing the colours the most as there is really no right answer, so instead I worked on a principle of what I didn't like.

Looking at the selection range all the cheaper tiles did not have many colour variations or were rather small. I felt that people are forced to upgrade their tiles. I also found that trying to chose a single tile, brick or anything does not give you a true idea to how it will look finished, and you always end up with something that is to dark or to light. In knowing this we spent the last few weeks taking particular notice of colour schemes used in various display homes.

We decided after looking at a number of displays that the porcelain tiles were something that we wanted with a tile shape of 300mm x 600mm. The colours we found our selves liking were in the chocolate brown range. In the end the display home that we are building happens to be in the exact same colour scheme we wanted, so it was easy to just specify the tile from the Kallara in Epping (STRATOS WET CEMENT POLISHED MAXFL136) until we then got asked about the grout colour? Oh no, we didn't even think about grout colour... So we chose the same one again in Epping. (Mocha) Crisis Avoided.

We chose the same tile for the Ensuite, Bath, Toilet and Laundry (same as the display) and also the Wall Tiles are also the same. The Kitchen and Pantry will have Glass Splash backs, and the rest of the flooring will be carpet/bamboo flooring.

We budgeted about $5000 for tiling. The Tiling quote came in at $4397 + $782 for having full height category 1 tiles to Master Ensuite including upgrading the studs to 300mm. So $5179. Cool!

Photos of Colours first, then Floor Plan is further down. Note that the Floor Plan is the wrong plan in that it doesn't include variation's from our Tender yet, this seems to be a common theme for Porter Davis in the forums.

To the Right: STRATOS WET CEMENT POLISHED MAXFL136 and Cashmere Caesar stone

Ensuite from Kallara in Epping. We are using Same Tiles, Cupboard Colour but a different Caesar stone. One shown is Ginger

More shots showing MAXFL136

Another Angle. Tube to be replaced with inset Spa.

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Tender 2 - Update

After we finished our initial Tender I went away and read through everything. One thing that I was still not convinced of was the Garage Extension. Our siting plan showed a 900mm garage extension, and our tender listed a 400mm Extension, but we wanted a 500mm extension so we had to get this sorted and get all the documents having one correct measurement.


Ok so... Our lot is 16500mm wide, the House is 14610mm + Garage Extension 500mm = 15110mm. This leaves 1390mm down the East side of the House, and 940mm between the Eaves and the Fence. To have Eaves above Habitual Rooms you need at least 1000mm between the Fence and the Eave. So this means we can't have Eaves over Bed2/3. I wasn't going to make the Garage any smaller so this will have to do.

I also had a think about my Store in the Study that I added, and it began to seem more strange just having a Cupboard built into the corner. I decided to make the store take the full width of the Study to try and hide the Store space a bit more while gaining a larger store room. See pics below:

Store Room Version 1.0

Store Room Version 2.0

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Tender!

So we had our Tender appointment today. It was supposed to go for 4 hours, we went the full day and we were totally exhausted at the end of it.

We spent a bit of time playing with Window sizes, Stacker Doors and Sliding Doors.

We found out more detail around:

• Initial site costs indicated
• Site Sitting Corrected after much discussion around the Garage dimensions drawn being incorrect
• Surprise! Bushfire assessment $7300!
• Windows to be set underneath eaves, because we elected to have eaves added. Which resulted in a confusing conversation about raising window height. I was concerned because I wanted to have the doors/windows finish at the same height and have bricks over the Windows.  They said if I wanted to do this it would be about $5000 because of extra lintels required and that it doesn't look "bad"

Changes / Updates from Sales Quotes:

• Lounge Window Height changed to 600mm high x 2410mm wide in lieu of 1200mm high x 2700mm wide. We wanted no window due to the room being a Theatre Room, but this is not allowed in the BCA and states the window must be a minimum of 10% of the floor area. So we chose the smallest we could get taking into account the 10% rule and chose a standard window size from Stegbar and provided this to PD at Tender. There was no issues with this.
• Games / Alfresco Door changed to 2400mm high x 2400mm wide in lieu of 2100mm high x 2400mm wide Sliding Door
• Delete Study West Facing Window
• Make North facing Study Window Full height. 2400mm high x 1800mm wide in lieu of 1200mm high x 1800mm wide.
• Costs for Lounge Walls relocation and Double Doors included (But they wouldn't let us have the doors open to 180 degree, I'll get a carpenter to fix this after we move in)
• Rear Garage Door updated to 1020mm instead of 1200mm wide. (1200mm is to wide)
• Bed 2/3/4 Removed skinny 600mm high x 2410mm wide Windows for larger 1200mm hig x 1800mm wide Windows.
• Family / Alfresco Sliding Door changed to Stacking Sliding Door. Height changed to 2400mm high x 2700mm wide in lieu of 2100mm high x 2700mm Sliding Door.
• Added Aluminum Sliding Fly Screen Doors with Aluminum Mesh to Family Games Rooms.
• Cavity Sliding Doors to Pantry / Study
• Discussion around Doors for Ensuite but decided against it when cost came to $4000.
• Updated Entrance Door to 1020mm wide (not a 1200mm Pivot Door due to $4000 cost and little fingers) Door to be same as Epping Kallara Entrance.
• Hallway door specified as a WIN7FG with Transparent Glass on top for some privacy and light.
• RIMM door with Transparent Glazing for Pantry
• Cat3 Bricks (not sure if this was in early versions)
• Additional Manhole to Garage, can't relocate one in Hallway because of access requirements for hHating
• Store cupboard added to Study. Keeps the Study size looking the same as the display, but has a large storeroom for Media/Coms/AV stuff.
• Tiber Dumper to Ensuite Shower with separate Mixer.
• All Overhead Cupboard heights increased from 720mm to 920mm high and bulkhead/cornice above all cupboards. (Hate that dust on top of cupboards.)
• Change the Rangehood to Slide Out. Ensure that Rangehood is vented externally (no oil/smells in the roof please)
• Make sure all the Cupboards match, Shadow line, Pencil Edges, etc
• Glass Splashback to Kitchen/Pantry Walls.
• Caesarstone pricing fixed up. Cat1 for Kitchen/Ldry, Cat2 for everywhere else.
• Taps: Capped fresh water points to Fridge, and Toilets for Electronic Bidet. PD refused to do the Toilets, which we asked if there was a problem at Quote time. We said we will walk away from the deal (and we would have) and all of sudden they could add them
• Laundry Taps Under Bench for Front loading Washing Machine
• Acoustic R2.5 insulation to Theater Wall
• Upgraded Heating Ducts to 8" from 6" standard for Future Air Conditioner (Note this might still be to small)
• Added Additional Heating Ducts to Bathroom/Ensuite
• Full Tiling to Ensuite Wall, including upgrade of Stud Centers to 300mm spacing
• Stained Finish to Pantry and Hallway Doors
• Delete Raised Ceiling to Entry and Kitchen

 PD Wouldn't Do:

• Won't do 100mm Slab to Garage. Wanted this for future mini Car Hoist. But Engineering needs all the specifications, locations, etc and it would need to be engineered, = lots more $$$. They really were not interested in helping at all here.
• Won't leave Skirting Boards off for future Flooring.
• Won't do Sink Cabinet to garage, but will do capped Hot, Cold and Waste Points.
• Cant move Meter Box Forward anymore because of Estate Restrictions.

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Quote #2

Well we have had a bit more time to think about what we want in our house, this is probably really our real first quote.

Main items are:

• Soaker tub to Ensuite with relocation of shower
• Garage extension change to 500mm
• Provide 300mm raised ceiling to Entry/Family/Kitchen
• Pantry Cabinet Option 3 - Base cabinets, and over head cabinets to BED2 wall
• Sink to Pantry
• 3 Phase underground power, including upgrade of circuit board and isolating switches (to support future air con/garage tools)
• Cat3 brick
• Extension of Study 1 x 2.43m
• Delete linen cupboard and square off Laundry
• Games Hallway Door added to section off Games/Bed3 & 4 from the rest of the house
• Stacker sliding doors to Family Room and Games Room, including increased height to 2400mm
• Caesar stone category pricing added, a lot of window size changes. 

Update: I have also added our Floor Plan variations here.