Broconne's Wiring Adventure

[broconne]

Refrigerators, by code, require a dedicated circuit, I think.

I have 2 in my garage - one is not on a dedicated circuit, but it only holds 'beverages'.

If you can, add some exterior outlets as well - car vacuum, hedgeclippers.

I had a spigot added to the outside of my house last fall. The only spigot near my garage was inside the garage, surrounded by [peeling, damaged] drywall. I had a plumber add a valve along the supply line to that spigot, so I could shut it off during the winter. The spigot is located on an exterior wall, between 2 garage bays, and subject to freezing.

Add a spigot at the back of your house?

Have you considered irrigation/sprinklers, and where the controller might be located? Wire runs to the controller?

All good points.

Hookup up a car vacuum should work from the outlets in the back and the front. However, the garage has a whole house vacuum inlet so I plan to be vacuuming from there.

On the outside, it comes with 3 power outlets.. I will have one next to the garage, one on the porch and one in the back. These are expensive to add with the builer. I think I can add ones to the side without too much work after I move in.

The house has a hose bib on the front and the back..
I am not doing irrigation with the builder, but hope to do that once we figure out all our landscaping. I will put the controller in the mechanical room with HA stuff.

I guess I haven't really thought beyond that - is there anything that needs to be run from the controller that I can't run from the unfinished basement?

 

[broconne]

Have we seen the garage layout yet?

Run wires to the garage door openers, for automation? Alarm keypad in garage? Garage door sensors? Exterior keypad to open automatic garage door?

Here is a link to the garage. All comments and suggestions welcome as always. Garage

 

[beelzerob]

I went into one of the models today and they only had two outlets in the garage.. *gulp*. One at the front and one at the rear.

Are you SURE what the model has is what your house will have too? Every model I ever went into, it had 90% of the available options on display.

 

[broconne]

I went into one of the models today and they only had two outlets in the garage.. *gulp*. One at the front and one at the rear.

Are you SURE what the model has is what your house will have too? Every model I ever went into, it had 90% of the available options on display.

The model is, of course, super upgraded. However, things like electrical runs and placement of switches are standard - other than that, nothing in the model is standard

We have a 28 tab spreadsheet listing all the options we have purchased broken down by category (plumbing, HVAC, lighting, electrical, etc).

 

[Neurorad]

You'll need whole-house vac outlet/inlets in the basement, eventually. Make sure the motor can handle future additional 'suckage' expansion (I don't know how much bigger, since you'll only ever have 1 inlet running at a time, but the additional volume of the runs could affect it).

Each of the vac accessory sets (hose, attachments) costs ~$400. My house came with 1 set, and it's not enough, if you want to use the garage inlet.

Plus, I never vacuum in the garage. I use the vacuum in the driveway, after washing the outside of my car. Hose wouldn't reach from the central vac cannister (even though it's positioned at the corner of my garage bay).

Some people add 20A and/or 220V circuits to garages for heaters, compressors, and other tools. I have what looks like a dryer outlet, but I haven't thought of a personal use for it yet. I wish it was located in the basement 'workshop' (in quotes because it's still taking shape).

Is your central vac cannister located in the garage, or in the basement (you only state Pro-Tube Vac outlet in the garage). Mine is REALLY loud, and I'm glad it's in the garage. I plan on putting a table saw in the basement soon, which will be louder. I wish I had some sound insulation within interior walls, and floors.

 

[broconne]

You'll need whole-house vac outlet/inlets in the basement, eventually. Make sure the motor can handle future additional 'suckage' expansion (I don't know how much bigger, since you'll only ever have 1 inlet running at a time, but the additional volume of the runs could affect it).

Each of the vac accessory sets (hose, attachments) costs ~$400. My house came with 1 set, and it's not enough, if you want to use the garage inlet.

Plus, I never vacuum in the garage. I use the vacuum in the driveway, after washing the outside of my car. Hose wouldn't reach from the central vac cannister (even though it's positioned at the corner of my garage bay).

Some people add 20A and/or 220V circuits to garages for heaters, compressors, and other tools. I have what looks like a dryer outlet, but I haven't thought of a personal use for it yet. I wish it was located in the basement 'workshop' (in quotes because it's still taking shape).

Is your central vac cannister located in the garage, or in the basement (you only state Pro-Tube Vac outlet in the garage). Mine is REALLY loud, and I'm glad it's in the garage. I plan on putting a table saw in the basement soon, which will be louder. I wish I had some sound insulation within interior walls, and floors.

We are just "prepping" for the whole house vacuum as I don't want to pay the builder markup on the unit itself. We will need a fairly hefty motor because we are doing the hide-a-hose system on floor 1 and 2. The system is supposed to be prepped so we can add to it in the attic and basement.

Hmmm.. I hadn't thought about the fact that I may vacuum in the driveway. Either way, I think a vac inlet in the garage will be useful.

The vac system will go in the mechanical room in the basement - the garage is really small and I don't want to try and cram it in there.

 

[heffneil]

Do you have a walk out from your basement? The idea of a central vac is to not take all that crap through your house. If you put it in the garage once you vacuum its out of the house never to return again. Even if you dump it in a bag in the basement you are stirring it back up in your house.

Also I was looking at your other plans. I just bought a house and I am very disappointed by the lack of lighting. I am a HUGE fan of overhead lighting. I would strongly suggest a light over each toilet. It depends on your sconces but if they aren't bright you will need to supplement. I spend the most time reading in the bathroom. My wife doesn't like it and I am sure its too much info for you guys but think about that when selecting lighting. It's very hard to go back and supplement without making a pretty good mess.

Another complaint I have about this house and it's hard to say because I don't blame the guy but each keypad was wired with a simple 4 wire. Given the change in markets (especially on the HAI side) I would strongly recommend running Cat6 or 2 to each keypad location.

Good luck and keep us posted!

Neil

 

[broconne]

Do you have a walk out from your basement? The idea of a central vac is to not take all that crap through your house. If you put it in the garage once you vacuum its out of the house never to return again. Even if you dump it in a bag in the basement you are stirring it back up in your house.

Yes it a walk-out. That is a good point. I could possibly put the vacuum canister in the garage on the same side as the fridge. I actually do wonder, if code would even allow it to be in the mechanical room since the furnace is in there? Code doesn't let me put a vent fan in the laundry room with the dryer so that seems like it would be even worse in the mechanical room.

Also I was looking at your other plans. I just bought a house and I am very disappointed by the lack of lighting. I am a HUGE fan of overhead lighting. I would strongly suggest a light over each toilet. It depends on your sconces but if they aren't bright you will need to supplement. I spend the most time reading in the bathroom. My wife doesn't like it and I am sure its too much info for you guys but think about that when selecting lighting. It's very hard to go back and supplement without making a pretty good mess.

Well, I haven't diagrammed the master and there will be a light over that toilet. The recessed in the downstairs powder room, even if not diagrammed that way, is pretty close to the toilet.

Another complaint I have about this house and it's hard to say because I don't blame the guy but each keypad was wired with a simple 4 wire. Given the change in markets (especially on the HAI side) I would strongly recommend running Cat6 or 2 to each keypad location.

The keypad pre-wires are 22/4 and cat5. Excellent points!

 

[beelzerob]

Also I was looking at your other plans. I just bought a house and I am very disappointed by the lack of lighting. I am a HUGE fan of overhead lighting. I would strongly suggest a light over each toilet. It depends on your sconces but if they aren't bright you will need to supplement. I spend the most time reading in the bathroom. My wife doesn't like it and I am sure its too much info for you guys but think about that when selecting lighting. It's very hard to go back and supplement without making a pretty good mess.

Lighting is by far the hardest thing to visualize from scratch. In that regard, you're very lucky to have a model to walk through. If you haven't walked through it when it's pitch black outside, I highly suggest it.

I agree, sconces look nice but are really minimal lighting for a room. We only have 2 sconces in our master, plus now an added fan light...but overall think it's still too dim. Of course, in general you don't need GREAT lighting in the master...

The other thing that will REALLY affect your lighting is your paint color, so if you're going to use a darker color paint than the model has, the lighting WILL be muted by it.

 

[broconne]

Upstairs Bath

Room Purpose: Showering, etc. For use by the guest room and one other bedroom.

H/A Equipment: The room has an occupancy sensor pre-wire, I placed it in the corner so it would not point pickup motion in the hallway. There are 3 cat5 cables run for ALC/OnQ. One for the standard light, 1 for the vanity light, 1 relay for the bathroom vent. The room has 2 Door contacts. One temperature/humidity sensor (The lack of an elk compatible humidity sensor has me buying the HAI)

H/A Goals:
(1) Turn on the lights when occupied.
(2) Turn on the vent fan if occupied for a specified period.
(3) Turn off the vent fan if unoccupied for a specified period.
(4) "Sleep" the fan (turn off and then back on later) if occupied for a specified period, then the fan is turned off. This is so guests would not be confused and tell me that my fan was broken because it wasn't turning off.
(5) Turn on the vent fan if the relative humidity exceeds a specified threshold and exceeds the relative humidity of the thermostat in the hallway.


The Bathroom diagram

 

[broconne]

Also I was looking at your other plans. I just bought a house and I am very disappointed by the lack of lighting. I am a HUGE fan of overhead lighting. I would strongly suggest a light over each toilet. It depends on your sconces but if they aren't bright you will need to supplement. I spend the most time reading in the bathroom. My wife doesn't like it and I am sure its too much info for you guys but think about that when selecting lighting. It's very hard to go back and supplement without making a pretty good mess.

Lighting is by far the hardest thing to visualize from scratch. In that regard, you're very lucky to have a model to walk through. If you haven't walked through it when it's pitch black outside, I highly suggest it.

I agree, sconces look nice but are really minimal lighting for a room. We only have 2 sconces in our master, plus now an added fan light...but overall think it's still too dim. Of course, in general you don't need GREAT lighting in the master...

The other thing that will REALLY affect your lighting is your paint color, so if you're going to use a darker color paint than the model has, the lighting WILL be muted by it.

We have been there when it is dark. I am trying to light the place as much as possible because I know lamps will be much harder to control than overhead lights.

 

[heffneil]

I am a big big big fan of over lighting! Over Lighting! You can always use a dimmer. In this house here we have halo cans. I can't say enough bad about them. I know there are some big fans of Halo lights but they are crap folks. This house is SO dim it makes me sad. That said I LOVE progress lighting cans and trims. They have a clip in system for the trim to the actual light socket. I have installed about 40 of these lights in my homes and they are great. I installed a few halos and really couldn't get a tight fit between the can and the trim.

I don't know exactly why but there is an issue with the lights I have here but they just do not project light. I have tried other bulbs to no avail. Im considering adding lights and somehow replacing these with something else.

My house I would put the central vac in the garage and never worry about it. It really belongs there. When you detach the canister and trip in the garage you can thank me

Let me know if you have any other concerns. I love sharing my opinion

Neil

 

[broconne]

Other Upstairs Bath

Room Purpose: Showering, etc.

H/A Equipment: The room has an occupancy sensor pre-wire, I placed it in the toilet room corner. There are 3 cat5 cables run for ALC/OnQ. One for the standard light, 1 for the vanity light, 1 relay for the bathroom vent. The room has 3 Door contacts. One temperature/humidity sensor.

H/A Goals:
(1) Turn on the lights when occupied.
(2) Turn on the vent fan if occupied for a specified period.
(3) Turn off the vent fan if unoccupied for a specified period.
(4) "Sleep" the fan (turn off and then back on later) if occupied for a specified period, then the fan is turned off. This is so guests would not be confused and tell me that my fan was broken because it wasn't turning off.
(5) Turn on the vent fan if the relative humidity exceeds a specified threshold and exceeds the relative humidity of the thermostat in the hallway.


The Bathroom diagram
Upstairs Bath

Room Purpose: Showering, etc. For use by the guest room and one other bedroom.

H/A Equipment: The room has an occupancy sensor pre-wire, I placed it in the corner so it would not point pickup motion in the hallway. There are 3 cat5 cables run for ALC/OnQ. One for the standard light, 1 for the vanity light, 1 relay for the bathroom vent. The room has 2 Door contacts. One temperature/humidity sensor (The lack of an elk compatible humidity sensor has me buying the HAI)

H/A Goals:
(1) Turn on the lights when occupied.
(2) Turn on the vent fan if occupied for a specified period.
(3) Turn off the vent fan if unoccupied for a specified period.
(4) "Sleep" the fan (turn off and then back on later) if occupied for a specified period, then the fan is turned off. This is so guests would not be confused and tell me that my fan was broken because it wasn't turning off.
(5) Turn on the vent fan if the relative humidity exceeds a specified threshold and exceeds the relative humidity of the thermostat in the hallway.

The Bedroom diagram

 

[Monk]

(4) "Sleep" the fan (turn off and then back on later) if occupied for a specified period, then the fan is turned off. This is so guests would not be confused and tell me that my fan was broken because it wasn't turning off.

It doesn't seem right that the fan would not turn off from a wall switch...? You should have wall switch control of your devices no matter what HA controller is doing. Depending on programming, I suppose that they could turn it off and then it would come back on via HA? The human should win any arguments it seems to me.
Maybe I am confused?

 

[broconne]

(4) "Sleep" the fan (turn off and then back on later) if occupied for a specified period, then the fan is turned off. This is so guests would not be confused and tell me that my fan was broken because it wasn't turning off.

It doesn't seem right that the fan would not turn off from a wall switch...? You should have wall switch control of your devices no matter what HA controller is doing. Depending on programming, I suppose that they could turn it off and then it would come back on via HA? The human should win any arguments it seems to me.
Maybe I am confused?

Well the thought is that when a person turns the fan "off" the fan does go off immediately. 30 seconds to a minute or so later, the fan may come back on depending on several factors. (1) Humidity, (2) length of time in the bathroom without a humidity increase.

So to "guests" the fan switch would operate as expected, they would turn it on and turn it off. However, after they turned it off it may come back on.

For those who live there, they wouldn't even really use the switch under normal circumstances. If relative humidity exceeds a threshold fan turns on, when it goes below a threshold fans turns off.


Does that make more sense?