Checklist: Electrical & Sound

There are may elements that most people tend to forget to add to their homes when it comes to electrical and sound during their home building journey.

By the time they move into their brand new home, they realize that they missed items that would cost them thousands of dollars to install after the fact.

Your builder must provide you with a detailed electrical plan outlining powerpoints, light switches, sound installation, etc…

Below is a sample of what an electrical plan would look like:

You will also find below a non-exhaustive checklist for your electrical and sound to consider when you are designing your new home:

PowerPoints

Think of you are going use each room / space in your new home:

• How many PowerPoints are included in your tender?  Is that enough?
• How many power points are you going to need in your master bedroom?
• What about the kids rooms?
• How many power points are you going to need in your study?
• Have you considered bed lamps?
• What about charging your phones at night?
• Are you going to have a TV in your bedroom(s) or living area(s)?
• What about your vacuum when you are cleaning your rooms?
• Do you want single / double or quadruple power points?
• Have you considered your hallways?
• What about your garage?
• Where are you going to put your external power points?

Kitchen

• Have you considered having power points for your microwave?
• Where are you going to put the bread toaster?
• What about a coffee machine?

• Where are you going to place your water boiler?
• If you have a newly born, where are  you going to plug the sterilizer?
• Do you have a power point for your dishwasher?
• Have you considered having a powerpoint on your kitchen island?
• What about your sandwich presses and kettles?

Lighting

• How many LEDs are included in your tender?  Is that enough?
• Are you going to have LED downlights or oysters?
• How are you going to use the room?
  
• What type of LED’s are you going to install?
  
• How many spotlights are you going to install externally?
  
• Will you have downlights along the eaves around your home or just to the front facade?
  
• Where are you going to have light pendants?
  

• Are you going to have stair lights?
• How are you going to use each of the light?  For example:  as you walk in, will you need to turn on a hallway light?
• Have you considered multiway switches?
• As you walk in and out of the home, or from room to room, or from upstairs to downstairs; what lights do you want your switches to turn on and turn off?

Sound

• Are you going to have a surround system in your theatre or TV room?
• Have you consulted a specialist to plan your setup?
• Will your builder allow your own installer to do this or will they have their own?
• This setup has to be done during the build otherwise it can get very expensive to be done later.  Have you discussed this with your builder in detail?
• Are you planning on having speakers throughout the home or in certain areas?
• Will you have a massive TV or a projector to your theatre?

Other

• Where are you going to be mounting your TV?
• Where is your TV and data points going to be located?
• Is your builder going to be installing the antenna or is this something you will be doing later?
• Have you considered an antenna booster specially if you have a bigger home?
• What about ceiling fans?
• Are you going to have a 3-phase or single phase power supply?  It’s much cheaper to upgrade to a 3-phase during the build than doing it at a later stage!
• What else :)?

The above are just some questions to consider during the design of your home.

It’s important that you do this upfront as it will save you thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars.

It’s also always good to get some ideas about how your lights, pendants and PowerPoints are going to look like.

Visit sites like Pinterest, Clipsal or HPM (existing brands at the time of writing this blog) for ideas.

It’s also important to note that you should be aware of provisional allowances for electrical and sound included in your tender.

Make sure they are enough!