We’re not techies and don’t have massive integrated stereo systems or anything, but the builder was asking what we wanted to put in. Anything we should definitely plan to include – phone/broadband points for TV etc?

Apologies in advance for dimness.

Most things are pretty happy wireless these days but I’d still put in some network cable. Other than that just lots of sockets, some with USB. Also lighting sockets are nice, especially in the lounge

3 phase, for big machinery, or selling power back to the grid, it’s what we’re missing at work anyway and on quite a few of the farms.

Otherwise, everything to hide cables, but you need to know where you want everything. Network cabling as the connection will be better than wifi (for now), especially if a large house.

Stick as many power points and cat 5/6 points around the place as you can. It’s a PITA to put in after and you’re better off with too many points than not enough. Wireless is OK, but you still can’t beat wired.

We’ve just done ours. Decided to leave out speaker/network cables as everything is going wireless. We’ve put an extra cable in to have a booster for the wifi.
We have put an hdmi cable in to possibly connect a wall mounted tv to a DVD player.

power
Put in more power sockets than you think you’ll need. Always put doubles in if you can.

TV
Depending on the family setup you might want TV points in any family rooms. I’m unsure how useful these are now that streaming services are so accessible and so easy to connect up via ethernet or wireless.

speakers
If you’ve surround set ups then consider some way of getting the speaker cables to the (rear) speakers that keeps them neat and out of sight. Depending on how nerdy you are you can use 4mm socket pairs mounted in regular faceplates connected to each other by 16A T&E. This makes it easy to plug the amp’s outputs in one end and the speaker inputs in at the other end. Needs you to think a bit about where your amps and speakers will go to avoid confusion. Or, you could ask for runs of conduit to run cables down.

broadband
Decide where your broadband is going to come into the house. Get an ethernet socket nearby and a run of ethernet* cable in wide, smooth conduit from there to a nearby cupboard or recessed and concealed area. From that get runs of ethernet cable, preferably in conduit, from there to an ethernet socket in every room. If you have a cupboard to put a switch in make sure it has at least 1 double power socket in it. You’ll need one socket for the switch’s power and you might want to add a server of some kind later.

Sure, ethernet is old-school and this set up isn’t optimal but it will put you in a position to put a switch in that cupboard/space and from that connect each room via fast, unimpeded cable to the router. Then in the rooms you need great connections for you can pop a fresh wireless router in that takes its connection via wire from the source. You could even connect those devices that need unimpeded connections (PS4, gaming PC…) via wire.

Trying to put high quality wired connections in a pre-existing build is tricky.

*”ethernet” – by which I mean CAT-6 or CAT-5e

As NickB and Timber.

Network cabling to a few places – you dont need it everywhere but at a minimum a good idea to run cable to a the point(s) that would be best to mount a Wireless Access Point (high and central in the house willl give much better reception from a single point than in a corner on the ground floor)

Network Cables between the TV/Hifi location in the living room, any office space and maybe somewhere in the kitchen.

Put some time effort and money into lighting. Lighting sockets well worth it – much better to be able to switch all the lights off from the wall than go around switching off table lamps. Do something more interesting that ‘single pendant light in the centre of the room’ for lighting. Developers do it because its cheap. Don’t do the next most common thing of a grid of fixed down lighters – all they do is light the floor and give a really harsh light. Think about using tilting spots to light ‘things’ – pictures, alcoves, etc. It highlights the things you want to look at and bounces softer light back into the room. In the kitchen light the ‘work areas’ of worktops like the sink or the oven and have a pendant or pendants over the dinging table. Use uplighters to bounce light off the ceiling

Install as multiple lighting circuits back to the switch so you can alter what is on rather than dimming everything together.

Kitchen and living room are the rooms you spend most time in so focus there – bedrooms don’t matter as much

Don’t put an HDMI cable in the wall, put a duct that you can pull cables through so that if the HDMI standard changes you can upgrade the cable. Install speaker cables for surround speakers if you have them or think you might in future. Put in speaker cables for the stereo pair as well if you have planned the room layout (and there’s no reason not to plan it now). A room with no trailing cables looks a lot better and its low enough cost that its no great loss if you dont end up using some of it.

power sockets than you think you’ll need. Always put doubles in if you can

One exception – hallways. I installed singles without switch to keep them minimal. Theyre only every going to be used for a temporary tool like a hoover, Put sockets in cupboards and built in wardrobes for things like chargers, hairdryers etc.

Not sure using T&E for speaker cable in walls is a good idea from a future ‘traceability’ view. 79 strand speaker cable from TLC Elecrical is only £35 for 100m roll and is much easier to work with.

a CU that thats not full
the 10mm required for the power shower and induction hob
suitable power to garage/shed

Ethernet everywhere , good for CCTV cameras especially power over Ethernet so I would include garages and sheds in the network

Based on your requirements I wouldn’t be bothering with any structured cabling unless the size of the build is large or uses a lot of steelwork. Powerline devices over new electric cabling is super mature if you have the odd device that needs cabling. Speakers I would recommend ceiling based solution such as Sonos and look to a streaming services (Apple, Spotify etc.) for content delivery (budget for a couple of iPhone / iPad for remote control). Depending on budget you may want a media PC for DVD collection but again most content can be streamed. Above does assume a good internet speed of at lease 20MB.

TV can be tricky as no one has cracked wireless HDMI at a decent price point so think about TV location if you are going to be using set top box to deliver content as they are difficult to move later.

The area you haven’t mentioned and is I think the most important aspect is lighting and it can make or break a build. Some brilliant lighting solutions available and it will totally transforms any space. Have a look on the internet and ask your architect to recommend a lighting consultant.

Wired in smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detector(s).

Don’t overdo the future proofing… the future has a habit of leapfrogging systems that people install.

I’d recommend forming a riser or leaving wireways from where the fuse board is to the loft + similar from where the br / phone point is

Seeing as the OP hasn’t given any real brief other than he wants to do with electricity I’m going to join in with the gold-plate speccing. It definitely the case that you need all sorts of things that practically nobody else has so:

riddle the house with Cat 5 so that your house feels like work – because nothing says ‘future’ like having to plug into the wall – you’ll literally die younger if you don’t

You need an electric charging point on your roof in case anyone invents an electric flying car.

Wire the whole house an 110v incase you get a house guest from the US and they need somewhere to plug in their hairdryer

Install HVDC so that you can buy your electricity wholesale and cut out the middle man

Install 15amp sockets on scaffold bars on your living room ceiling for that genuine ‘Home Theatre’ effect.

Some of you really like giving extra money to the builders?

I stuck in a few extra sockets when I rewired but nothing mental.

If anything id say some simple ducts in the wall for ease of adding in the future . From phone lines and consumer unit up to attic and the TV up to attic-but since a modern house wall is 85% air there is very little that can’t be fished on the odd occasion you find you need to run a cable.

As for hdmis in the wall… One surely doesn’t hang his tv on the wall ?

I’d say the only thing to be smart about is think where power/phone/TV points are in relation to doors and fireplaces – thats the only future proofing you need to do.

At some point you might have a different idea about how you want to orientate a room and its difficult to trail cables past a doorway or hearth neatly. So if you’re starting with a blank canvas just duplicate some of those outlets either side of obstructions so that you can point the furniture in any direction

riddle the house with Cat 5 so that your house feels like work – because nothing says ‘future’ like having to plug into the wall – you’ll literally die younger if you don’t

😆 yip, wifi was a wonderful invention, i doubt it’s going to get worse in the future myself.

If you’re running Ethernet, stick with CAT5e. There’s absolutely no point in running CAT6 in a domestic install; it’s more expensive, harder to work with, and your average spark isn’t going to be qualified to do an install that’s actually CAT6 (it’s more complex than simply using the right cables).

I wouldn’t be without servants bells in every room, connected to a display board in the pantry.

I wouldn’t be without servants bells in every room, connected to a display board in the pantry.

Our last house (end of terrace London Edwardian) still had traces of the old bell system in the cellar – some hooks, wheels and bits of wire. Also had a couple of bits of pipe sticking out of the wall that must have been for gas lamps.

Worth getting a few outside sockets. Can be handy for using tools etc in the garden.
Plus enough outside lighting.

Cheers all.
Need to think carefully about lighting.
Resist being talked into extras, just in case….
Conduit and hiding stuff in cupboards.
Servants bells.

Having just done a big loft cfonversion/house regut, I’ll give my experience:

Things I was glad I did:
-Have lots of double sockets (with USB) in the bedrooms and lounge. We’ve 8 plugs behind the TV station, and they are all filled!
-have an outside plug in the rear garden
-lighting; our sparky was a mate, and gave good advice – we’ve got ‘several lights’ in the main rooms (lounge/bedroom) – nice dimmable LEDs on ‘front and back of room circuits’, and central pendant lights. The LEDs are the main light – bright, nice colour, and cheap to run. The wife liked pendants, so we’ve got those too for ‘fancy effect’.
-Didn’t bother with phone lines to the bedrooms. Phones are cordless nowadays.
-We have LED downlighted throughout, but lots are tiltable (we’ve a vaulted ceiling, so they point down’ – I think they look good
-we’ve got lightiniing circuits ‘up and ready to go’ for the rear garden – no lights yet, but high adn low levele circuits ready for decking lights etc.

Things I wish I’d done:
-had the main phone line in the hallway/more central, so the router could be there
-had a plug socket out front – I put one in later myself, but, well,you know..

We’ve wireless speakers through the house, so that’s fine.
We have TV points in the bedrooms, but with casting etc, again that’s not really an issue now.

HTH

DrP

Wired Ethernet to obvious places. Also work out (if possible) if you can get good wifi throughout house – if not make sure you have power and Ethernet next to each other somewhere useful (like in a cupboard). TV aerial with good distribution amplifier (if in a low signal area). Think about where your master socket (BT style) comes in – if you can have it centrally then that makes wifi easier.

Lounge area(s) – single sockets non switched which go back to light switch (for centrally switched lamp lighting).

Outside lights – by door / gate. Outside power points. Garage/shed CU.

CAT 5 to shed/garage if you are really geeky.

Alarm wiring – you could go overboard and duplicate with some dark CAT5e as well???

CAT 5 to shed/garage if you are really geeky.

Essential, having high speed internet in the workshop is so useful.

Defo lots of USB sockets.

I wouldn’t be charging stuff in cupboards, not a chance.

Cheers all.
Need to think carefully about lighting.
Resist being talked into extras, just in case….
Conduit and hiding stuff in cupboards.
Servants bells.

I suppose the other side of this is “What have you put in and never used?“

We’ve 8 plugs behind the TV station, and they are all filled!

I put in a load and still ended up with extension leads.

lots of sockets, some with USB.

Defo lots of USB sockets.

Nah – they’ll be redundant at some point in the future – much better getting a multi-USB charger to plug in when and where required. Just look at all those hotels with panels of unused sockets nowadays.

I put in a load and still ended up with extension leads.

I put two double sockets every 1.0 to 1.5m in the workshop…

[url=https://flic.kr/p/pZcnZN]Surface wiring in 20mm PVC pipe[/url] by Ben Freeman, on Flickr

You never have enough sockets or in the right places….

That being the case I’d say the most important thing is making sure the way they are all wired makes it simple to extend or move…

Stick the fridge on a seperate non-ECD if you can….
If you have an electric stove or not have it wired

Stick in the wiring and consumer unit for electric showers even if you don’t have any….

If you need new sockets or even just to move them its easy to just stick extra on a isolated spur… so long as you specced it originally to take the extra load…

Quite honestly I expect to see far more clean low volt DC over the next decade. Very little actually runs off 220-240 AC anymore … (excepting irons, kettles, showers, oven etc.) Even vaccuums are starting to go cordless…

(What I mean is your TV, DVD player/video box/PC etc. etc. have a mains plug but the first thing they do is convert that to 5/12VDC or similar…. I even have one DVD player with an external transformer….quite often the bit that breaks and a waste of energy in any case)

All the mains LED lights are basically a transformer then the light… the bit that fails usually being the transformer not the LED’s…. etc.

Our kitchen under cupboard strip lighting actually runs off some speaker wire that had been stuck in the wall…. it was there and didn’t mean chasing out a new channel for 12v

You can also run 90% of the house on an equivalent of a car battery for ages…. so if you ever plan on solar this cuts out the part that breaks (the inverter) – I reckon I can live without an iron or even kettle for an hour a day… specially 4am… but working lights are nice….

Stick the fridge on a seperate non-ECD if you can….

+1 good advice.

When we did our ‘new build’ 4 years ago the sparky suggested a double socket in each corner of the bedrooms. This was good advice.

Put lots of sockets where you main/family TV will go – we’ve got 3 doubles and all are in use

Our Wifi hub sits under the TV, so the ‘smart’ TV features run through etyhernet rather than Wifi.
We’ve also got 2 x Cat 5e cables running to each bedroom, which can be plugged into the router when needed (will by a proper Ethernet switch as/when required)
The idea behind this was to cut down the Wifi load to keep it for portable devices (phones/tablets)
Not really sure if it makes any difference but streaming TV is pretty rock solid.

Hard-wired fire/smoke system with control/test panel in CU cupboard and additional CO2 sniffer fitted next to boiler, and wired into fire system – so if the CO2 sniffer picks up a trace it’ll sound the fire alarm.

outside lights/sockets always good.

Only thing I wish we’d done was run alarm cabling in, and maybe cables to a couple of points to mount CCTV in the future.

I’d get cat5/6 to anywhere with a fixed device that needs internet – so your TV, desktop PC, games console, etc. Wouldn’t bother with arbitrarily sticking it everywhere. Depending on the size of the house, it’d be worth putting 2-3 decent wireless access points in (I like Unifi ones) to get good coverage. You power them over ethernet, so you need a suitable switch somewhere. Plus it means your ugly router can live in a cupboard as you won’t be relying on it for signal.

Would love the chance to rewire, just to get sockets everywhere I wanted them.

I’d certainly agree with installing as many sockets as possible and also have a separate circuit for lamps in the lounge that is switchable on the main switch.

Lighting is the big one though. Worth researching all the different options available and ensuring you have a couple of options in the main rooms, especially dimmers. Outside, its nice to have a few garden lights in key places and sensor lights for when you walk outside at night. If you have a large kitchen diner room, then remote control lighting is fantastic, as you can set moods for the different ways you use the room during the day/night.

So much easier and cheaper to do now than later and definitely add value to the house.

Outside, its nice to have a few garden lights in key places and sensor lights for when you walk outside at night.

Yep, we have about 10 of these around the patio, gate, shed, bins etc. Basically anywhere I might want to go carrying something and would need light at night.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/qgUd3o]Outside lights[/url] by Ben Freeman, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/qeFiKh]4 PIR Outdoor Lights, each 9W LED bulb[/url] by Ben Freeman, on Flickr

and then garden path to workshop is LED floodlit:

[url=https://flic.kr/p/pWyUPo]12v 10W LED flood lights[/url] by Ben Freeman, on Flickr

Heated mirrors in bathrooms. Absolutely required in new build houses.

10mm² power feed to the garage (or driveway) ready for an EV charging point.

Heated mirrors in bathrooms.

And if it is a bigger/executive type of home, underfloor heating too.

All your kitchen appliances controlled from a grid switch, saves having numerous fused spurs around the place.
You can get engraved 20A Double Pole switches for this purpose.

Fuse board with a few spare circuits to allow for expansion.
Armour cable ran outside for garden lighting.
Couple of CAT 5 cables for the telly, DVD, KODI, PS4, etc.

OH yeah – Bathroom:
-Heated floor. Our sparky actually put a second sensor/thermometer under the tiles, with wires trailing back to the unit. He said it’s so cheap and easy to do NOW, before the tiles go down, and then in the case of the thermometer breaking, you jsut switch the wires over.
-decide where the mirror will go and power behind THAT wall…

Also, cool stuff..

We’ve LED lights at floor level on each stair – PRI day/night sensor at top and bottom, and when it’s dark and you go near the stairs, they light up! Cool, and serves as a warning when the kids are creeping up the stairs dueing ‘sleepy time’…!

DrP