Design for complete house rewire

I guess this is the spec you will be giving to your electrician to quote against?

As it will be a major task, have you also consider getting network cables installed at teh same time? Also, do you have a location where your Broadband modem/hub/router/switch will be? And exrtra sockets for those?

What about a dedicated spur for an intruder alarm?

What about outdoor (IP65) rated sockets - one at front and one at back of house?

 

Its good to spell all this out - Sparks and other trades generally welcome a clear definition of what they are quoting for.

Rather than cluster the above per "circuit", you might want to structure it on a per room basis and then show for each room the number/type of sockets/lights/other required (other would include cooker). Each spark will have their own idea of the best circuit design taking into consideration loads, distance and number of connections.

E.g. I had specd out downstairs and upstairs rings, but the spark suggested a better idea of doing right house and left house as the Kitchen was on the left side with only one bedroom above, lounge and 2 beds other side. For lighting I have 3 circuits, I think they are downstairs, upstairs and a third one for the hall & landing lights and smoke sensors.

Agree with above its good to think about network cable (Cat6 here), its easy enough to install at the time, do you have a central place where network cables can come together via a patch panel? Easy then to connect things up. And if you have network cable, easy to add one or two commercial grade Wireless Access Points (Ubiquiti AC PRO) that attach to the ceiling. I have one in the kitchen, covers the whole house.

 

Double shielded CAT6 or 7 cables will be v difficult to route, standard Cat 6 is way more than enough and a LOT easier to work with. A 35mm backbox is only just deep enough for standard Cat 6.

 

Outdoor socket - put them on their OWN RCBO and not shared with the ring.

Have a DEDICATED fridge/freezer socket - that way if you are away and something trips te ring, the freezer stays powered.


Also worth asking if the electrician can split the tails in a suitable "Henley block" and have your main CU, then in a second small CU, the MCB/RCBO/RCD for your EV point, and outbuilding/workshop.

 

Cat6 can be a pain to run ... especially in restricted domestic locations. 10 years back I installed 600m of Cat5e in my own home and that is still fine for a full 1 Gbps. It runs close to and crosses power cables and I d not suffer noise issues. Cat6 maybe - but not double shielded or Cat7.

 

The second small CU is just there to have the control switches for the two circuits. For example. The device in the small unit trips at say 40A with suitable SWA going to the outbuilding, and then it gets split to the individual circuit. It allows you to protect the cable and also, if you wish, turn it off.

Again , talk to your electrician. Just that with the amount of circuits, you will be tight on space. So pulling the two "remote" circuits in a separate unit - all teh domestic stay together. Just a logical split.

 

I would suggest a Hager consumer unit (they do a double stack version) with a SPD

You need to split your lights in to more circuits (46 items on a single circuit is a bit much), also consider having the lights near the consumer unit and to the exit on a dedicated circuit

Where is the EV charger- it may be prudent to have a larger armour go to that area and install a secondary consumer unit for the EV charger / outdoor supply

I prefer to install smoke detectors on lighting circuits if you do not it is harder to notice if they have tripped

The SPD should go as close to the main incomer (the earth conductors should be kept as short as possible)

Why metal conduit- better with plastic conduit

Assuming the consumer unit is easy to access I usually put the appliance switches beside it (labelled)

Have a dedicated circuit for the fridge (as already stated), you might want to have the router and patch panel on separate dedicated circuit(s)

As others have said- ethernet points as well.

 

Ask for neutral to be supplied at each switch, either by 3 core or loop in loop out for smart switching

 

Boiler/heating control wiring. The boiler will need more than a power supply. You might like smart control like Nest.
Hot water cylinder - unvented? Will need additional electrics as well as an immersion heater for stand by.

Don’t assume the plumber will/can do this!

 

A lot. Impossible to say any more without seeing the job or knowing where it is. Just ask some local sparks for quotes.

 

Buying the material will mean the sparks won't get their mark up so they may increase the quote to compensate. More important any faults due to materials won't be covered by the sparks guarantee.

 

I agree with b.sheds!

I will never give a fixed price for labour if the client supplies his own materials. I have spent to much wasted time because the customer materials were not there when needed, or there were materials missing or
( most usually) just wrong and not fit for purpose.

I just don’t take this sort of arrangement on. Last one I did was done on a time basis, not fixed price, for the above reasons.
You won’t save money by buying your own. Any decent electrician will buy at discounted trade prices.

 

Part of this scares me
I don't like when clients get the materials- most usually get tat like BG / LAP and expect it to function like a top notch brand

In circumstances like this I point the client to one or two decent wholesalers to buy their stuff, the wholesalers are explicitly told not to sell tat and the client benefits of better costs (they get better prices than a walk off the street)
On high cost jobs like this it also helps keep turnover down.

Be careful what outside lights you get- there are a lot of naff ones, so much that I have reverted to 10W LED fittings and photocells

You need to zone the central heating to save costs- no point having the top floor on when nobody is there all day.

 

I appreciate that your comment about training up as a spark in 4 weeks is tongue in cheek but that is part of the problem with the construction industry. Bit of a tangent from what you are talking about I know but are there any tradesmen that have served a proper apprenticeship these days ? If you meet someone in Scotland who is in the construction industry and ask them what they do for a living the answer 95% of the time is plumber, chippie, spark, brickie etc. Ask the same question in and around London the same 95% answer “builder” possibly not on larger construction sites but it is definitely the case when I talk to people who do work in peoples houses. I have seen adverts in local forums where companies are looking one person who can do building, plumber and electrical works !! If someone came to my house to do plumbing work and then the same person turned up the following week to do electrics they would not get in the front door. I know a young lad who had no experience of the building game but got a
Job as a labourer on a site. Six weeks later he is telling people down the pub he is a “builder” (when you could go to pubs). Tell me this “builders”. What apprenticeship did you qualify in ? Yes, some can turn their hand to several trades but the majority are.......well I won’t say but John Wayne was one.