Planning for lighting the darker months of the year is often underestimated. Designing good lighting is as important as orientating your home to the sun and in ways you can be even more creative.
It’s like lighting a stage set, considering the mood for different activities and the space can completely change depending on the comfort of the lighting, whether it is to kick back and relax, entertain or clean. I’ve been planning the electrical layout for quite a while and it’s probably the drawing that has received the most edits, it’s the fine tuning of space, while playing out the practice of everyday life.
We appointed Oliver Mullen Electrical, and I worked with James for the first fix, he’s a great electrician and gave very practical advice. I printed an A1 layout for their reference on site and walked through each room and marked all the sockets and switches and rationalised the layout further. James was very patient with moving pendants and lights to get the position just right. Another consideration is setting the height of plugs and switches and wall lights. Then there is long list of other services that need a location from security, wi-fi, data points, thermostats, ventilation boosters, isolators, 2-way switches, electric blinds, external lights/sockets, sensors, drivers for led strips, earth rods etc. There’s a lot to consider.
The magic of electricity in our homes, is that we never see the network of wires once we’re settled in, but during installation everything is labelled and brought back to the fuse box. We added a master switch at the front and back door that gives you the option to switch of all lights, to avoid lights been left on all day. There’s also all the future proofing of cabling for electric car charging, PV panels, gates etc. It’s better to have the wiring ready, even if budget does not allow.
Finally, it’s also best to communicate early if there are any issues, contractors a generally happy to amend as the go rather than waiting for a big list at the end.
