Any tips on electrics and lighting in the house?

[aisteb]

Hi,

We are having to re-wire the whole house. As such we have an opportinity to changes the number and the location of any lights/switches/sockets/etc. Any tips on what we should definitely do and not do?

The electrician advised on USB sockets by the bedside and in the office, something we would have not thought about, so now wondering whether we are missing any tricks.

We also need to choose the temperature of the spotlight bulbs in the kitchen diner (will also have pendant lights over the peninsular). Can anyone advice which is best: warm white, white, cool white, cool daylight? Electrician advises cool white but I fear it might look too clinical.

TIA

Apparently you can now get led`s that let you vary the colour temperature of lamps.

luxreview.com/article/2016/12/dim-to-warm-lamps

No idea of cost though

We've got usb thingies beside our bed and in my son's room, we never use them.

We've switched to leds in the kitchen and the electrician put different bulbs in to help me decide which we're best. He'd said from the start that cool white was the best and he was right. It took me a few days to get used to it but it's fine now.

USB sockets in the kitchen (and hallway?) too - get good ones that can do 2.6A per socket, modern phones/tablets need more than the basic 0.5A USB to charge at any speed.
At least two, preferably four sockets under each bed, trying to avoid extension cords.
Pair of sockets by the boiler, in case of fancy thermostat equipment.
Socket by front and back door, for garden equipment. Or externals, with a switch inside.
Big light switches if there's a route eg from kitchen to dining that you often need to turn on a light with your elbow (serious quality of life change there!)
I'd go for warm or white in the diner, bluer light makes food look less appetising.

Look up charger drawer on Pinterest. Also don't forget shaver points in all of the bathrooms-I get irrationally pissed off when I have to charge my toothbrush in a different room. Also consider wall mounted lighting. It looks and feels much better than overhead lighting.

Oh and under cabinet lighting in the kitchen is a must if you have wall mounted cabinets.

DH wanted to put in network cabling when we had the house re-wired. Sadly we didn't have the budget at the time as it would have made things easier.

For the lighting, we've been replacing bulbs with Hue smart ones which allow you to change the colour or warmth to whatever you fancy.

Netball can I ask, are the hue ones really worth the money? British Gas have sent me an offer to get some but my husband's eyes nearly fell out when I told him the price.

Hues are waaaaay too expensive to do a bunch at once, but if you start small and add one bulb at a time... it's merely teeth-grittingly dear.

They are a bit unnecessary though.

@whirly they are expensive (the colour ones even more so) but they do last a long time and if you keep an eye out you can get them when they go on offer.

We've just found it really handy to be able to make sure all lights are out with one click on a phone. The quality of the lighting is also excellent and you can set them to come on slowly in the mornings to wake you or to change in time to music.

They are obviously a bit of a luxury but we now have most of the house switched to them and it all works very well.

Sockets sockets sockets. It costs only a few quid to add them at this stage and you always need more than you think.

Oooh I need to google what are the Hue smart ones, didn't know these things existed.

@SpoonBlender what the hell are the light switches you can switch on with your elbow?

We are having outdoor sockets and network cabling, thanks.

Thank you all for your input, some good tips here.

Ooh thanks. I think I'll get a starter kit then add as and when funds allow.

And yes to lots of sockets. We've had some extra put in the kitchen and also in my son's room, he has playstation, tablets etc that teens like and he now has 10 sockets in there, although I think that might be a little excessive 🙄

We are having 4 double sockets in each room, 4 double sockets in the kitchen and two more double sockets on the dining room side (open plan to the kitchen) is this enough? We will have a hot water tap so no kettle, the microwave, oven, washing machine, dishwasher ar fridge will be all integrated so presumably each will have their own socket, forgot to ask

Also got aksed whether we wanted dimmer switches in the kicthen diner and we opted to have the lights on 4 different switches instead so we could do mood lighting by zones, with pendant lights on yet another switch. What do you reckon?

Sorry about the typos

This sort of thing - www.screwfix.com/p/mk-1-gang-2-way-10ax-light-switch-with-wide-rocker-white/60520

Four switches sounds reasonable if you have the different zones to support it, I have three in the kitchen and four in the lounge myself so perhaps not!

Oh, speaking of which: If you don't already, lighting that doesn't cause you to cast a shadown on the sink or cooker or cutting surfaces. You may already have that sorted of course :)

"perhaps not"? What the heck did I mean to type? I mean "go for it". Boggle.

A very good point about casting a shadow, That was a big issue in our last kitchen. We will have pendant light above the work surface and I need to make sure the cooker hood has lights. Not sure what could be a solution for the sink perhaps wall lights if that won't be an overkill. We are not having wall units so there will be no under unit lights.

oh my goodness those rocker switches are the norm where I come from (Lithuania), I have completely forgotten about those. We actually have them like this, two or three way ones www.screwfix.com/p/schneider-electric-lisse-3-gang-2-way-10ax-wide-rocker-switch-white/3694j

Showed the link to my husband and he says he wants "elbow" switches throughout the house Thank you!

Haha! That's great, I thought I was always going to be the only one!

5amp cirvuits in rooms sure nice IMO - allow you to switch on and off side lights in onr go.

I use mainly lamps in the evening in my living room - when we rewired the electrician fitted a switch that controlled all of them - saved DH moaning every evening about switching them off one by one