Floor Plan with Lighting (advice pls)

Hornin Hong Kong

1,000+ Posts
animalmother.virtualave.net/lightplan.pdf

Any of you home builder/renovater/do-it yourselfer tyes want to comment on my lighting plan/electrical plan? If you have any adivice whatsoever please let me know. This is the recommendation our architect came up wtih. (I can post the rest of the plans too if you want - in fact i will later that has the a/c plan, elevation etc.

One of the things that drives me bat **** crazy is not enough outlets especially in the computer/office room so I put in ten (somehow power strips with 6 plugs make me v nervous).

For the dining room there is a recessed ceiling thing with hidden flourescents, then the (L1) lights are thouse recessed tiny halogens.

I'm having them seperate the (L2) and (L1) light banks so I can dim them seperately.

Pretend the house is brand new - in Hong Kong a 'renovation' is essentially completely rebuilding the house - you can't build a new structure without planning permissin that takes literally like a year so everyone 'renovates' but if you walked into my house last week it was bare brick walls, no electrical, no plumbing no nothing. They will be replacing most of the exterior brick and really only the metal foundation for the walls will remain from the original and the floor slabs.


thanks for any advice
 
Does your house look something like this?

p_34249_1.jpg
 
as a matter of fact it did have the crazy spanish tile stuff but it's being removed.

FYI zzzz that is my friend's house I'm almost sure - it's on the market now.

It is up the hill from my place.

This is mine: (wont look like that when done though)

house.JPG
 
Which one is my room? Is that you in the picture or Michael Bolton? The guy from Office Space, not the singer.
 
Very nice space. Much more attractive than the small "ranch" style house we had in TienMu (a Taipei suburb).

If I may ask, what will all this cost (per square foot)?

In San Fran, housing is about $500 sq/ft & up, and in Austin it runs from $100 - $400, depending on if you're in the 'burbs or Central.
 
I would suggest that you run at least 2 Cat6 and 2 coax cables to every room while you have the walls open. Run at least 6 Cat6 and 4 coax cables to your entertainment center. Put 3-way switches in every room with multiple entrances. I would also put the entertainment center on its own dedicated circuit.

Edit - HHK sent me a PM asking me to clarify

Yes, I meant 6 seperate cables to the entertainment center run them to a closet where you plan to have your router. It seems like everything is going toward internet connectivity. New stereo receivers, bluray players, xbox 360s, ps3s and even nintendos are internet capable. Of course all of these can be connected to your network wirelessly, but a wired connection is always faster and less prone to problems and security issues. If you are going to have your walls open anyway now is the time to do this cheaply.

3-way switches was refering to light switches. The dedicated circuit was refering to the electrical circuit, meaning that you have a breaker that only controls the outlet(s) to your entertainment center
 
Hornin, I made some VERY quick and dirty redlines. If you'd like to forward me the full plans I can give you a more thorough critique. To be completely honest, these are very amateurish plans (in execution, not design). They are kinda hard to read and aren't easy to disseminate information from (looking through the eyes of a contractor - although I'm an architect - I would have a lot of questions for you).

Anyway, here are my comments. Use or discard as you see fit:
Ground Floor

First Floor

Second Floor

Please excuse my bad handwriting and ****** drawing - I was in a hurry.
 
And i forgot to mention, you would probably be better off with soft, ambient lighting in the kitchen and more task lighting over/near the sink, stove and prep areas. Just a thought.
 
@Luke - Are these cables for Internet and TV? I think the TV I have here will run over DSL - the TV is still very backwards - arse. What is a 3-way switch?


@LHF68 - Many thanks for the comments - I'm going to address them with my architect - It's weird with cultrual differences what atters out her. My Finace's mother spent 5 grand on a fung shue master to come out and tell us how the rooms had to be laid out (He made us move the entrance for example) but they couldn't care less about light switches and were content with ones I'd be embarrassed to put in an oklahoma trailerhome.

Im going to probably PM you LHF.

No questions at all about the wiring plan for example. I'll upload all the plans for everything today if anyone is interested.
 
double check on the dimmer/flourescents deal. They often aren't dimmable. Same with halogen. Takes a special dimmer for them.
 
Thanks BW - the flourescents are not dimmable - the 'feature ceiling' over th dining room table has hidden backlit flourscents and in also those dimmable halogens.

Thr will have to be an xtra switch not on the drawings for the flourescents
 
Wait, you are staying in HK for the foreseeable future?

I see being a communist has paid off.
catfight.gif


I got nothing to add except congrats on the house/fiancee et. all. The view from the pool is tremendous.
 
A three way switch is where you have one light controlled by two light switches, probably at different doors on the same room so you don't have to walk across the dark room to find the switch.

Good news is with something like Lutron, it will always be a button push and probably be quite intelligent instead of just toggling the light switch the other way.
 
yeah the lutrons i got have the 2 way dimmer, on touch on/off, double tap full and the slow dim.

@PacSer - yeah it's great over here both personally and professionally. Asia is just .. happening. You can feel it in the air.

@Astro - dude....... it's all govt housing - the commies can come and take my **** away anytime they want

I am moving out to the burbs to get ready for kids and **** - it's very relaxing out here - HK is a madhouse
 

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