I posted before about upgrades and used a lot of what what recommend within reason.

I'm looking for electrical recommendations. The home is 4 bedrooms with a loft. The main level is an open floorplan with a morning room added. There is a large walkin pantry and a mudroom off the kitchen. Laundry is on the second floor. We already added recessed lighting downstairs, additional lights over the island with outlet. All rooms ceiling fan ready.I will finish the basement down the road. We will be putting a patio off the morning room and there will be a paver patio off the walk out basement. Standard outlets are every 8 feet. Standard is an outdoor outlet in the front and back.

When we have our electrical walkthrough we will pay the electrician directly for what we add.

Here are the addons I came up with.

Recessed outlet above fireplace for TV.
Outlet in the pantry
2 extra kitchen outlets
2 extra outlets in the garage. (I'll never need a 220 outlet for a welder...)
Outlet in master walk in closet.
2 outlets for future patio.
1 additional outlet in front of home. 2 extra in back
Flood lights above garage and rear of home
Floor outlets in living room.
Extra outlets each side of beds all rooms
Extra outlet in both upstairs bathrooms.
Recessed lights about showers
Extra outlet above fireplace mantle. 2
2 extra outlets in living room

Not sure what to do in the basement if anything to make life easier in the future. I think there will be 5 overhead lights standard.

What am I missing?

Are you ever gonna finish the basement? Perhaps a sub panel in anticipation. Hot tub connection? 7.1 or 9.2 speaker connections? Outlets in soffits for Wi-Fi cameras or Christmas tree lights? I have a 220 air compressor in my garage. Any future out buildings to consider?

I’m sure others will drop in with more information. I’m trying to add in the things that I added to our house. I’m not an electrician.
Mike

I got the builder to upgrade to more electrical outlets. I also had to pay the electrician directly. What I failed to do was specify that some of the outlets, particularly the ones on the deck and front porch be at least 20a outlets.

So he went ahead and just installed 15a outlets everywhere and then used the 16 gauge wire on all of them. Think phone wire thickness. It never crossed my mind that we'd have gobs of fairly useless outlets. These days with everyone using LED lights it might be less of a problem.

I have a wiener cooker that for whatever reason draws more than 15 amps. In the 9 years we've been in the house, I haven't been able to use it. About the only workaround will be to use my 220v outlet out in the garage, only use the ground and one side. Guess I could rig an extension cord to use that. Except the deck is on the other side of the house.

Are you sure its 16 gage? Kitchen and garage outlets should 20 amp and 12 gage. Talk to your electrician. ChecK codes. Don't need sub panel just make sure you have at least a 200 amp panel.

Never going to get a hot tub. I have a smaller compressor that meets my needs. I'll look into an extra panel in the basement. I think that's where the panel is.

quote:

Originally posted by 9mmnut:
Are you sure its 16 gage? Kitchen and garage outlets should 20 amp and 12 gage.

Oh yeah, sure. I can read the wire gauge printed on the wire where it goes up into the island. And the breaker trips when I turn the heating element on. It might need more than 20a, but the 15a goes snap.

Will you need any outdoor floods, Christmas light outlets, gutter heat tape outlets, post lights, shed wiring, walkway lighting?
Seems like you have thought it thru pretty well.

Wire the whole house with 12 gage wire. All outlets as 20A. The only place I put in 14g was ceiling fixtures for lights/fans.

For the cost difference between 12 and 14, I think it better to just use 12g everywhere.

Don’t use the “push in” type electrical outlets - use the screws on the fixtures for all outlet connections.

I used Square D brand. They have two qualities, a “home owner” and a standard. Get the better “Standard”. It will cost a bit more, but breakers will always be available.

See what your electrician says about these ideas. In my opinion, if he dismisses them, he has a greater interest in economy and speed than what is the best for you. As far as the speed idea - 14g pulls easier than 12, but the effort isn’t enough to justify the economy.

How do I know all this? Why such specific opinions? My wife and I built our house (yes, WE built it) thirty one years ago. Besides 110 and 220v, for my workshop the house also has 220 three phase and 440 three phase (European machine).

I built our house in 1988. Am not an electrician but did all the finish wiring. Brother did rough wiring. 90 % of wire is 12 gage. Never would I wire anything with 16. 16 is not heavy enough for most extension cords Code then was 12 for 20 amp and 14 for 15 amp. Has code changed?

quote:

Recessed outlet above fireplace for TV.

Jesus I HATE this setup. If you've never had it, go watch 2-4 hours of a game or movie at a friend who does. It would only be worse if you mounted a TV on the ceiling.

quote:

Originally posted by Georgeair:

quote:

Recessed outlet above fireplace for TV.

Jesus I HATE this setup. If you've never had it, go watch 2-4 hours of a game or movie at a friend who does. It would only be worse if you mounted a TV on the ceiling.

Amen brother!

The funny thing is that people will add these outlets then forget that they need some kind of signal up there to run the stupid TV.

If you are going to go this route, have two HDMI's (or more HDMI's) ran from where you components are to the TV, plus one ethernet cable for streaming services to TV. I also have one to my components so that the PS4 can use hardwire instead of wifi, also ran a second one to the components JIC.

Besides the uncomfortableness of the TV above the fireplace, I think it looks bad unless integrated into the stone work and recessed.

There is nothing worse than when I walk into million+ dollar homes and see a TV above the fireplace and cables running down the side of the mantle to cable box and other components on the floor near fireplace.

quote:

Flood lights above garage and rear of home

Make sure you have them located near windows so that you can open the top of window and reach out to change lamps. I get calls all the time for changing 3 story flood lights. Not sure of the height of yours, just make sure that it is something you can change the lamps on yourself with out a big ass ladder, also consider 10-15 years down the road, will it be as easy to change.

As for the lights themselves I always recommend RAB brand fixtures. Personally I am not a fan of LED, but if you are going to go LED I recommend standard fixtures and screw in LED vs LED fixture. If the LED dies (they do) then it's only a lamp change instead of call to electrician.

For my floods I have them on motion/light sensors that loop back to a dimmer so I can control the brightness. If I am cooking I can turn floods on high, after dinner and drinks time I can cut light to 1/3 of the brightness and relax. I would recommend light sensors/timers over motion sensors. Astronomical timers are awesome they know sunup/sunset and automatically change through out the year so you never have to set it. Also if you want to do sundown to 11PM or 12AM you can too so you are not running them while you sleep.

Lastly the flood lights above garage, make sure they are high up as possible. You want the light to shine down from above and illuminate the area, not blind you when you pull in the drive way by pointing straight at you.

quote:

Jesus I HATE this setup.

Everybody looks at my TV and remarks that "isn't that a bit low on the wall?"

Sit on the couch, it's exactly at eye level.

TV's over fireplaces are too high. Everyone is doing it though.

My house was built in 1919, all the old wiring is gone now.

I have all outlets on 12ga, 20a. My lights are all on separate circuits from any outlets. At least one exterior outlet on each side of the home.

Put in a larger panel than you think you'll need. Having correctly loaded, or underloaded circuits that are done in a sensible way means rarely popping a breaker and mot having random shit shut off when you do.

I'd recommend circuiting for a backup generator.

not an electrician but have redone/remodeled properties. I like extensive landscape lighting so if I were in your situation I would make sure I have infrastructure and capacity to do or add anything I might want around the property landscape.

∆∆∆∆

Super duper, extra important if you want any kind of street appeal. It really makes the landscaping look great.

All you need is a couple of GFI outlets controlled by switch/Timer/photo cell. You can also get transformers with built in photo cells as well, sometimes this can be an issue because the transformers are typically hidden behind bushes which blocks the light, some will have a remote sensor on 6-10- cable to get it out from behind trees and bushes.

Rburg? Let's hope your numbers are wrong.. there is no way an electrician would use 16 gage wire on anything. 15 amps requires 14 gage and 20 would require 12gage. In reality just about always a 15 amp outlet is okay ... it's when you start plugging more than one high demand appliance in that you start tripping breakers.
Oh and I'm pretty sure major appliances like a Microwave and Frig. now require their own individual circuit.

If you do have a TV mount over the fireplace, consider a MantelMount so you can pull the TV down to viewing height. Works well for our family room.