Create an electrical plan before you start your renovation

ARTICLE Jon King

If you are planning a complete overhaul of your home, you need to allow for plenty of plug outlets for each room. Based on a standard three-bedroom house Jon King gives his recommendations:

Lounge

For the lounge it would be best to install around five double outlets and spread them around the room. This will allow for the use of table lamps, chargers and other electrical appliances used from time to time in the main living area. It would also be wise to install up to three outlets behind your main audio/TV area for DVD and Blue Ray and Sky, etc. This eliminates the need to use ugly multi boxes.

Kitchen

Your kitchen area will need sockets for all the standard appliances such as the microwave, jug, dishwasher and waste master but recommend having at least four more, so it’s easy to operate other appliances such as mixers and coffee machines. Most modern kitchens also tend to have sockets for portable phones and chargers for mobile phones and laptops. Another issue to discuss with your electrician is the amount of circuits that run from your switchboard to your kitchen. It is recommended to have at least two circuits in your kitchen as people operate a lot more appliances these days than when the average house was wired back in the 1960s.

Master bedroom

In master bedrooms the positioning of the outlets is very important and you should allow for six sockets. This means you can have two double outlets either side of the bed for your alarm clock, radio, lamps and chargers, leaving two outlets to spread around the rest of the room for general power usage or to plug in a TV.

Bedrooms

In your average bedroom you should always allow for three outlets and spread them around the walls to allow for different furniture layouts. This is especially essential in kids’ rooms as their power usage and room layout will change, as they get older.

Bathrooms

Every bathroom should have at least one outlet by the vanity to allow for electric toothbrushes and hairdryers, etc.
If you are completely overhauling your house you will need to install a lot of new wiring. Therefore, to comply with current regulations, you will also need to install a new switchWhatboard and upgrade it with a Residual Current Device. My final piece of advice, when completing any work on your home, is to engage the services of a registered electrician.

This article featured in issue 002 of Renovate Magazine. Renovate Magazine is an easy to use resource providing fresh inspiration and motivation at every turn of the page.

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*All information is believed to be true at time of publishing and is subject to change.