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The Essential Guide » The Planning Stage » Adding New Techonology and Intelligent Building Features to Our Self Build
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Adding “Technology” and “Special features” into the initial design.
This is an area which is constantly changing. By the time I have written this article there will probably be half a dozen new products launched to the market, all of which could possibly be ideal for your project.
With that in mind, I am not going to try to brief you on individual products, but offer some more general advice of which areas of the design where you can consider using the vast array of available technical options, and show you how you can install some of the features at very little cost.
Technology in the home today tends to be split into the following areas:
1) Lighting
2) Sound
3) Security
4) Home automation
5) Heating
1) Lighting:
With the increasing use of Halogen lighting and LED’s, this is an area which is starting mark a noticeable difference between “spec build” housing, and “Self Build / Renovated housing. There are not many DIY housing projects which do not take at least some advantage of the newer lighting technologies.
Starting with “halogen” lighting:
This form of lighting has actually been popular for a number of years now. A number of lights dotted around the ceiling to create an interesting and usually pleasing effect. Normally used in the kitchens, bathrooms and main bedrooms. They can be linked with dimmers to add to their effectiveness.
Note: Wiring is more complicated and more costly than standard pendant lighting. Each light needs a transformer to reduce the voltage, which can be provided as one unit to cover all the lights, or one transformer per light. Because there are so many bulbs in the systems, even though each bulb may only be 20 watts, overall energy use can be higher than standard pendant lighting. The bulbs are also expensive.
LED lighting:
Over the next few years I can see LED lighting becoming very popular in all locations. It is just starting to make its mark in Self Build and Renovation. LED lights, although expensive to buy just now, use far less energy than the comparable halogen or standard bulbs, and have an extremely long lifespan of something like 1,000,000 hours. They also come in many colours and they can change colour within each light fitting.
At the moment they are generally being used as “feature” lighting, to create an effect in a particular location. For example: Along the “kick board” at the bottom of kitchen units, where small Led lights placed every metre or so can create a very attractive feature. I have seen them set into flights of stairs, in bathrooms, or to create a “starry sky” effect in a child’s bedroom ceiling. – The locations where they can be used are limited only by the imagination, and the budget!
Lighting controls:
There vary many extremely good “lighting control” systems on the market. They all have their own characteristics and abilities, and there are far too many of them to discuss in a short document such as this. If this is something that interests you, then a visit to a Self Build exhibition may be a good idea. At a show you will normally be able to see examples of different systems in use, and get an idea of the cost. Alternatively you should be able to find suppliers and installers in the Trade Index of this site. – Use the “quick reference guide” to check if they offer “FREE ADVICE” and if they do, give them a ring and have chat about your project. Many control systems are capable of controlling not just the lighting, but the whole of the home system including “automation”, “sound”, “security” and “heating”. – By having a quick chat with a supplier / installer
If your budget does not stretch to one of these “all singing, all dancing” systems then there are other options.
A couple of years ago I designed and had installed a very simple feature lighting system at next to no extra cost above the price of installing standard halogen bulbs:
I had a large open plan room, which formed the living and dining areas. Around 30ft long and 15’ wide.
Over the dining area I used halogen lights set in a “star” shape. Over the living area I set 8 halogens lights in 2 rows of 4, and in between the two areas I “curved” a further set of 5 lights to denote the different areas. On the walls I dotted fairly cheap simple wall lights costing about £10 each.
For the controls, I bought “Remote control dimmers” from an electrical supplier at around £25 each. I needed 3 dimmers for the three sets of ceiling lights, and a further 3 for the walls lights. Each one had its own “frequency” so was independent of the next. – I also bought a couple of remote controls at around £10 each, which had the ability to “remember” six different settings.
So now, from one hand set I could set literally limitless lighting permutations within the room. The effect was fantastic, and when the house was sold recently it was one of the things which people said really “stood out” as being “worth having” and paying extra for. The full system cost me less than £200 more than a standard halogen system would have cost!
Light pipes:
One other use of lighting “Technology” of sorts is to use “light pipes” which bring in the sun through the structure of the building to any specific room. – There is a dedicated page later in this guide, concentrating on light pipes, so I will not go into detail on them here.
Sound:
As with lighting, the Sound Installation” side of self Build and Renovation projects has really started to take off in recent years. Designing a sound system into the fabric of the building at the initial design stage can be a good idea if you want “unobtrusive” sound sources in one or more rooms. You can also design systems to provide “networked” sound, which can play the same music in various rooms at the same time, or even, from the same source, DIFFERENT tracks, in different rooms at the same time.
Again, there are probably hundreds of different unique systems out in the market so it’s pointless me trying to even mention them all here, so I’ll just describe the basic theory of how this sort of thing works. You will then be able to “beef up” your knowledge in any area which interests you by contacting the relevant suppliers and installers.
The idea of these systems is to offer flexible, unobtrusive, good quality sound all around the house, from one fixed point, which can be the main unit in the living room, or can even be a unit stowed away under the stairs!
Your music can now all be incorporated into the system by various means, so that you never have to change a CD again. You access all your music, wherever you are in the house, by remote controls set in each room. You then have a number of handsets to control what you hear in each room.
Speakers can be built into the ceiling, walls, or be normal floor standing speakers, with the wiring for them coming out of the wall in the correct position so that there are not cables “draping” all over the floor. You can even have speakers and remote control panels in the bathroom.
Wiring the systems is easy. It just goes in at the same time as the first fix electrical work, but is normally carried out by a specialist company rather than the electrician. The speakers, players and amps are then connected as part of the final fix when you are ready to move it.
Cost wise it does not need to be expensive. The control panels on the walls and the main control unit will be the main cost, but the wiring is relatively cheap. There are also various different systems available to suit most budgets.
As with the lighting, I recently came up with a very simple system which cost next to nothing to install:
In a main living room I simply wired from the location where the TV and DVD equipment would be positioned, behind the plasterboard, to all the locations of a standard “5.1” surround sound system, and left the wires sticking through the wall. The speakers could then be fixed to the walls at those positions, with no apparent wiring. The remote control which controlled the TV and DVD, also controlled the sound from the speakers.
In a bedroom I wired from where a DVD / CD player would be positioned, through the ceiling to above the bed. I then installed flush speakers in the ceiling so that they played directly down onto the bed, and were controlled by the standard remote control. I did a similar thing in the kitchen.
I also linked the bedroom system up to the bathroom, by means of a simple switching system. I could then play CD’s in the bathroom and / or the bedroom at the same time. Waterproof speakers were installed in the bathroom ceiling.
The cost of that whole system was generally comparable, within £100 or so, with buying a standalone system of similar quality.
Security:
Adding security is nothing new in a new house, all that is happening is that things are changing slightly in the way we can protect our homes. It has become far easier quicker and cheaper to install a DIY security system into a new or existing house than it used to be.
Most new or renovated houses will only need a basic system, similar to what we have all been using for many years, but its handy to know about the new ideas which are available if we need them:
Wireless security systems can now make installation easier and cheaper. Having no need for wires makes it easier to install a security system in a renovation project. You can now also easily install CCTV in a garden or more remote area of your land, using wireless technology and battery powered cameras. Satellite technology is improving this ability even further.
CCTV can easily be installed as part of any system, and the video, instead of being captured on film can now be recorded onto a computer memory file which can hold hundreds of hours of recordings.
CCTV can be linked up to allow a video link from the entrance to anywhere inside the building. Visitors use a “buzz” system to announce their arrival, and after checking their identity on the internal TV screen, the press of a button opens the door before locking it again after they have entered.
Colour CCTV cameras are now of high quality and can be installed just about anywhere. Sizes of the cameras have got smaller and smaller so that now, if they need to be, they can be just about unnoticeable.
Monitored alarms can link your house to a monitoring centre who will keep your house protected while you area away and will call out the police if necessary.
Fire detection alarms: The security system can be linked up to a fire detection system, and then further linked to the monitoring station helping to cover you against fire and burglary at the same time.
Pet detection: Systems can easily be set to recognize pets as distinct from humans so you can safely leave your pets indoors whilst the system is “set”.
Home automation: Has been around in a basic form for many years. We have all seen the American films from the 60’s showing the curtains in a room opening remotely. It’s all just got a lot slicker lately and the simplicity and cost of installing a system is coming down.
Systems can now network all the computers in the house (so they all work together in tandem). It can control the TV and audio equipment ( as mentioned above ), control the lighting, including having numerous pre set “mood lighting” levels, which can change automatically or manually. It can link curtain closing in with security, and with turning lights and music on and off. – It can turn off the security alarm off when the garage door opens on a remote control, and turn the kettle on at the same time. It can even water the plants, vacuum the floor and turn the cooker on so your casserole is ready when you walk through the door!
The list of its potential abilities goes on and on, and all the time new ideas for home automation are being introduced.
Systems have a central control unit which controls all the different aspects of its operation. This can be situated anywhere in the house and can be operated usually by remote control without having to have constant access to it.
The downside of home automation is that if you are not “technologically minded”, trying to programme or re-progamme some systems is basically “not an option”. - So, it can be great as long as everything works, but if anything goes wrong, then you may need to get the installer back in to re-programme the system. - This could take a few days, especially if a part needs to be ordered, and could cause considerable upheaval for the time it is out of action if everything it controls stops working. There could also be a cost to call out the installer afer the initial guarantee period unless you have a maintenance and repair agreement in place.
If you are interested in this sort of system it is worth talking to suppliers and installers who may be able to put your mind at rest by offering you “user friendly” system which is reliable, and that you can programme simply and quickly, if needed, which will be within your budget.
Heating:
Technology in heating can be found in the home automation systems mentioned above. These link the heating system with the home automation system and amongst many other “tricks” can remotely control the turning on and off of the heating system. This can save money when you are not around, - allowing you to leave your heating off, or just on “tickover” while you are away then having it set so that just before you arrive home it turns back on fully.
Some systems can even be accessed over the phone, so, if you are away, with the system on “tickover”, and need to come home for some reason, you can simply make a phone call and send a code down the line, which will turn on your heating, ready for when you return.
By using computerized components, even basic standard control panels can now offer far more flexibility for operating and controlling the system than they used to.
“Condensing boilers” are now required in new homes in the UK. These are the “next step” in boiler technology, which help to recover some of the energy which standard boilers have up until recently, generally wasted.
Other areas of technology in heating come in the form of the renewable technologies which we are now being able to economically install in homes, such as ground source heating, air source heating, solar heating.
Underfloor heating: This has been around for quite a long time now, but improvements in the pumping systems, the piping systems, installation techniques, insulation (making it more efficient) and other factors, mean that is now a thoroughly practical and sensible option to think about including in your project.
(All the heating systems mentioned above are covered in greater detail elsewhere in this guide).
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