Home improvement - clever gadgets/extras

[Pickled Onion]

I'm going to have some work done on the house soon, and it's a good opportunity to think about installing extra bits and pieces that might be easy to add now but tricky/expensive to add later. Obviously some CAT6 at least between the extremities is top on the list. Mains connected smoke alarms are mandatory.

In a previous house when adding a new shower room I got them to install a back-heated mirror and it was fantastic (used about 30W and came on with the light) but neither the plumber nor the electrician had ever heard of them. Another thing on the list is to have USB charging in one or two of the kitchen sockets.

Any other ideas?

[Polar Bear]

Heated (demisting) and illuminated bathroom mirrors are pretty common now.   We only went for illuminated but I wish we'd done both.   John the Sparky is the expert on fitting such things, also the USB sockets*.

My real luxury would be underfloor heating in the bathroom.   

*  Coincidentally JtS is at ours on Thursday and will be fitting some more USB sockets whilst he is here.   

[Diver300]

Personally I'm not a fan of 13 A sockets combined with USB outlets. The risk of unknown quality of 240 to 5 V converters that I can't turn off in a hurry and evict the smoking remnants is more than is gained by avoiding a few plug-in adaptors. A middle ground is n-way adaptors with USB included.

See bigclive.com's YouTube for examples.

Automatic light switches are nice in any room you keep moving in. Hallways and garages certainly, kitchens maybe.

Two or more way light switches in sensible places. Bedroom light switches by the bed and by the door, and make sure that you can reach the one(s) by the bed without getting up. Our house had the one by the bed in the main bedroom 1.5 m off the ground and 0.5 m from the bed, so too far to reach without just about getting out of bed, and it was on her side, so I often found it easier to use the one by the door. Now there is one each side of the bed, 0.8 m off the ground, 0.2 m from the bed, which can be reached while lying down.

You can never have too many 13 A sockets, or is that stating the bleeding obvious?

Power for cupboard lighting.

The Honeywell remote / computer controlled radiator valves are good, if spendy. They can be fitted later with ease, on the bases of cheap thermostatic valves.

Underfloor heating is nice and if you are ripping any floors up, it isn't much extra work.

Make sure that you have generous cooker and shower electric power supplies even if you currently have gas cooking and water heating, just to keep your options open. Similarly 30 A car charging cable(s), even if you don't put any socket on the end as the tech is changing so fast.

[Basil]

Electric car charging point.

Is this a house you will grow old in?  Lavatories and showers on more than 1 floor. You just have to think "How old will I be in 20 years time?"

[Woofage]

If you will be taking ceilings down (or taking up flooring upstairs) put plenty of insulation in the floor. You don't need the heat in the bedrooms (assuming they're upstairs) so keep it downstairs as best you can.

Solar heating and/or leccy? Water softener? Can't think of anything else.

[Blade]

When planning out our new kitchen, we chose to have a boil tap installed.
No more waiting for the kettle to boil and when cooking anything that requires boiling in water we fill the saucepan with instantly boiled water from the tap.

[Cunobelin]

Electric car charging point.

Is this a house you will grow old in?  Lavatories and showers on more than 1 floor. You just have to think "How old will I be in 20 years time?"

[Jaded]

If you have a large room for watching telly consider 5.1 or 7.1 cabling for surround sound, and a projector mount 

[citoyen]

Automatic light switches are nice in any room you keep moving in. Hallways and garages certainly, kitchens maybe.

Good tip. Halls especially, since you're likely to be leaving via a different door, so automatic lighting is far more convenient than installing extra switches at all entry/exit points.

I installed one in our front hall - simply replaced the existing switch with an IR sensor - and it's fine, but ideally I'd like to place the sensor in a better place, so placement is something to consider carefully if you're installing from scratch.

Automatic lights outside the front door too - saves you having to leave the outdoor light on when you go out, if you know you are going to be returning home late and don't want to be fumbling for the right key in the dark. Also helpful for the postman/milkman in winter.

You can never have too many 13 A sockets, or is that stating the bleeding obvious?

With the caveat that the cost of installation will put a practical limit on the number. I had all sorts of fancy plans when we had our house rewired... until I saw the electrician's quote.

[jiberjaber]

Having both Live and Neutral available for switch sockets will help if you decide to move to smart switches as they generally need an actual power supply to operate (rather than just a in-live/switched-out cable)

[Pickled Onion]

Thanks there's some really useful stuff there. I'd totally forgotten about insulation between the floors, and will insist - it helps with noise transfer too! Yes, I'll have a lavatory on each floor, I'm not *that* old yet but going downstairs in the night for a wee is itirritating at any age. Outside lights - the council provides that - but I'd not considered sensors indoors, that's a good idea.

Questions:
Underfloor heating. Doesn't really appeal to me on account of being from the put-a-jumper on generation and the fact it has such a long hysteresis it seems a waste. How does the cost stack up?
The usb socket thing - is this an actual thing or just a hunch?
Bedside switches sounds good but doesn't it mean you can never re-arrange the room? I'd like a wall light as being easier to read by than a table lamp.

[hellymedic]

Be warned that underfloor heating is bad for pianos if they are your thing.

[Jaded]

With regards to loads of light switches, you could consider a system like Philips Hue, where you can add as many switches as you like, and also use phones etc as controllers.

[Aunt Maud]

Be warned that underfloor heating is bad for pianos if they are your thing.

Indeed.

They it is also cruel to timber flooring and even any kind of engineered wood flooring if you put a rug down. Underfloor heating has a tendency to dry the air out in the room, so is really only any good for a bath/wetroom, where it is the queen bees' knees if it's under a tiled floor in the shower.

If you've got a long run to the hot tap from the tank or boiler, then a circulator pump on the DHW is handy.

[Polar Bear]

...
Questions:
...
The usb socket thing - is this an actual thing or just a hunch?
...

I presume that you are referring to Diver300's comments?

I was myself a pessimist so we installed just one to try it out.  It has been a total success to date so we've put more in.   I have watched Bigclive and would agree that the example shown there was an awful piece of cheap and dangerous crap.   Our sockets are these and for instance have a robust earth bar across the back of the unit and well fixed to each screw hole.   The sockets do not even run slightly warm to the touch and I have considerable confidence in them.   John the Sparky otp recommended and installed them for us and he's been pretty damned good to date with electrics in the Bear-o-drome.   

[Diver300]

I would be the first to admit that my attitude to USB sockets comes from a theoretical rather than an evidence based position. However I have seen plenty of power supplies die, often in the LED lights that others here are bemoaning the reliability of on another thread. I am not keen on the idea of adding many of those in a way that much of my house will have to be shut down to isolate them.  Tellies contain similar power supplies for their standby functions and people make money out of making repair kits for those parts.

All those power supplies have semiconductors that need to turn on and off tens of thousands of times a second with around 350 V across them, all made to be cheap.

I am sure that there are lots of very good USB sockets on the market, which will include suitable fuses so that they will most likely just die when something fails, but without doing a Big Clive on each type, I will play safe with stuff that I can unplug. I would be far happier if the designs had a switch to isolate the input to the USB converter.

However, the pricey MK ones look to be as well made as anything from MK.

I'm not the only one who is sceptical:- http://www.theiet.org/forums/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=205&threadid=63973

Where I've fitted power supplies like https://theevohomeshop.co.uk/honeywell-evohome/74-honeywell-evohome-wall-mounting-pack-atf600.html, I've added a fused switch for peace of mind.

There are lots of adaptors like this https://www.amazon.co.uk/Connected-Essentials-CEU10-Socket-Adapter/dp/B00K6ZOLAY which might well be crap, but I can turn them off when I don't want them or the magic smoke escapes.

[Kim]

I would be far happier if the designs had a switch to isolate the input to the USB converter.

Quite.

[Polar Bear]

Just a thought:  should I send one of ours to Big Clive to break down and comment upon?   I have one laying around which I could send him.

[Pickled Onion]

I would expect to use MK, anything else does look a liability, I agree with you. Thanks for the link, which led me to the MK product sheet which appears to say they disconnect from the mains when the USB plug is removed.

They it is also cruel to timber flooring and even any kind of engineered wood flooring if you put a rug down. Underfloor heating has a tendency to dry the air out in the room, so is really only any good for a bath/wetroom, where it is the queen bees' knees if it's under a tiled floor in the shower.

Drying the air out in the room would be great downstairs where humidity is normally over 80% without the dehumidifier. Unfortunately I'll be having wood floors in the worst-affected area. In the shower room sounds like a good idea.

No-one's yet suggested wifi enabled curtains or RFID door locks.

[Kim]

Whole house fan?

[andrewc]

I stayed at the City Road Travelodge in London the other week, and was pleasantly surprised to find 6 USB sockets.  2 standalones either side of the bed and a further 2 built into the 13A sockets.   No need to take adaptors anymore   

[Tim Hall]

I stayed at the City Road Travelodge in London the other week, and was pleasantly surprised to find 6 USB sockets.  2 standalones either side of the bed and a further 2 built into the 13A sockets.   No need to take adaptors anymore 

Whereas Premier Inn have yet to grasp (or re -grasp) the need for shaver sockets in their bathrooms.

[frankly frankie]

No-one's yet suggested wifi enabled curtains or RFID door locks.

We've had automatic curtains ever since the cat died (over 20 years ago).
Ours have timer and light-actuated options for both opening and closing, so basically they are set to open at about 07:30 (timer) and close at dusk (whenever that is). I see them as a big security/peace of mind plus.

[Aunt Maud]

Drying the air out in the room would be great downstairs where humidity is normally over 80% without the dehumidifier. Unfortunately I'll be having wood floors in the worst-affected area. In the shower room sounds like a good idea.

Hopefully you'll be tackling the damp/humidity issues when the work is being done.

[hellymedic]

Drying the air out in the room would be great downstairs where humidity is normally over 80% without the dehumidifier. Unfortunately I'll be having wood floors in the worst-affected area. In the shower room sounds like a good idea.

Hopefully you'll be tackling the damp/humidity issues when the work is being done.

Indeed but what time of year are you measuring humidity?

Our centrally heated lounge is running at close to 70% at the moment (depending on meter). It's 80% outside and there are no puddles. Even my kitchen (fridge-freezer, no stove-top cooking) is around 60%.

It's been MUCH less at other times but this mild autumn is VERY moist!