Self wiring?

Hi all

I am about to build my new home soon. I will be an Owner Builder and I will definitely install the Cbus home automation system in my new home. However I have one problem, I understand that electrical wiring required a licensed electrican. When building my new home, I want to save some dollars,

I have electrical and programing background and I have done electrical wiring and programing in the past. I understand all the wiring and connection requirements legally.

So my question is, can I do the electrical wiring and programing myself without the licensed electrician? or any other way to go about it to save some bucks?

well of course I will need the licensed electrican to have the power and meter wired first. Then the house and switchboard i will do it myself.

Thanks...

 

I shall bow and digress to anyone who cares to correct me,

But mate, from everything I've ever heard, learnt, and seen, you arent even allowed to pull the wiring yourself, let alone make a single connection that has a permanent (read, hard-wired, non "un-pluggable") connection to the public mains supply.

We all know damn well that alot of people do it themselves, and I'm not going to make any comment on that, but it might not be a great idea to broadcast your intention to the wide world on here

That said, there is nothing stopping you from running all the pink C-Bus cabling yourself, mounting switchboards, mounting wall plates, or anything else that doesnt involve actual copper that will have 240V flowing through it later on.

If you can find a particularly co-operative sparky, he may let you do all the wire-jerking yourself, and just charge you to inspect it all once you are done, and to terminate everything.

For safety, legallity, and insurance purposes, please don't risk it, use a licensed electrician for the important stuff, and do your best to work in conjunction with them. After all, its not just you who is liable in the long run, its their reputation, license, and business that is on the line too should anything ever go wrong.
(Not that I'm saying that you don't know what you're doing, because there are more than enough sparkies out there with less than fantastic reputations who have less fundamental knowledge of things than alot of the people on here).

Darpa

P.S. If you're not situated in Australia, ignore what I just said

 

The only person who can tell you what you can and cant do is the electrician that takes on the site. He will sign for your mistakes and therefore it should be done with him or her watching your work.

That is how I read the law anyhow. You would effectively be the electricians helper.

 

The wiring of a house is so cheap that you will probably ADD to the cost if you get involved in it.... teh electrician will have to allow extra time to "supervise you".

As Tobex says, your own electrician can inform you about this.

You would be FAR better spending your time on the Control System design and documentation, as these are the things that the electrician won't really be able to help with. With a clear concise plan, the electrician will know what to do, so the install will go fast (and fast means cheap).

The physical pullling of wires etc is an absolutely trivial cost in a building project, especially a domestic one. Scrimping and saving on things like that is really a false economy, irrespective of where yoiu live (or what the local regulations are)

 

You can seperate and do the programming though.... I did.

The electrician did the installation (under my watchfull eye and to my specifications) then used the learn function to check that each switch/dimmer/etc worked. Then I programmed it all up later on.

Cheers

Rohan

 

Thanks guys for responding to my question. The reason that I wanted to do my wiring is that, I remembered when my father building his house. The electrican charged $33 per light point and $38 per power point by the way light fitting & GPO fitting are extra.

I intended to put quite a fair bit of light points and power points plus connection points for other equitment it will come to huge numbers of power points and lights and connections points. The home theater, backyard, frontyard, 4 bedrooms, 2 study room, 1 retreat room, 1 lounge, 1 meal, 1 family, kitchen, 3 toilets, 1 guest room, alfresco, electric gates, 2 garages..etc

So as we can see that the house will be heavily wired and control. That's why I am concerned about the cost of it all.

Thanks...

 

KK06,

In addition to the suggestions and remarks of the other guys on here, if you are planning on large numbers of "connection points" (I'm assuming you mean things like Phone, Data network, Coax for TV/Pay TV, Speaker wiring, AV cabling, etc), then go right ahead and pull the cables as you see fit, you can get away with doing all this yourself, as there is not as much regulation of these things, the only thing you need to note doing this is with regard to the Phone wiring. Dont terminate at either the socket or MDF end (MDF = your network boundary, or the point where your internal phone wiring connects into your phone company's network, in Australia, this is usually a black cable from the street). Leave the termination of the cable to your phone company, because that cabling IS regulated, and even though it might not seem important, if any of your wiring should cause a fault anywhere in your house or the phone company's wiring, YOU are the one liable for it if you terminate anything yourself.

To save your electrician some time, the only thing you should really do is plan where you want everything, like the other guys said, and maybe go through and put plaster brackets for every GPO (Power point) you want.

Also, I'm assuming you want to pull all the C-Bus cabling yourself to save a few dollars in labor, so go ahead and do that once you have a solid plan layed out. You can also go through and put in all the plaster brackets/wall boxes for the C-Bus input units.

Other than that, leave it to the guy with the license

 

In NSW you need a permit to pull Cat5 / Phone / Power and not one permit, at least three.

 

No, you need two licenses. One for power and one for Phone / Data / Security / Fire.

 

Sorry Tobex,

I stand corrected. Was thinking more along the lines of Cat5 for a home computer network.

*bows to the guy smarter than I*

Darpa

 

They all fit on one plastic card but are in fact certified individually. For example, you may not have optic fibre on your permit.

 

All communications cabling, security cabling and even C-Bus pink cat 5 cabling should be installed by an Austel / ACA / ACMA - cabling registrar, licenced cabler as all this equipment is capable of connection to the Public Switched Telephone Network. This area has always been tightly regulated however industry self regulation (due to the weight of policing same) does see fewer checks and inspections. If you are caught our or heaven forrbid do something silly which causes injury to others then there is plenty of room for prosecution and heavy fines.

 

Don't do the cabling yourself apart from the obvious hazards if something does happen and the place burns down your insurance company will do anything not to pay... and an unlicensed person doing any electrical work is a sufficent reason.

If you do mount the stud clips (plaster brackets) a helpful tip is to get a few different colours of spray paint and spray them to a colour code eg pink cbus, orange double gpo, black single gpo, blue data etc the more you differenciate the easier it will be for the cabler/ electrician.

Wht state are you in? It is possible to get a license to wire your own home provided you meet the prerequistes the details are here for victoria... http://www.esv.vic.gov.au/tradespeople/laroeworkers_ei.html#ol

 

Don't do the cabling yourself apart from the obvious hazards if something does happen and the place burns down your insurance company will do anything not to pay... and an unlicensed person doing any electrical work is a sufficent reason.

If you do mount the stud clips (plaster brackets) a helpful tip is to get a few different colours of spray paint and spray them to a colour code eg pink cbus, orange double gpo, black single gpo, blue data etc the more you differenciate the easier it will be for the cabler/ electrician.

Wht state are you in? It is possible to get a license to wire your own home provided you meet the prerequistes the details are here for victoria... http://www.esv.vic.gov.au/tradespeople/laroeworkers_ei.html#ol

 

No; Optic fibre, Cat 6 & Coax are only endorsements.

Electrical & Open / Restricted licenses my fit onto the one card but they totally separate licenses.

 

Maybe back in your day Phil when you were an integrator Austel existed, but not anymore...

P.S. Come on Saturday night you slacker

 

The sting in the tail is always the insurance company who can cancel any policy that does not comply with code and where there is no public liability to offset the loss of damages.

The insurance companies are the bodies who ultimately decide what is legal and what is not and as far as I am concerned they make everything illegal till proven otherwise .... especially when the settlements generally run into the 100's of thousands for serious events. As soon as they have a hint that some of the alarm wiring is DIY they turn their back on a theft claim instantly.

 

Good point Tobex, he who holds the fist full of dollars rules the place. The insurance companies don't ask too many questions whilst they are taking your money to pay for the insurance policies, but as you say when it comes time to pay some out they will look for any and all reasons not to fork out. Bit of a sad world we live in

 

Listen here you ! I mentioned all those names because all those names are still used by different people.

Many years of experience brings depth of knowledge, I only wish I had more opportunity to share it with you.

Why are they moderating you ? I have always thought you are a nice guy, not a trouble maker needing moderation

 

at the end of the day all insurance is underwritten by the party at fault. that is the reason why professionals carry the cost of insurance so as to provide that ability to pay a claim - regardless of whether the claim is rational.

d.i.y is often spelled as ka-ching in the insurance industry. it matters not how simple the project is but it does matter who fronts with a valid permit.

people who feel that 5 grand is too much to pay might feel really out of sorts when they get told there is no payout for the pile of ash sitting where a house once stood.

sorry about the typing - time for a new keyboard.