RE: A newbie builds a house

["Dr John Tankard" <john@xxxxxxx>]

> Hi everyone,
>
> I'm new to this list, but I see some familiar names from the UK
> selfbuild group. Hi Dr John! Anyway, here's my introduction to what
> I'm looking at doing.
>
> After several years of talking and thinking about it, it finally
> looks like we're going to be building our house by the end of the
> year. It's going to be a 3 bed timber frame on our existing large
> plot in Bedfordshire.
>
>

Welcome to this list (you wont find many flame wars here ;-), it sounds as
though you are just about to embark on a big project, good luck. You will
find a lot of usefull stuf in the archives but for starters here are a few
of my comments.

1) Coax use as a minimum ct100, you will also read in the archive about
Kat5
from Keith this collection of devices will reduce the need of some runs of
coax

2) Use full depth wall boxes for everything, you are building in FT so it
should be easy

3) Keep CAT5, Coax & mains well away from each other

4) Take loads of pictures of the cable positions before you drywall (I know
someone who used transparencies, so that when he wanted to get access to a
wire he just projected the image onto the wall and was able to find the
spot
very accurately)

5) MP3 take a look at the DDAR

6) Heating controllers, you could use a commercial control system or
perhaps
take a look at HomeVision

7) I know you have looked at Comfort and are not sure its for you, but
remember if you are to fit an alarm anyway why not use comfort, its only
going to cost another 200 quid and you are going to end up with a very
capable system, there several members on this list with comfort and I am
yet
to read anything negative.

8) Remote controls, I know the Pronto is expensive but IMHO it is worth it,
I am also going to use a  wireless epod and a wireless ipaq to talk to
webservers provided by comfort,homevision & the UKHA project devices,
(Before anyone asks I have been very busy so no nothing to report ant the
moment)

9) yes, yes to a cabinet with rear access, one of my bigest mistakes was a
cabinet with a rotating frame. (My rack mount PC's are to deep to allow the
frame to rotate)

10) from the self build list you will proberly have all the building info
you need, but I still maintain www.tankard.com/links.htm there may be some
interesting links


John