Re: quick advice for new home build

["James Hoye" <james.hoye@xxxxxxx>]

This email was delivered to you by The Free Internet.
http://www.thefreeinternet.net
---------------------------------------------------------------
> 1. Heating. My present plan is for a Geothermal Heat pump and
> underfloor heating (although maybe radiators for upstairs). An
> additional heater for temporary high output requirement(baths etc.)
> The Geothermal is supposed to be 75% free.

Is this the one that requires a 3kW compressor?

> 2. I will run two Cat5 to all rooms, also to the front porch/rear
> door/ garage. This may be used for sending audio/video/cctv if
> suitable

Two won't be enough.  Two to EACH socket point would be better :)
This will give you greater flexibility in the future - you can patch a
phone
in virtually any where, you can start to send AV around the place (and
we're
not talking composite video modulated onto CT100 with mono audio), you can
plug laptops and PCs in and have your own network which you can also
connect
up to the Internet via a suitable provider.  Whilst you won't necessarily
need all of this right now, by installing plenty of CAT5 now (the cost of
incorporating it in at build stage is minimal compared to afterwards!) you
can be prepared a little for the future.

> 4. I was going to have all cables come into the attic and use this as
> my distribution point/patch panel. Should i run all the cables out to
> the garage and make this node 0 or leave them in the attic and make
> this node 0. Expense is the question.

If you can dedicate some space to make a proper node zero then all the
better.  This will allow you to have all your incoming services in one
place - and distribute them via CAT5/CT100.  You can also locate other
equipment here, eg. router, MP3 server etc.

> Should i use the DIN rail X10 modules? are they mounted right next to
> the circuit breakers?

The DIN rail stuff can be mounted anywhere with anough space.  Don't forget
that each light (or group of lights) will wire back to a DIN module, and
the
switch should be a momentary type - ie. push button rather than toggle.
Clipsal do some quite nice ones - Mark McCall can give more info.  You will
need a suitable enclosure to mount the DIN modules - a consumer unit is
suitable, and you will find that you might require quite a few of these!
Mark McCall has his DIN modules in his loft where they take up a wall!
http://www.automatedhome.co.uk/images/consumerunits.jpg

I'm sure others will be able to add to this, good luck!

James H