Modern electrical installation

I am writing not only about home automation technologies and all sorts of interesting bells and whistles (they write a lot about this even without me), but also about how to do everything during construction just "according to the mind" and to understand what electrician London cost should be. Which means - "no nonsense." Unfortunately, foolishness is often and willingly done so far.

Where does "no smart home" end and "smart home" begin? I find it difficult to define the border. “Smart home” is not a specific technology or even a concept, but rather a vague concept, more of a marketing one. Often they write to me something like “I want to make a semi-smart home”, investing in this the idea that, for example, we control light and climate, but we probably don’t need sound and curtains.

We need to stop thinking in terms of “there is a smart home” and “there is no smart home”, you just need to try to do everything reliably and modernly. If you need an automation controller to implement your wishes, then we will use it. If a programmable relay is enough, it's also a great option. The problem is that if you turn to the integrators of smart houses, then they will install a smart house, trying to get everything under it and, if possible, maximize the budget of the system. And the knowledge of modern electrics of some construction crews and electricians, unfortunately, is insufficient for the implementation of reliable and versatile systems.

Pay attention to the electrician

This is task number 1 - to draw the attention of customers to the electrician. Every specialist in any field related to construction considers it a duty to say that his area of ​​repair is the most important, and there is no way to save on it, from leveling the walls and pouring the floor screed to grouting, window sills, wall paint and baseboards.

I talked with a person who said that "there is no culture of fire hatches for electrician London." And I talked about this topic with great enthusiasm and understanding of the importance of these very fire hatches.

Everything is important, you need to pay attention to everything and no element can be completely neglected. I have seen apartments that fall under the category of elite housing, in which the electrical panel remained from the developer: a small one, for 12 places, with one RCD and four or five dusty machines.

It was just that the priorities were set during the renovation in such a way that the electrician was moved to the very bottom. What is the risk, you ask? You can live your whole life in an apartment with three machines in the electrical panel, and there won't be any problems, that's great. But most likely at some point something will pop up, for example, it will start knocking out a machine gun or, worse, an RCD, and you have to figure it out. If everything in the apartment is on one RCD, then it will be knocked out, leaving you without electricity at all. If it does not knock out immediately when you turn it on, but about once every couple of days, then it will be extremely difficult to understand where to look for the cause of the problem. And the periodic shutdown of some important equipment (file server, video surveillance, stationary computer, refrigerator, air conditioner) will be fraught with its breakdown.

Technologies

There are some basic rules for organizing an electrician in an apartment, which have already been rewritten a thousand times in different articles: remember about RCDs for electrical appliances, select automatic machines by cable cross-section, put a voltage relay on the input, divide devices into groups according to premises and purpose. It is also normal to tighten all the terminals in the shield with a screwdriver and repeat this operation once a year: read more in Wikipedia. 

And, although I am often criticized for this opinion, try to get rid of mounting boxes altogether. In most cases, there is no need for junction boxes, the savings in cable are not worth the maintenance-free system. I am for the fact that all cable switching is done either in the electrical panel, or in socket boxes behind sockets and switches, no hidden unattended boxes. Builders will say “it’s more convenient this way”, “we have always done this”, “we will do everything right”, “we will leave the box serviced”, “otherwise you will have a lot of cable” - do not give in. No boxes. Ideally, the sockets are connected in series, the left socket of the next block is connected to the output of the right socket of the previous block. The power supply of the intermediate block of outlets goes down to the block, then rises back and goes to the next block.

The exception is connections to one power cable coming from the shield, individual sections of LED strips, to the beginning of which I would like to bring a thin cable - here it is most convenient to put somewhere a box in which to connect the cable from the shield and thin flexible cables from the tapes. But it is very advisable to check the operation of the tapes or at least the presence of voltage on all terminals before sewing the box, if access to it will be impossible.