Current considerations:
- Japanese toilet
- Hydronic heating
- Wine cellar/closet
- Ethernet everywhere
- Heated towel rails
- Smart doorbell
Building a New House, Thoughts on What I Should Spec?
netpenthe on 10/09/2020 - 14:23
Comments
@[Deactivated]: TP just doesn't cut it during those endless wiping sessions. A blast from the bidet is all it takes. I'll always add one when possible.
@[Deactivated]: Not going to replumb my bathroom, at this stage, but might be worth considering when I remodel.
@[Deactivated]: I’m presuming if you have the warm air dryer bit you need power. Otherwise you just have a wet backside and still need toilet paper.
@try2bhelpful: Mine just does cold water then I finish up with a bit of TP. Much more economical and efficient. Feels heaps cleaner.
Also if there's a warm water outlet you can get a non electric bidet which does warm/cold.
@[Deactivated]: Actually there are plenty of studies. The bidet environmental impact is massively lower. The bidet uses a maximum 500mls of a of water, while it takes 45 to 120 litres of water to make a single roll of toilet paper, and the electricity to make that single roll uses far more electricity than the equivalent number of bum washes. That doesn't take into account the shipping and packaging on the TP.
There is also a study by the ANU that shows reduced incidents of rashes, piles and UTI's with bidet use, but even if it made no difference to health, the environmental impact is massively in favour of the bidet.
Also, when the TP shortages were on, we didn't have to worry.You can keep a six pack in the cupboard if electrical outages worry you. If the power is off for longer than that, bum washing will be the least of your worries :)
it takes 45 to 120 litres of water to make a single roll of toilet paper,
Somehow, I believe this to be false.
According to an SMH article (first google search result but cross checked with other high rank results), we use on average 88 rolls per person per year.
Based on population of 25 million in 2018, that's 2.2 billion rolls per year.
Based on your conservative estimate of 45 litres, that is 100 giga litres of water per year just in toilet paper.
Based on the Bureau of Stats, approximately 3,200 giga litres of water is used for manufacturing meaning a whopping ~3.2% of all water used for manufacturing is being used to make toilet paper.
Also, there is a cost for bidets. There is a manufacturing cost, costs associated with installation and supply of water.
"Feeling nice" is a function, and bidets are fairly cheap.
@X35rgfF45: Whoa whoa whoa. I don't know what your relationship is with your bidet but there are children that read these comments.
Not everyones toilet is right next to the shower tshow.
I'm not going to degrade myself by walking from the downstairs toilet to the upstairs shower with my pants down to my ankles.
'Have you ever sat on a heated toilet seat (That wasn't warmed by the previous person) in the middle of night during a freezing winter? I don't believe in heaven, but that's pretty close to how I'd imagine it.'
no but I've sat on a freezing toilet seat in the middle of the night during a freezing Canberra (-3C) winter. And yeah, that's pretty close to hell in my experience.
but would I install a heated Japanese toilet seat in that situation ? Not in a million.
that's like leaving a bar radiator heater turned on outside in winter - then wondering why your electricity bills are excessive
start with insulation and thermal mass - maybe even superinsulation or whatever they call those Scandinavian tight-sealed homes with air exchangers - then you won't be worried about freezing toilet seats anymo' …
Well the model I used heated up as needed, I doubt it added much to the power bill hahaha
We setup our laundry so the washer and dryer are at bench height with sorting baskets underneath. (You need a reinforced bench made). We also have a pullout sorting table underneath. You can pull out the table, put the clothes basket in front and pull the clothes out straight into the basket of, if you use the dryer, out onto the table, slide along to put into the dryer.
I would also get an extra deep kitchen bench so you can put all your appliances at the back of the bench and pull them forward as you need them. A stainless steel bench with a set in sink makes cleaning up easier.
I would also create a climate room, i.e. a media room where it is easy to cool/heat efficiently. I would use a reverse cycle air conditioner in it.
A stainless steel bench with a set in sink makes cleaning up easier.
If you want your house to look like a commercial kitchen at your local pub. Go for it.
Our kitchen cupboards are grey painted American oak so the Stainless steel kitchen tops don’t look very “clinical”, or commercial, at all. The set in sink is brilliant. Wipe everything into the sink with none of that build up around a drop in sink.
I prefer a stone bench top with under mount sinks. Does the same thing you're talking about but doesn't look as industrial as a stainless bench top IMO.
@whitelie: Each to his own. We have converted a warehouse so a bit of "industrial chic" is
de rigueur. The beauty of stainless steel is if you put something hot down on it you don't get a scorch mark and grot doesn't stick to it. What I love about our kitchen is that even thought it is over 20 years old it doesn't look like it has dated badly.
What kind of budget do you have? you may very well be speccing nothing based on that figure
Go for a gas free house - heat pump hot water, induction cooktop, reverse cycle air conditioning/heating, heat pump clothes dryer with 15kw of solar panels on the roof.
I used to have a gas-free apartment, and since moving into one with gas, I think it's awesome, especially for cooking. Family have induction cooking, but it's slow to respond, and so it's easy to turn up too high due to thinking it's not working, and then it lags, and then it burns things, then it clicks on, clicks off as the thermostat kicks in and out. It's garbage, really wish induction cooking wasn't a thing, and had never become trendy because "oh look, a flat glass cooktop … it looks so sleek and stylish … pity it's a total backward step for y'know … IT'S ACTUAL PRIMARY PURPOSE OF COOKING". Whereas gas is instant and very fine grain and continuous. When Chinese restaurants start using induction instead of gas, let me know, and I'll re-examine the situation. And you have to get specific cookware to work with induction, but gas works with everything. It's also quite cheap - our bills (which are a bit unusual because we're in an apartment, but it's a combined bill for both gas for cooking + hot water bills [and we have lots of hot showers and baths]) is only $40 a quarter. Post circa 2000 gas stainless steel cooktops from Bosch also won't release gas unless they're lit, so this whole idea of "leaving the gas on" when it's not lit isn't a thing any more. And it's debatable whether a gas cooktop at night is more or less environmental than an induction cooktop being powered from a coal fired power station via the grid. So I agree with everything you're saying, apart from the cooktop.
I have the exact opposite experience. I've had both, got gas at the moment, far preferred my induction for the fine level of control compared to gas. I'll be moving back to induction when our stove/oven dies.
They are definitely not as easy on the wallet in terms of running cost though, and the wok burner on the gas can definitely get hotter, but the difference isn't enough to make me care.
Either that is a really cheap induction cooktop or not an induction cooktop and just ceramic element. I have never seen an induction cooktop that doesn't have an inverter so that the power output is continuous and at the output you set - just like gas. If you use cast iron cookware they are insanely fast to heat and can go super low and slow.
Another advantage of a decent induction cooktop is that when you are not using it, the space is not wasted and you can use as bench space - place slow cookers, thermomixers and other appliances that product steam under the extractor fan. Finally way easier to clean the cooktop. YMMV
the space is not wasted and you can use as bench space -
You can get gas cookers that have low profile hoods so you can use it as bench space if desired. Probably not as aesthetically pleasing as an expensive induction setup though.
Although at least you don't have to worry about cracking the glass on your fancy induction cooktop this way (which cost heaps to repair).
Induction is super fast to respond.
Sounds like it’s not an induction but rather a normal electric cooktop or a really cheap induction unit.
Chinese restaurants usually have high powered wok burners which is a different use case again.
I up voted all your comments, thank you all, and I'm happy to give induction another go. I don't think the family members kitchens would have cheap induction (the other kitchen fixtures are all quite decent quality & brands). And these were definitely induction because it brought some cookware over that wouldn't heat at all (not compatible with induction). But they are probably quite old, circa 2005 builds and kitchen renos, so maybe they were first gen induction and later generations added continuous heat with faster response times? That's my best guess as to why my experience diverges so much from yours. I had previously written off induction, but I will try again when I have access to a newer unit, and re-evaluate. Thank you all for the feedback.
@nickj: and … induction only works for ferrous metals ?
so your aluminium frypans, ceramic casserole dishes - ain't gonna work ?
'If the metal is too thin, or does not provide enough resistance to current flow, heating will not be effective' - but 'Any vessel can be used if placed on a suitable metal disk which functions as a conventional hotplate' - yay - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induction_cooking
@Hangryuman: Yeah, I gave up on induction because of that. Getting a high quality gas cooktop gives you the same level of control, but expect to spend a decent amount to get a really good gas one, average ones are just not great. However, a great gas cooktop is still cheaper than a good induction one.
Join the 'My Efficient Electric Home' facebook group and search the previous threads. Heaps of helpful info for you.
the government has guides for home construction. check your state dept
Ethernet backbone. It's hard to add this later, so you may as well get it done now. Ask me how I know :)
Home entertainment unit area - consider running speaker wires in the walls along with subwoofer cable and power for the sub. You often want the sub tucked in a corner, away from the actual TV area itself. And speakers - if you go 7.1, that's an awful lot of wires on the floor - so get them in now.
Power everywhere. Heaps of it. You can never have enough.
Speaker wires for your alfresco/pergola so that you can run ceiling speakers and then terminate the other end in your home entertainment unit area. You can then get a dual-zone AV receiver to play music outside whilst the kids watch TV inside (etc etc etc).
Power in the ceiling so you can stick wireless access points around the house for a mesh setup. Ethernet too. Sounds extreme but it all helps!
Agree with the power outlets. Both the man and I have a 4 port power outlet next to our bedroom sidetables because we tend to charge our technology there overnight. When you include the phone, tablet, smart watch then add the lamp, and small heater for winter it all starts to add up.
We had dual power outlets put in most parts of our house; I think that is a minimum. It is important to think of where you might want to plug the vacuum cleaner in as well and a couple of outdoor plugs.
I mean, none of those devices draw a significant amount of power so they could all go on one power strip. It's just aesthetically a bit nicer to have a quad GPO built in.
I power strips are a bit of a pain in these situations because they aren’t anchored. It will cost almost nothing to put a four in from the get go.
Ask me how I know
So what are you proposing here? FTTP? If I was building a new house I would get the NBN box and my starting router built into the wall/roof. Need a wired "reset" button for troubleshooting I guess.
I’m not proposing anything. I’m telling the OP to wire up his/her house with Cat5e/Cat6. Whether they have FTTP/FTTN etc is irrelevant. I’m talking about the backbone. The builder will take care of the incoming NBN.
If I had a new build I’d have the NBN box somewhere near a power point where can access it easily and preferably where I can also place the router so it’s tidy, protected and all in the one place but that’s just me. Roof spaces can get hot so you have to keep that in mind.
Yeah I'd build it into the wall. Keep it out of sight. Or maybe in a recess.
I had cat7 put in, didn't really cost any more and 10Gbit that is super reliable has been lovely.
Cat 7e cabling everywhere.
Power/Cabling for outdoor security cameras.
Batcave.6A will do 10Gbps.
Use PoE for security cameras.
Conduits to every point so it's easy to change/upgrade/add cabling in the future.
There's good advice here on passive home design and energy/water: https://www.yourhome.gov.au/
+1 on conduits everywhere! You will be very happy you did at some point in time
Go the lot…. go even more
The lot! Beetroot, egg, bacon and see if they have smoked cheese for that extra twist.
Solar and insulation. Go heat pumps/air con. Get a heat pump hot water system. Double glazing. Underfloor insulation and highest R rating for walls and ceiling. Now you set.
I assume when you say underfloor insulation you mean for raised houses? Surely that's not worth it for Australian homes on a flat slab…
I don't know but not sure OP mentioned what type of house it was.
make sure the hydronic is underfloor if not a double story
Panic room. Underground prepping/storage facilities. 200,000 litre water tank. A small armoury
OH, definitely need that for when shit hits the fan in the coming months or years, unless it gets better….
You going custom build?
Is there a good reliable home project builder?
tell me 2
yer
hydronic heating, including hydronic towel rails.
I wouldn't bother with network cables in each room. Just to the TV, Media room, Study, CCTV Cameras and Server/NAS/Modem.
Wifi is good enough these days for 99.99% of people.
Thermally broken Double Glazed windowd with LowE glass.
Ducted Refrigerated cooling.
Breathable Wall Wrap
Sarking
2340 high doors.
I wouldn't bother with network cables in each room. Just to the TV, Media room, Study, CCTV Cameras and Server/NAS/Modem.
Network cables to every room are so incredibly worth it. If you have the chance to do it I always recommend doing it
@theg00s3: I have network cables x 2 to each bedroom, study, lounge and family room.
1 Cat 6 for data, 1 for redundancy/telephone. I ran them myself using 2 rolls so it was just as easy to run 2 cables as it was 1.
Apart from the PC in the study, I don't really need Ethernet. Every other device/note book is wireless (except for POE cameras). With the PC, I could use a wifi adapter.
Note: I don't game but ping from ethernet PC 11ms, ping from wifi device 11ms.
It's nice to have, but I don't think it's worth it if you had to pay a cabler/builder to do it.
What's your budget and what level of home are you building e.g. affordable, mid level or luxury. And is it a forever home or temporary home? Also I'm assuming it's totally custom build?
I love heated towel rails too but the best looking are pretty expensive. Make sure you get them with timers. If you actually want to be able to dry a decent amount of towels, you need a lot of rails and if your bathroom has limited space it can be a challenge. We were going to be spending something like $1.5-2k on heated towel rails per bathroom and realised it just wasn't worth it! But obviously if you were building a mega mansion and you had heaps of space and money you would put them in.
Again, if you are doing a wine cellar…can be a costly exercise if you want to do it properly. Possibly more efficient to just get a wine fridge…but then make sure you know how much it will add to your energy bill!!!
I'd say solar is the best returning feature if you plan to be there at least 10-15 years. Again. A good system will set you back 25-30k.
The worst thing about custom building is that you realise the "good stuff" is expensive and it's not worth doing unless you can afford the good stuff!! It's pretty bloody depressing at times…
Think about what's important to you - how you live your life? What areas of the house will you live in most and how will you use those rooms? What are your pet hates in houses you've lived in previously? Then you do a cost-benefit analysis (unless you're rich and have no budget). Then prioritise.
For us, in an ultra modern custom built house with limited space that was not our forever home, priorities were:
- Double glazing
- Ducted heating / cooling
- Inbuilt retractable flyscreens on our big stacker doors
- Louvre roof on alfresco
- Fireplace
- Double shower in ensuite
- Custom cabinetry - we designed everything to meet our exact needs and used lots of clever solutions (VERY time consuming to do and more expensive, but hopefully will pay off in terms of maximising storage and hiding the things we want hidden (shoes near front door), etc etc.
Sauna. Not one of those little cabinets, but a room dedicated to being a sauna. It can be a little narrow thing flush against the hallway even with sliding doors.
Make it easy to cable anything into any room.
Under floor heating.
Design your garden so it is easy for a jims mowing guy to take care of in one quick bang per month, no little jagged corners that the mower can't reach etc.
Something that blocks the view of parcels sitting near your front door, like hedges.
A skylight anywhere in the house that is somehow easy to clean and closes automatically when it rains.
Make sure in every bed and living space you have a wall suitable for the amazing short throw projectors that are going to be invented in five years time.
A ramp for a little robot to go up and down levels without needing the stairs, so you can tell the Uber Eats guy to just put the food on the robot. This is a good option if you plan on becoming paralysed.
A skylight anywhere in the house that is somehow easy to clean and closes automatically when it rains.
Skylights don't usually open. They are called windows ;)
I know I was just being cheeky.
I wouldn't install these in cold climate new builds. Just something that over time will leak warm air outside.
Items on my list for next house
3 phase electricity
ethernet everywhere, 4 ports minimum in office and entertainment areas and a patch panel in a ventilated cupboard somewhere (NOT GARAGE)
power points (multiple in rooms and outside), can't have too many and so much cheaper while building. (just had an extra 6 double points installed in my house)
oversized doorways (I friggen hate trying to Jam furniture through standard doors)
double glazing
solar
plenty of storage (ideally multiple large walk in closets)
butlers pantry
oversized garage for work area
ducted heating and coolingHigh ceilings, tall doors to match
Eaves
Double glazing
Twice as many powerpoints as you think you need, same with ethernetHigh ceilings, tall doors to match
Should add in some majestic statues of yourself too to show off your pride and grandiose architecture.
Keyless entry is the best $400 I ever spent.
Certainly worthwhile but the door needs to be out of the weather and, if you are putting a PIN in then you don’t want direct sun on it or it is hard to see the PIN pad
Yes, outdoor electrics suffer. Based on on what I see, ours will need replacing every 5 years
We have ours in a porch. We have a gate, with a standard padlock, to enter the porch then the keyless at the next level.
We have a Samsung that allows you to program MYKI cards into it. We would like to replace with one that has an override key, in case of total failure, but the later Samsung’s don’t seem to have the MYKI capability anymore.
We have a gate, with a standard padlock, to enter the porch then the keyless at the next level.
Kind of defeats the purpose of keyless entry if you have to wrangle a padlock every time you come home.
@serpserpserp: Not really. Several reasons:-
- It is a dual level of security. Someone breaks our padlock then they, only, get to the next level.
- The gate to the porch isn’t all that secure and it isn’t suitable to put the keyless lock on anyway. The padlock is more as a deterrent for people sleeping in our porch and to keep the cats getting out.
- the Keyless locks don’t do well when exposed to the weather.
- even if the gate was suitable I’m not forking out the money for two keyless locks. Having a secure airlock is, probably, a good idea in our area.@try2bhelpful: But once they get past the past lock they can just see what keys are pressed constantly on the keypad and guess their way in :)
Given half of the users for these things probably use "0000" "1234" or their birthdate (or someone else in the household birthday) seems more insecure than the padlock!
@serpserpserp: Not us. Best of luck trying to guess our lock number. People have to be sensible. If you leave your key under a rock at the front expect problems. Also, you get a few guesses then it locks you out from trying for 10 minutes. Hence, my MYKI card backup.
but the later Samsung’s don’t seem to have the MYKI capability anymore.
I thought that they just used any RFID/NFC card, so you can even use a credit card, Apple pay etc.
@spaceflight: We tried the MYKI card at one of the trade shows, and the later Samsung units didn’t work with the MYKI. Whatever you do get I would test our first, with whatever cards you want to use, to confirm.
Have you chosen a builder? If you go with a high volume builder then the Up Spec will cost you a fortune and they may also not want to do some of these things too. Therefore a custom build may be your answer…. which is not cheap either…
Go full brick/concrete
Where would the insulation go, and what kind?
Between the brick and the drywall. Or brick/insulation/brick
Not really a good idea as an air cavity needs to be had to stop transfer of water from outside wall going in.
I suggest the European way of insulation on the outside.
reinforced stainless steel blocks.
Kitchen bench heights 100mm higher then average.
We just had the kicker at the bottom larger then normal.
It saves your back when your preping food and dishes. Also keeps kids from been able to reach up as easily.Whole house water filtration system. Better tasting water and save yourself cleaning the calcium from tiles and glass in bathroom.
Just run distilled water through your taps…no mineral deposits, no traces.
Have three phase power, and pre-terminate it in the garage so you can charge an electric car.
Power on the ceiling of the garage for the door opener.
Consider having all your light switches supplied with a neutral wire (as opposed to just the active). This can help if/when you want to install or upgrade smart lighting.How can lights work without a neutral wire to complete the circuit?
Light switches…
What about them?
@sareth: When you loop at light you don't require a neutral to the switch. Common method of wiring in aus, reduces the amount of wire required but most smart light switches require a neutral and can't be used with this wiring method.
Enough GPOs and in the right spot. Same with TV aerial connections.
4 phase electric powah
Build the ceiling heights so you can have the tracks for your curtains recessed. Looks so much nicer than having the hardware for your blinds and curtains visible.
Also if you are doing a patio, similar thing, have your stscker/bifold doors sill flush with the floor.
Another one we did was under a tall cabinet in our laundry, we have a 150mm high box and the kicker removed. We have a PowerPoint behind it and our robot vacuum sits in there. Can't even notice it and it has a nice clean home for it to go to.
Make sure you have plumbing behind your fridge.
Get an actuator on the back of the bin in the kitchen. You give it a slight knock and it opens itself (only a few hundred).
LED lights in kitchen if you want.
op. whats your budget?
Sound proofing insulation between rooms. Can only do it when building. New houses shocking for noise carrying. Probably helps cut out 75% of noise. Nothing worse hearing someone taking a poo from other end of the house in new places.
Also "ethernet everywhere" I did this, every bedroom had 2x point, multiple places around lounges and stuff, run to kitchen instead of just phone point - know what? Never used them. Only to study area and to lounge where TV was. 3/4 of the points never touched. Waste of time, waste of money. Just figure where you'll actually want them and put in place, maybe have a spare cable or two rolled up in ceiling in case then can install later if desperately need. Not sure your circumstance but kids don't need network points in rooms and stuff, everything they will ever use is wifi type thing. All smart home stuff wifi or zigbee.
Power points in hallways and such where you would want to use vacuum.
@[Deactivated]: I just use an old water bottle to squirt water into toilet paper. It seems to work pretty well.