Hi,
I recently purchased an IP which I will be renovating over a year to resell. The whole house needs gutting and re doing basically including new wiring.
In regards to wiring…… I want to run all the cable myself, BUT not hook it up. All i want to do is purchase the cable myself (cheaper) and position it where I want power points to be, and where I want lights to be (also save money).
Can anyone tell me what cable I should buy for lights, and what cable I should buy for power points?
PLEASE NOTE: I do not intend on hooking any of the cables up, I will get a licensed electrician in for this.
Thanks in advance
Bexs
Hi Bexs
To answer your question
Light Circuits – 1.5 mm2 – 2 core + Earth
Switch Wire – 1 mm2 – 2 core
Power Circuits- 2.5 mm2 – 2 core + Earth
I recently done a job for 2 clients who wanted to save on labour charges and ran the cabling themselves under my instruction. But this was agreed to prior them doing it as if they had come after the fact I don't think I would have got involved.
So I would recommend talking to a couple of local sparkies first and sounding them out.
Good Luck
I'd recommend that you do the chasing of walls, installation of conduits & draw wire yourself then leave the cabling selection up to the sparky as they may prefer to use mixed circuits rather than separate light & power circuits. If you do as above you will be restricted in the installation. Seek guideance from the electrician (btw, buying from the wholesaler as a non-trade customer is often more expensive than the electrician's supply price).
Hi kalgoo,
Thanks for your reply! I will definitely speak to our sparkie first, we do have a good relationship with him.
Would it be suitable to use only 2.5 mm2 cable for all lights, switches and power points? Also, what size cabling would be suitable for a 15 amp outlet? I will double check this with our sparkie first, just wondering on your opinion.
Your help is much appreciated.
Installation is governed by AS3000, get your sparky to dig out the relevant sections for you or tell you what you need.
Hi Bexs,
You could use 2.5mm2 for all circuits but obviously cost increases and not practical as some of the junction box's will become to bulky.
2.5mm2 is ok for the 15amp circuit as well.
Cheers
Bexs wrote:Hi,I recently purchased an IP which I will be renovating over a year to resell. The whole house needs gutting and re doing basically including new wiring.
In regards to wiring…… I want to run all the cable myself, BUT not hook it up. All i want to do is purchase the cable myself (cheaper) and position it where I want power points to be, and where I want lights to be (also save money).
Can anyone tell me what cable I should buy for lights, and what cable I should buy for power points?PLEASE NOTE: I do not intend on hooking any of the cables up, I will get a licensed electrician in for this.
Thanks in advance
Bexs
1.5mm is for lights 10 amp
2.5mm is power 16 amps
most modern stoves these days run from a 16 amp power point
light and power circuits MUST be on seperate circuits and have breakers on eachUnder Australian/NSW legislation not sure which all cabling including telecommunications cabling must be done by a qualified licensed electrician or cabler. Which i think is a load of bull because you could have a Phd in electrical engineering but it would still be illegal for you to lay cables and wire your home. In its not illegal in new zealand where the government actually publishes information to help you to do it. So are they any smarter and qualified than we are? You need to have a very good relationship with your sparkie. If you choose to do the cabling yourself you will void any insurance you have on your property if something is faulty and causes loss life and if your sparkie is not willing to sign off the work and put his name against the cabling work that was done. Keep in mind that the likely hood of any of that is next to zero but has happened e.g. Free Home insulation scheme, some nong steps on cables while in your roof cavity. The issue is about liabilty and peace of mind, my advice is to get your sparkie in, and get him to direct you to where to chase the walls yourself using thin rope and conduit.
He comes in and actually does the cabling and connections. Do as much as you can that he is willing to sign off on.That way the whole job is signed off and the work insured under his policy, it is not considered as illegal when the building inspector looks at the propety when you sell.
And yes I have cabled my own place, as well and connected fixtures, its not that hard to join three wires that are colour coded.
.Thanks to everyone for your input.
I think I have decided to chase the walls at this stage. Although I don't see any problem with laying a cable down a wall to where I want a switch / power point and leaving it at that (not connecting anything) I can see that a sparkie may like to do it their own particular way.
lostnomad, I do understand where you are coming from, and that is the pure reason why I would not physically connect any of the wiring together or to the mains. But I do believe if someone lay's their own cabling, and a sparkie makes all the connections, that the sparkie is solely responsible if anything is wrong. Its the same with an existing house, if a sparkie comes in to put in a new switch, he / she would not connect to a wire that isn't suitable (hopefully!).
Its harder to type what makes sense in my head! But thanks to everyone for their input.
Hi Bexs,you mentioned you had agood relationship with your sparkie.My sparkie can buy everything cheaper on his trade account than i can,believe me i tried.How i save money is working with him as his t/a running cables,covering cables with the plastic assembling fans under his instruction.He doesnot add any % to purchases and only charges an hourly rate for his time and is local ,so no travel fee.Works with my plumber and chippie too.good luck
You must be logged in to reply to this topic. If you don't have an account, you can register here.
