Electrical & HVAC

This week the electrical was completed after about 3 days of work. M&M did a very clean job with the runs between the breaker panels and the rooms. I did some extras like separate sub panels in the basement, 1 for the living areas and another in the pump room for the pool

As I thought in planning the circuits on paper months ago I ended up with a couple points in the home with 6-8 wall switches like at the front door. I hate anything over 3 switches so were looking into Lutron keypads possible using RadioRA equipment. We have a about a week before the sheet rock goes up to make a decision on that issue.

Rinehart has been working away for about 2weeks now running all the duct from the future Waterfurnace units to each room. Most of the problem with the slow going is trying to fit all the duct into the small chases and get to each room while keeping the duct sizing correct for airflow. So far we had to give up a couple square foot in a two closets and also install some vents in floors but its looking clean.

I’ll be running all the voice, data, audio & video cabling this weekend myself. Im going to over wire some of it base on future needs or changes such as an LCD tv on a porch for the pool area or some security needs.

We are about to make a choice on who will get the Foam insulation contract. Most companies have come back a second time to do the actual measurements and make some adjustments such as foaming a couple A/C ducts that did have to go into the attic and foaming a couple water lines over the garage area in addition to what the plumbers use.

Last I’m starting to interview the security companies for doors windows and a couple extra needs. I wont go into much detail about this subject tho.

Audio & Video. Since my background is strong in this area and I also know it gets pricey I’ll give the contractors a chance for bids tho I just talked to one and when he said hdmi cant run over 50′ and that component is digital HD my jaw dropped. Nothing worse than a Specialist who doesn’t know his business or what hardware is out on the market. I’m just going to do my own for sure now.

HVAC – Electric

Rinehart Services began work late last week on the air ducts. Its a slow process partly due to the fact the home is custom and we cut back on the size of the home which took some places away for chases. A couple small areas in closets will be framed up to hide ducts from the basement up to the main floor and some floor vents might have to be carefully located but things should work out by the end of the week. I worked in the heat over the weekend myself cutting out a 3″ drain line that blocked us from getting into the basements rec room with AC duct. Spent another 2hrs relocating the pipe myself and will have the plumbers check my work and glue it back together if it looks good to them. The extreme weather in the Fort Worth area isnt helping either. The top floor was 109′ and the basement was 101′ by mid later afternoon. It was nice to see the future wine cellar which is encased in concrete was only 88′. Im really feeling once the home is completed the basement will be very easy to control room temperatures without a lot of effort.

Electrical, Dean and I met a second time with Larry Foil who is the manager for M M Electrical Contractors Inc. last Friday. We talked about the plan and my request for installing sub panels in the basement and pool pump room. It looks like were going to bring in 400 amp service and supply the panels with 200 amps each.

Im having them install dedicated sub panels in the basement (pool pump room & main living) will mostly help with having the breakers local and not having to run upstairs for any electrical issues. Larry’s crew should show up later this week and wire up the main and top floors. I will wire up the basement myself mostly to save a little money and because I enjoy it. They will check my work before inspection.

Solar Power System, We are still looking at installing a 6KW Solar electric system on the south side of the home with the ability to expand its capacity at a later date. Texas took away our rebates some years ago, Im blaming the coal and natural gas sectors for that one, but were going to do it aways. Since nobody really installed solar electric in North Texas due to lack of interest and also the one of two quotes I got back was over $55K I’m going to do it myself for much less and have the electrician do the final connect. So far I have a good quote for the 6KW system with a battery option quoted and pending any other discounts I will list there name on the homes web site soon.