With the hot Ottawa housing market, you may be opting to put your money into renovating your home as opposed to entering into a bidding war and paying thousands above an asking price. Since electricity is a crucial component to living in your home, making bad electrical choices can be detrimental to the outcome of your renovations.
Experienced and reliable electrical contractors are recommended to help the planning for your home renovation. It will save you time, money and a lot of headaches. It is important to take your time and fully understand the implications of your electrical decisions. It can take a lot of time and planning to truly ensure that your lighting and electrical considerations are fault free.
We have compiled a list of lighting and electrical considerations before you renovate your home.
1. Understand your home’s electrical load capacity
If you have an older home that you are renovating, you will need to check to make sure that your current electrical panel can handle the newer appliances electrical load. Make sure that the added extra pressure of your electrical usage is handled properly. Consider whether or not you will need to upgrade your electrical service.
2. Placing Power Points in Advance
Ensure that you are compliant with electrical codes by considering where to place your power points before you begin your home renovation. It is surprising how many people don’t consider it. As the old saying goes, “safety first”. Ensure that you think through the placements for power and consider things like where you would work in your home with your laptop, where you will place things like Christmas trees, kitchen appliances and more.
3. Use a Licensed Electrical Contractor to mitigate financial risks
An electrical permit is usually required for most renovations that are not minor alterations or repair. Using a licensed electrician that is insured and enrolled in Workers’ compensation will save you from being held financially responsible if a worker is hurt while working on your home. Stay safeguarded from unnecessary financial risk by ensuring you are properly covered by the contractor or electrician working on your renovation.
4. Don’t over light
One of the most common mistakes that home owners make during renovations is overlighting. Begin with understanding the use of each room before purchasing light fixtures. Choose light fixtures that match the home interior design and decor but also fit its purpose. Overlighting can both add unneeded brightness and be expensive. Adding dimmers to your interior lighting is advisable. You should also consider which colour tint and type of light bulb is used in your fixtures to ensure the look and design fits your original purpose.
5. Don’t always use conventional or outdated lighting
Changing the way you light your house will give it a new look! Don’t be dissatisfied with your renovations due to the lack of lighting options that you installed. There are a number of different lighting options available to you in the market today and staying on top of lighting trends will pay huge dividends in the final outcome of your renovation. Even if you moved into a new home recently, changing out your builder grade lighting will make huge improvements to how the interior of your home feels.
6. Install Motion Sensor Lighting
Motion sensor lights have drastically increased in popularity as it is a relatively inexpensive and convenient way to light a space easily without having to search for a switch. Both indoor and outdoor lighting can benefit from motion sensors.
7. The switches
It is important nowadays to consider the type of switch used for your lights. There are a number of modern options that will help keep your switches from looking old and boring. There are also a number of personalized options that you can get to make sure you know the correct switch if you have a bunch of them together.
8. Fit electricity and lighting into your budget considerations
Renovations can often go over budget. One of the major reasons is that people do not factor in their electrical considerations in advance. Having to change plans midway through a renovation once you realize that you didn’t consider something can be costly and add additional time needed to rewire or fix issues that could have been prevented in advance.
