By Before The Architect  Copyright 2002, 2003, 2007 Before The Architect

Scrupulously respect your clients.  This is not a herald to kiss butt.  This is to get you pointed in their direction, to pay attention to what you're doing by first paying attention to what they're doing.  Before The Architect

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INTRODUCTION

            This e-article is about home electrical plan design and home lighting plan design in designer home plans  

Comment:  Before The Architect designs a home electrical plan along with a home lighting plan for each level of each custom home the firm works.  The electrical plan is detailed and complex for a residential design and construction plan and the lighting plan control has no equal – not even close – it's one-of-a-kind.  Most electrical & lighting plans for a home are bare-bones electrical plans – no Lighting, except for the occasional genuflection to a sconce – and, even thusly limited, are, in this custom home designer's opinion, the minimum to let an electrician get ‘er done his way, while short on safety, durability, and convenience. 

ELECTRICAL & LIGHTING PLAN

A Home Electrical & Lighting Plan is intended:  to take electrical and lighting design out of the hands of electricians and To guide the work of suppliers ; to guide not only the nature and character of high-voltage outlets, but also their control, especially in terms of the amount and kinds of illuminance available to occupants on a per-space basis; to involve the Electrical & Lighting Plan in intense thoughtfulness even to include a sense of vicarious contemplation; to surface area-dependence in several key aspects of the Electrical & Lighting Plan, including but not limited to Ceiling Fan Schedule, Bathroom Exhaust Fan Schedule, Nightlighting Schedule; Daylighting Schedule; and Light Flutter/Downlighting Schedule 

A Home Electrical & Lighting Plan is based on floor plans that stop moving around so much detail of circuits and devices is oh so troublesome to keep ooching this way and that – time, money, temperament about going backwards again and again, dramatically increased opportunity to screw it up

Electrical & Lighting Plan, Scaled 

 KEY:

 A = (NIGHT)LIGHTING SCHEDULE.

B = ELECTRICAL & LIGHTING PLAN LAYOUT 

C = BATHROOM EXHAUST FAN SCHEDULE.

D = CEILING FAN SCHEDULE.      

E = MANUFACTURER-SUPPLIED DETAIL OF EXTERIOR SCONCES 

F = MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 

G = GUIDANCE TO CONTRACTORS AND OTHERS REGARDING THE AUTHORITY OF THIS PLAN SHEET AND THEIR RESPONSIBILITY THERETO IN ITS RESPECT. 

H = CONSTRUCTION NOTES IN APPLICATION 

I = LEGEND 

J = KEY 

K = DAYLIGHTING ANALYSIS.

Comment:  For home designer reference, common bed widths follow –  

Bed type         Width

Single              30 linear inches

Twin                39 linear inches

Standard

Double/Full     54 linear inches

Queen              60 linear inches

King                72 linear inches

California/

Western King  78 linear inches 

Electrical & Lighting Plan Example, Up Close On The Layout

KEY:

Please note that most of the text below is identified by cross-reference to both notes and keys and legends and schedules on the Electrical & Lighting plan sheet.  Additionally, as needed, there may be extensive, sometimes extra-extensive, text guidelining electrical and lighting standards of materials and methods. (For example, in the custom home plan set from which this article's images are drawn, Electrical & Lighting Standards' text ran to 3,092 words tightly written in outline format.)

A = wall switch, 3-way with dimmer, set at default height of 40 linear inches above finish floor level, noting circuit line-drawn to other 3-way switch. 

B = duplex receptacle default amps/volts of 20a/120v specifically identified to set 42 linear inches over finish floor.  Note that insufficient space on the drawing to site this device exactly is addressed by offsetting its symbolization with a line drawn to the intended site of application. Also note that each lavatory gets its own duplex receptacle and each receptacle is on a home run, or hr, meaning a circuit is solely dedicated thereat. 

C = the lavatories' 760 lumens as "t" for task lighting, established in the nightlighting schedule.  Please note that the lighting design standard hereunder for task lighting is lies in quality of illuminance.  For task, consider breaking the color correlated color temperature, or CCT, prescription to the slightly higher side of 3000k and the color rendering index, or CRI, to the lower side of 90, even of 80, for work areas.  Ambient lighting - branches not label with a "t" - should vary the other side of those prescripts. 

D = wall-mounted sconces spaced 2'-6" either side of the vanity centerline and, thereby, centering each lavatory between a pair, set 65 linear inches above finish floor, on the 3-way switch branch in a above and the lumens of which are included in c above. 

E = bath exhaust fan identified on a 3 way, non-dimmer switch branch and centered on a line from vanity corner to bath corner and from bog/tub diagonal corner-to-corner, further identified in bath exhaust fan schedule b for capacity and suggested make and model for consideration or for similar. 

F & G = radon riser pipe 5 and sanitary DWV a, identified in the electrical & lighting plan to alert electrical installers to be extra careful thereabouts in piercing wall planes. 

H = smoke alarms, notably, shall be applied according to manufacturer instruction in each sleeping room, outside each sleeping room passage door; shall be permanently connected to each other overall such that when one or more alarm, all alarm throughout the entire house; shall run on both permanent 120v and replaceable battery; each shall feature a combination of ionization and photoelectric sensors; shall not disconnect by wall switch; shall have as its overcurrent protection, or circuit breaker, a device specifically identified as capable to have two circuits landed where the other circuit landed shall be to a frequently used lighting application and where the alarm branch load shall be before any switch. Note well that there are three pairs showing on this excerpt, two pair each flanking beds and the shared bath, and one pair between lower bed and guest hall.  (Additionally, not shown is another pair between upper bed and guest hall.) 

I = ceiling fan identified as 52 linear inches in diameter and further identified in ceiling fan schedule c on the same sheet as to capacity and mounting distance from finish ceiling height, separately switched for fan and light pack whether or not the latter is initially applied, set on a centerline diagonally corner-to-corner.  Note well that the ceiling fan is on its own circuit in order to minimize harmonic distortion thereabouts. 

J = the ceiling area identified by hatch pattern and dimensions from finish wall in which downlights may be set without interference from ceiling fan blade illumination interruption, or light flutter. 

K = pressure switch to bed 2 closet out of view. 

L = spacing for duplex receptacles either side of queen-sized bed, ground fault interrupter-protected by force of their proximity to operable windows, set at a 16 linear inch default over finish floor. 

M & N = vaporproof luminaire over tub on centerline on tub's diagonal corners on single-pole, non-dimmer switch, to be included in the 2730 tasked lumens for the bog/tub area. 

O = the centerlining to site the ceiling exhaust fan referenced in e above. 

P = duplex receptacle at default height and each dedicated, the purpose for which is to operate electronic equipment each grouping isolated to its own circuit. 

Q = duplex receptacles sited at default height above finish floor and either side of passage door at not greater than 6 linear feet from door's jamb legs, including closed closet doors as wall surrogate.  note, too, that the receptacle in bed 2 to left of bed 2-bath passage is mighty close to being set behind the single-swing door between bed 2 and guest hall.  depending on the specific competence and overall understanding of local building authorities having jurisdiction, such site, that is, of a receptacle behind an open door, may be (and should be, in this designer's opinion,) be waived as patently unsafe.

R = lighted switches to control lighting along paths from (any) bedroom to nearest bath and (nearest) kitchen - standard safety ops for BTA Electrical & Lighting Plan layout.

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