Switches & Plugs

One thing I think that really dates a house is your light switches and power outlets.  Often older houses have face plates that are a cream colour (like in our house).  Replacing all outlets and switches in a house is very time consuming nevermind about pretty expensive.  It is actually a lot easier than I expected as well.  Although if your nervous about it, its probably best to get an electrician to do it.  I’m not going to explain any how-to’s for electrical, as I’m not an electrician, and I don’t want to be held accountable (nevermind about the millions of tutorials done by actual electrians online).  Here is a great site for the DIY’er regarding electrical:   http://www.electrical-online.com. 

I just recently purchased a few dimmers from Lutron.  I bought a 3-Way dimmer set, and another remote IR dimmer (shown below).  I was looking for the 3-Way IR dimmer in Canada and couldn’t find it, although I found many websites in the US that carry them.  For those of you who don’t know was a 3-Way switch is, it is a switch that connect to another switch & your lights.  I went to go take a picture of the switches I put in, but I realised I haven’t finished putting them in – as they were put too close to the frame of the door so the face plates don’t fit properly.  Anyways here is a picture below:

Lutron IR Dimmer

 The dimmer above is great, although the switch plate that comes with the dimmer sticks out too far from the wall and I don’t think they look very nice, so I just replaced it with one of the standard white decor plates and it looks great.  Should the plate be too large (if the switch was put too close to the door trim – like it is in my house), you can use a belt sander to sand down the plate.  I recommend sanding over cutting, as you can round off the edge a little nicer and make it look like it hasn’t been cut.

Generally White or Black Decor light switches, dimmers, & outlets look a lot more modern.  Small things like this can really bring a room together.  The remote IR Dimmer is definetly a “Soup up my House” essential.  Everytime someone comes over I always get a kick out of this thing.  Also since it is IR you can setup your universal remote like I mentioned in this post to control it.

 The remote IR dimmer is just where it starts with light switches, you can get switches that are motion sensitive (perfect for in the hallway, laundry room, garage, or workshop).  I didn’t see one by Lutron but Leviton has a good one here http://www.leviton.com/OA_HTML/ibeCCtpSctDspRte.jsp?section=15983&minisite=10022.  Both Lutron & Leviton have wireless home automation systems, that can allow you to pull into your driveway and turn on the lights to the entire house with a single button.  Check out their websites, you’d be surprised what a really simple product can do in the big picture for your home.  There is even control systems to control your lights from your iPhone.

Other nice touch sensitive dimmers are a crowd pleaser as well.  This one here is pretty slick from Lutron as well: http://www.lutron.com/ltr4/home.asp

Should you have someone coming to do some electrical work on your house, it if very important that they follow your local electrical code.  Some tips & things to watch out for are:

• Maximum number of devices per breaker.
• Cannot Run Low & High Voltage through same holes in walls.  What I mean by this is that if you drill a hole into the wall to run your electrical through, you can’t run cables like cat5 (network), speaker, or phone line through.  The reason for this is that the high voltage cables can interfere with your low voltage cables.  This can cause static through the lines.
• All electrical cable should be in the wall, you shouldn’t have it behind baseboard, or crown moulding.
• Make sure things are properly grounded.  Even for satellite, if it isn’t grounded it can cause signal loss.
• Make sure the right wire gauge is used.  For 15 AMPs you should use 14 Guage or lower.  For 20 Amps you should be using 12 Guage.
• When using wire staples, make sure the wire is still pretty loose within the staple.  You don’t want your wires pinched.
• You have to use your manufacturer’s breakers for your electrical panel.  I have a GE (General Electric) panel, and I noticed there was a couple Siemens breakers in there.  Apparently it is against electrical code to do this, and should there be an electrical fire because of this (whomever put the breakers in could be held liable).

Anyways I’m not an electrician, and these are just a few things I picked up from my brother in law who installed some potlights for me.  I was surprised at how simple it actually was.  I didn’t do it myself as I’m not fully comfortable with the electrical panel, so if you don’t know what your doing sometimes it’s best to spend the extra money to have someone else do it.

I just focused on the brands Lutron & Levitron since that is what is readily available in Canada where I am.  If you’ve seen some pretty innovative switches of some other companies let me know as I’m always looking for new things.