How To plan take offs for a new house
( the checklist before sheetrock is here: Checklist )
We design houses in three steps
A) light / switch loops - design of the wattage per room, the number of switches needed and lighting plan
B) 3-way flow overlay - how people move thru the house and plan 3-Way and optional smart controls
C) home run plan - recommend the budget for 96 watt per home run.
Lighting and Switch plan
Assign a unique name to each group of 4 or fewer lights - a ‘loop’
Markup the PDF with loops with lights, fans, ceiling fans and switches
Enter into the spreadsheet - the spreadsheet creates the total counts and costs
Break up larger rooms into 4 strings of 4 light on 1 switch, which will operate in Tandem mode with other switches to deliver 3-way controls all in sync
Decide on Smart ( AL-WS-DR2 ), local ( AL-WS-DR1 ) or simple ( Value: On/Off $0.75 switch )
Decide on CCT tunable vs fixed lighting
Decide on Motion detection.
Decide on Ceiling fans, and exhaust fans.
User flow plan and 3-Way switching
Audit 3-way requirements and show the 3-way needs by marking how people flow thru the house resulting in the location for each 3-way control.
Add AL-WS-M or AL-WS-8B as needed.
Home Run Plans per NEC code
Finally, we optimize the design to reduce the number of home runs, assign virtual 3-way, and multi button keypads.
for part a) here are the rules
- Lights are 6 watts for all models - except: Ceiling fan light is 12 watts, 24 inch Bath Vanity is 18 watts, 36 inch is 24 watts
- Lights are either fixed CCT ( lower cost, Value product line ) or tunable white (TW= Signature product line)
- Fan motors are either 12 watt exhaust or 24 watt ceiling
- Therefore, a switch loop is 1 switch, 4 TW or 8 Fixed lights or fans
- Light Switches ( 1 gang ) are either:
* On/Off simple with 48v type LEDs, no dimming
* Simple dimming with DR1, one channel of 4x 660mA LEDs and 51v supplies ( small projects) or 5x 660mA LEDs and 53v supplies ( Like Dustin )
* Smart dimming with DR2 and Fixed 660 mA LEDs - up to 10 ( Dustin Garage )
* Smart dimming with DR2 and CCT LEDs ( Dustin Living )
* multibutton pads
- Ceiling Fan motor control ( 1 gang ) are either:
* simple AL-WS-Carro
* smart AL-WS-010v
- Exhaust Fan motor control ( 1 gang ) are either:
* simple 120vac On/Off switch with 48v ATX Exhaust Fans
* smart AL-WS-M with 12v ATX Exhaust Fans
- target 45 sq ft per 6 watt light, 180 sq ft is one switch
- Three way switch is 1 gang ( stairs, halls, large rooms ) AL-WS-M or AL-WS-8B
- Rooms with more than one DR2 have multiple loops
- many loops can be combined into one functional large loop with unlimited number of lights, with the additional switches operating as 3-Way, using the DR2 and the Hub
- Undercabinet lights in the kitchen are 1.5 watts per ft
- 2 or 3 pendant lights are in the kitchen island or other places
- Vanity lights are in the bathrooms - 24 inch for dual sink, 24 or 36 inch for single sink
- Each entrance to a room or hallway or stair, has at least a Light on/off switch, if a room has more than one egress - then add a 3-Way switch for each egress
please see
https://atxled.wiki.zoho.com/public/N---Way---operation---modes.html
https://atxled.wiki.zoho.com/public/AL-WS-DR2-3-way-mode.html
after these calculations - mark up the PDF with a clear name for each room, and verify that light and switch locations
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