Electrical and Gas questions for new home build
heberling_ryan
5 years ago
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heberling_ryan
5 years agoJeffrey R. Grenz, General Contractor
5 years agoRelated Discussions
Builded a new house and gas meter hasn't changed
Comments (4)Hehehe. Let me share a story with you. :o) We sold our other house & moved into this one the first week of December. I had called the gas company and told them that we would like to discontinue our service at the old house and have it transfered to the new one on the 5th. No problem! I got a VERY large bill the first week of February that had been forwarded through the mail from the old house. We had not received a bill at this house, so I figured it was the final bill for service at the old house and the 2 months we'd been in this house. Wrote a check and popped it in the mail. Done. :o) 2 weeks ago a very nice gentleman from Atlanta Gas Light pulled up in the driveway and told DH that he was here to shut off our gas. WHAT??? We explained that it was new construction and we'd never received a bill at this address. He pulled it up on the computer and found our address, but no service listed. Huh? Came inside and called our gas provider (Georgia Natural Gas) to find out what was going on. They had closed at 5:00...it was 5:15. The very nice gentleman told us that he would leave the gas on for 24 hrs so that we could get in touch with GNG the next morning. 7:00 AM I called GNG and found that they had turned on the service at the new house, but never set up our account. Brilliant! We got the account set up and she got AGL on a conference call, told them that the problem had been fixed and not to send the guy out for shut off. Within one hour a sneaky AGL guy crept up the side of our house and shut it off. *sigh* DH jumped in the truck to try to catch him & let him know what was going on. Sneaky AGL guy is now terrified and won't pull over for big, scary guy in the truck honking like a madman. I can't imagine why. LOL Called GNG back. She got AGL on the line to find out what was going on. They couldn't get the message to the tech fast enough. OK...we know he's right down the street. Should be easy to get him back over here, right? WRONG. They can't get anybody out until the next day. Can't say that I blame sneaky guy for not wanting to come back. We have electric heat, so we didn't have to worry about getting chilly, but my stove & dryer are gas. I couldn't cook or do laundry for 24 hours. Not such a bad thing! :o) The moral of the story is call your provider and find out what's going on!!! Come to think of it I still haven't received a bill.......See MoreHVAC questions for new home build in Central Texas
Comments (10)Waste..... Foaming the walls is a waste. Go to any green building forum and it is almost universally felt that foaming walls is a waste of money. The foam salesmen are about the only ones that disagree. In my east facing house with 2x4 fiberglass batts, the walls and attic only account for 20% of total heat gain (energy audit). You are going to spend $10k to make that 20% come down to 15%. I have a similar size house in NC and I spent about $20k on Carrier Infinity 15/16 with heat pumps and 90% NG furnace and zoning and humidifier. So I think the $36k is absolutely crap. But $11k is a bit ridiculous also given the specs. In fact- I just can't believe it. Manual J is required in NC by code - so I don't know what to tell you. It is standard around here for quotes/bids. Oversizing sucks. 2 stage helps compensate. An is an air quality thing more than anything else. It is rarely cost effective. Texas is big - what is your area and ideally what is your HDD and CDD? Here is what I would do - presuming you live in a 90% cooling area. - Build with 2x4s and sheath the house in 1 inch rigid foam. If it really hot, you could go to 2 inches of foam. - Focus on minimizing East and West windows. If you can't - then really focus on low SHGC windows. All windows are low-e nowadays but SHGCs vary considerably - there are basic windows at .2 and .45 - a rather huge difference. Overhang the windows as much as you can tolerate. Big deep porches. Do those things and you should be able to get down to 2 2ton units which you should be able to get for $10k for seer 15 or 16. Most people don't find it worthwhile to get seer 18 equipment. Usually with new construction, you can spend that $5k (or whatever) on shell improvements (windows, overhangs) and get a better permanent ROI. There is no disagreement anywhere that 2inches of rigid foam on a 2x4 wall filled with blown cellulose outperforms a 2x6 wall with spray foam (and does so at a lower cost). Lastly - why an unvented attic? Because the ductwork is there? The best practice is to get the ductwork out of the attic in the first place. It is cheaper and far more cost effective. My personal house (4000+basement) would cost $10k to spray foam the attic at a estimated annual savings of.... $70. How about that ROI.......See MoreBuilding new house - Electric questions
Comments (7)"A better time to go over things is when the house is framed." I agree. Ask them to do a walk through with you when the house is framed. What we do is a full walk through, room by room. Make sure you think about anything and everything you might want. Outlets in your soffits for Christmas lights, under cabinet lights, over cabinet lights, where you want switches, outlets for all your TV's, how many cans you want, how you want them layed out, anything you might want outside, anything special you want in the garage, etc... Try to have as much information as possible too just in case your general contractor doesn't, like your cabinet lay out, vanity heights, if your jetted tub has a heater, etc... If you have a good electrician they will ask questions and give suggestions. If you're having someone do all your low voltage (TV, phone, network, etc...) make sure they and the electrician are on the same page also. Having them wire for a TV, but not having a outlet close by for it, can be an expensive fix. Pretty much they can wire for anything in the world you think you might want, hell we've even wired heated toilets that spray perfume and dry you off after you've done your business. But make sure you take the time to think about everything you want. Every change you add = extra $$$ and it adds up quick....See MoreElectrical work concern regrading licence - new build - New York State
Comments (17)Licensing and competence are two different, largely unrelated, things. Folks on this forum talk about contractors licenses as though they are some kind of magic bullet that guarantees properly done work. T'ain't so. House wiring, except in unusual circumstances, isn't rocket surgery. The code is reasonably clear, it doesn't take long to read the parts related to house wiring. Read it and then look and see if it's being followed. If you pay attention to box fill, support of the wires, grounding, how the connections are made, and correct use of AFCI/GFI circuits you'll cover most of the likely errors. There seems to be a correlation between neatness of the work and the likelihood that it's been done right. It irks the heck out of me to pay a licensed hack to do work badly when I know I can do better myself. (I've pulled my own permits in other jurisdictions where that's allowed and have gotten only compliments on the work from sometimes very skeptical inspectors.) In our state work can be done "under the supervision" of a licensed electrician, which means that most of the electrical contractors have one or two licensed guys and 20 people of unknown competence actually pulling the wires and making the connections. The licensed guy doesn't need to be on site to "supervise". Our previous (brand new) house had a half dozen readily visible code violations installed by a licensed electrician (or under his supervision). He was a buddy of the inspector, so the inspector didn't need to actually look at the work it seems....See MoreDavid Cary
5 years agoGN Builders L.L.C
5 years agomike_home
5 years agoheberling_ryan
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5 years agoRon Natalie
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5 years agoheberling_ryan
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