New Build - Heating/Ventilation/'Media Room' advice/thoughts

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guttix

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#207848 16-Jan-2017 16:50

Hello...looking for any advice/recommendations

building our first home...building rural, so going for a 'shed' type look. Coloursteel cladding, long skinny building. Gable end by the living is cedar cladding, same around the entry.

attached is where we are with the plans currently...2nd draft just switches location for fire/stacker doors, and the office (family room is shown wrong). The Living/Kitchen/Dining is open plan (no wall next to island now), with a cathedral ceiling...exposed rafters. 2.7m stud height, with a 30 degree roof pitch. Rest of the house is flat ceiling at the 2.7m stud.

Roof faces the north/northwest, the length of the building is roughly east/west

Some questions:

- we'd love a freestanding fire...does anyone have any experience with a fire in an open plan, cathedral ceiling area...is all my heat just going to bugger off to the roof??? Will a heat trans be best to get the heat around the house?

- Like the idea of a smart vent synergy system, but can't run ducting on the cathedral ceiling...again, do people think this will matter? Have attached their ideas.

- Have a small 'family room' on the plans, 4m x 4m. Is this big enough to have setup as a small home theatre, or am I pushing it

Plus...if you have any thoughts on the plans in general, good or bad, let me know.

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#1704326 16-Jan-2017 18:33

4m x 4m. Is this big enough to have setup as a small home theatre, or am I pushing it

My home theatre is 3.2 wide and 4 deep, and comfortably fits four people and a 105" screen. It's probably possible to cram more people in but I haven't had a need yet :)

Note that my screen is 2.39:1 aspect; a 1.78:1 one would probably feel a bit more cramped. You don't want it too close to the floor, after all.

mattwnz

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#1704329 16-Jan-2017 18:46

Is there a reason why your house is so long and skinny? Huge distance from the Garage to the kitchen to cart shopping bags down a very long skinny hallway. Also the hall is a lot of wasted space. Although that is often teh problem with long skinny homes, unless you have the open plan living and kitchen in the middle to break it up. If you create an L or H shape, you can create a nice outdoor sheltered courtyard and have more of the central hub in the home, and still get a shed like look. eg So the garage is more central, and you can distribute services from it, so you aren't running as long lengths of piping and wiring. Not sure if you need a mechanical ventilation system, especially as your rooms potentially have access to cross ventilation.

guttix

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#1704356 16-Jan-2017 20:01

Behodar:

4m x 4m. Is this big enough to have setup as a small home theatre, or am I pushing it

My home theatre is 3.2 wide and 4 deep, and comfortably fits four people and a 105" screen. It's probably possible to cram more people in but I haven't had a need yet :)

Note that my screen is 2.39:1 aspect; a 1.78:1 one would probably feel a bit more cramped. You don't want it too close to the floor, after all.

Can I ask how you have the room laid out...eg. where is the door, screen, and seating? Thanks

Behodar

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#1704363 16-Jan-2017 20:41

My drawing skills leave something to be desired, but here you go - four seats, screen, table and door.

Notably there are no windows in this room; the house is built into a hill and part of the room is technically underground. By chance it also had the widest uninterrupted wall in the house :) (the 4 m side walls are wider still, but then the proportions don't really work).

pipe60

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#1704370 16-Jan-2017 20:50

Which part of NZ(warm/cold etc)

What about underfloor heating fed off a HW heat pump or wet back.

Ceiling fans in each room.

blakamin

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#1704377 16-Jan-2017 21:02

Lived in a house nearly exactly (mirror image) like that in the early 90's but it was mudbrick and in Australia.

We had a fire in the middle of the lounge on a two foot high,5ft square brick base with the hood and flue about 6 feet above it.

Miss that place. Don't have any photos though.

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guttix

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#1704387 16-Jan-2017 21:37

pipe60:

Which part of NZ(warm/cold etc)

What about underfloor heating fed off a HW heat pump or wet back.

Ceiling fans in each room.

Live in the Wairarapa, so both hot and cold here (frosts through the winter, and can be 30+ during a decent summer)

Had a little look into underfloor, and radiators...think it was going to blow the budget out.

Someone else mentioned ceiling fans...are they still used? Would they look weird in a new build?

blakamin

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#1704412 16-Jan-2017 21:47

guttix:

Someone else mentioned ceiling fans...are they still used? Would they look weird in a new build?

How are you decorating? Be mad not to.

Sooo many options.

(Again,I live in a warmish part of oz, we even put ceiling fans outside)

darylblake

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#1704414 16-Jan-2017 21:51

You got a 36 meter long hallway. If I were a kid I would love this!

Nah in all seriousness that layout of the house with large external wall area means that it will cost a little bit more to insulate/heat, however it doesn't mean it will be a cold home by any means. A heat transfer that runs down the length of the house is a good bet, because not only is it useful in summer, its useful in winter too.

I am building a 2 story 238 Sqm place at the moment, its largely a square base and the second story is a rectangle which covers about 70% of the square. I literally spoke to the electricans on friday to design our lighting/electricals/network etc.

I don't have much in the way of ventilation, but the upstairs will get very hot, I have some heatpumps to suck the air out of the upstairs in the summer.

As for media room I would get these things called brush plates, you can get nice looking ones that match your power sockets etc, rather than wiring speakers and HDMI cables and all sorts of other nonsense into the walls. Get a brush plate at the bottom and one about 1.5m up behind a wall mounted TV. That way you shouldn't notice cables and they should sit nice. I am running dual or triple Cat5e jackpoints to each TV with some extras in our room and the study. You can power a LOT of devices over Cat5/6 now, things like cameras, phones, wireless access points, so it is worthwhile and tidy to get extras.

One thing you need to consider is the number of power sockets, its about $70 for a jackpoint and $76 for a double jackpoint. So i would get doubles everywhere, and in some cases add even more, multiboards are messy. Another way to reduce cable clutter is to get power jackpoint with USB ports I am getting those in each of the bedrooms.

pipe60

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#1704855 17-Jan-2017 18:41

guttix:

pipe60:

Which part of NZ(warm/cold etc)

What about underfloor heating fed off a HW heat pump or wet back.

Ceiling fans in each room.

Live in the Wairarapa, so both hot and cold here (frosts through the winter, and can be 30+ during a decent summer)

Had a little look into underfloor, and radiators...think it was going to blow the budget out.

Someone else mentioned ceiling fans...are they still used? Would they look weird in a new build?

Ceiling fans still a popular choice for modern house go DC if budget allows 2.7m stud is a good height.

Have you priced up underfloor for your house you can lay your own tubes to save money.

For a small home media room have a look at in wall/ceiling speakers to save room.

guttix

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#1704867 17-Jan-2017 19:11

darylblake:

As for media room I would get these things called brush plates, you can get nice looking ones that match your power sockets etc, rather than wiring speakers and HDMI cables and all sorts of other nonsense into the walls. Get a brush plate at the bottom and one about 1.5m up behind a wall mounted TV. That way you shouldn't notice cables and they should sit nice. I am running dual or triple Cat5e jackpoints to each TV with some extras in our room and the study. You can power a LOT of devices over Cat5/6 now, things like cameras, phones, wireless access points, so it is worthwhile and tidy to get extras.

So would you go wireless speakers for the sound?

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guttix

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#1704868 17-Jan-2017 19:12

pipe60:

Ceiling fans still a popular choice for modern house go DC if budget allows 2.7m stud is a good height.

Have you priced up underfloor for your house you can lay your own tubes to save money.

For a small home media room have a look at in wall/ceiling speakers to save room.

The costs added up with polishing the concrete, laying the underfloor, and having radiators as well...meeting with plumber agin on Friday so will have a chat again about it

neb

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#1705354 18-Jan-2017 16:41

mattwnz:
Is there a reason why your house is so long and skinny?

That was my immediate response as well. It's... well, it's a barracks.

mattwnz:
If you create an L or H shape, you can create a nice outdoor sheltered courtyard and have more of the central hub in the home,

A U shape is also nice, sheltered central courtyard with the north-facing side open to the sun. In the summer, the shortest route will be across the (hopefully sunny) courtyard.

neb

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#1705357 18-Jan-2017 16:45

darylblake:
You got a 36 meter long hallway. If I were a kid I would love this!

Pins at one end, bowl from the other.

darylblake:
One thing you need to consider is the number of power sockets, its about $70 for a jackpoint and $76 for a double jackpoint. So i would get doubles everywhere, and in some cases add even more, multiboards are messy. Another way to reduce cable clutter is to get power jackpoint with USB ports I am getting those in each of the bedrooms.

Or put in quads in places like the kitchen, living room, and office. You'll never have enough.

As for ones with built-in USB, I'd be very careful about those, both because they'll be out of sync with whatever the current power-over-USB trend is by the time you put them in, and because many are extremely dodgy: Can't provide the rated power, voltage drops if more than one port is loaded, live mains on the USB out (!!), etc.

neb

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#1705358 18-Jan-2017 16:46

guttix:
The costs added up with polishing the concrete, laying the underfloor, and having radiators as well...meeting with plumber agin on Friday so will have a chat again about it

Ah, so you're already into the build. OK, cancel the "change the floorplan" comments :-).

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