Domestic Electrical Installation

Put in lots of power sockets at least one twin pair at every corner and at least two ceiling lights in every room despite however many fancy concealed wall lights you may have.

Don,t worry about heavy cables to supply each of the power sockets most will only be used for low power devices .

Your local regulatory bodies would have the minimum requirements for your proposal.

As you could be anywhere in the world I'm unable to suggest what's suitable.

thanks for the response

just in case it may asist you in guiding me the more:

ui am in Nigeria, west africa

we are operating on 220v by 50Hz

regards

hello friend,

I didn't get u clearly

will u pls xplain abt ur job bit clearly

regards

It is somewhat unclear what part of the electrical design for this building you are expected to provide. In the US, you could not perform this task, as it must be accomplished by a licensed Professional Engineer if it is a commercial Architectural construction project, or by a registered Electrician if a Design-build in a municipality that requires that kind of code compliance, either of which would mean that you could not have design responsibility if you do not already know what you are doing.

If you are simply to provide advice to the design or oversight for the project, as your employers representive for instance, than any residential Do-It-Yourself manual will help you get the basics of what you should expect to see on the design and on the project.

One of the best inexpensive manuals for simple residential circuits is put out here in the US by Black & Decker, with obvious color photos of all typical situations and some discussion of issues that are code-compliance items here in the US. It's available on amazon.com/Complete-Guide-Home-Wiring-Information/dp/1589232135

This includes things like all panel circuit-breakers serving bedroom outlets must now be Arc-Fault Circuit Interupter type, and all outlets serving kitchen counters must be Ground-Fault Circuit interupting, either at the receptacle or at the breaker (your choice). It also has some good lighting design advice.

As for simple advice on how to 'set it up,' I would recommend the economy and ability to meter usage at each apartment, of running a 100A "Service Entry Cable" from a central meter stack location (or from a Main Distribution Panel if no sub-metering required) with a main breaker for each apartment there, and use a small 100A main-lug-only panel in each apartment.

Also recommend using a tankless water heater in each apartment.That way there's no big tank to keep hot at every flat so energy is saved, no extra floordrain required in the closet of every flat, and nobody ever runs out of hot water. Costs a bit more to install, but saves a LOT of money over the life of the building, whether they are gas-burning or electric two-stage type.

I'd require every center-of-the-room ceiling light outlet be a FAN-rated type back-box, so a ceiling fan could be installed at any suitable location without worry in the future.

Be sure to tie the smoke alarms together within each unit.

Go to mikeholt.com if you have any "how does the safe US electrical code handle this" questions.

Do not tank less water heaters put an excessive peak load on the power stations I believe some are rated at 8KW.

The tankless or instantaneous water heater can do exactly what Syhprum said and since they are all likely to be used simultaneously can add an enormously to the peak load of the building. I don't know if the electricity supply authority in Nigeria dose this but in Australia you can by electricity during periods of low demand for a discount of up to 80%. You can buy storage tanks that have two elements in them. The primary element heats up all the water in the tank and is set to run only during the off peak periods and at the reduced rate. The secondary element only heats 25% of the water in the tank and is run on the normal full price power but is only used if the tank runs out of hot water so you get the best of both worlds.

By using a system like this you are not only purchasing electricity at a greatly reduced rate but spread the load so that you don't have huge peaks when everybody gets up in the morning and wants to take a shower at the same time. You could drop your peak load by as much as 50% and possibly even more so its worth looking at for that reason alone.

What everybody else has said, particularly about local regulations, is absolutely correct. Normal safety earthing however is not generally good enough for a great deal of modern electronic equipment. The design of the earthing system is fraught with complex problems and has been discussed on several other threads her at CR4. If these apartments are to include modern electronic equipment like PC etc. then I suggest you read these threads as interference can be a difficult and expensive problem to solve post construction.