House wiring Part I : Introduction and Cost

Last Sunday, I planned to install a study lamp and also add a couple of wall power plug in my daughter’s room by myself. It’s already been 2 years since I did the house wiring but luckily I still have my unpublished and unfinished blog note left forgotten inside my old dying external hard disk. So, here the blog note (edited for current writing).

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2 years ago, I moved to a new house. Like other new developed house, the developer provides only basic wiring without any electrical equipment such as ceiling fan and light. With only 2 fan point and only a few power point, the house need a lot of wiring.

To calculate the total damage if I hire an electrician to do the work, I asked 4 electricians to quote their price:

2009 price

	Price	Note
Power Point	RM70 to RM80 per point. (price for conceal wiring)	For each additional power point, need to add RM10 to RM15
Water Heater	RM120	Not includes water heater installation, just the wiring
Air-Cond	RM150
Normal lamp wiring	RM40	This is normal wiring where they just loop from another existing fan or lamp wiring. Add RM5 for light installation.
Ceiling Fan	RM40-RM50	Add RM15 for fan installation. Fan hook cost RM5
Exhaust fan (kitchen)	RM70 with installation

Empty wall

From the quoted price, the total price for complete wiring of my single storey house will be almost RM2,000. This is the total price for several new power plugs, new fan and light points and also installing the electrical equipments. The price doesn't include electrical equipment.

So, with very tight budget I decided to do most of the wiring with a guide from a friendly electrician.

Above price list doesn't include down light point because I don't plan to install any. But from my survey, the price per point is around RM35 - RM50 not include hole drilling and fitting light. Mostly add RM5 to fit the light bulb.

Before we proceed, please note that:

1. This is only for information purpose. I am not a certified electrician so seek your respected electrician for any electrical work. I done all the wiring with a guide from an electrician.
   
2. I don't know the exact term for certain items, so I use which ever I think best suit based on my understanding.
   
3. Please cut off the electricity at the Circuit Breaker (CB) in the Breaker Box before you do any wiring.
4. This is only applicable for single phase not 3-phase wiring which I don't have any clue about it.
   

My DIY steel cabinet

Last Saturday (a week before school holiday), I was planning to tidy up my store room. Just for preparedness for school holiday. My relative might come to visit us.

Actually this room is a normal bedroom. But lots of things from my single life to my wedding gifts (glasswares etc.) to my old Lerun mountainbike were scattered on the floor until I can't enter the room. No more empty space! Even if I tidy up the room, it still a mess.

Fixed cabinet is not an option because it costly and I'm not the owner of the house (yeah.. this is a rent house). So I decide to make a steel cabinet. Easy to assemble, disassemble and reassemble for my new house (when I get one).

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My first draft

The room has 10 fts wide and 10 fts high. So I decide to have 8 fts high cabinet with total of 5 compartments including bottom (floor) and top. The width is fixed to 2fts and length is 4~5 feet. My budget was only RM200.

I use the 4fts X 2fts X 8fts dimension for minimizing the cost. After calculating all possible dimension plus to maximizing the use of all 10fts steel angle, I found that this is the best solution.

I need to buy only 8 pieces of steels. From the draft picture, I need 4 X 8fts, 8 X 4fts and 8 X 2fts of angle steel. 4 pieces will be cut into 8fts and 2fts and another 4 will be cut into 4fts, 4fts and 2fts. So, if you calculate, I get all the steel I need.

For the plywood, I need only one 8fts X 4fts plywood and cut into 4 parts.

Actually I am planning to build 2 cabinets with total length of 8fts but as this is my first time making a steel cabinet, I sticked to only one cabinet. This is a trial and error project.

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Tools

a. 10fts angle steel
b. Hand socket (1/2)
c. Spanar (Drive) No. 13
d. Nut and bolts (1/2)
e. Washer (optional)
f. Steel step ladder

(p/s: I'm not a tool man so please correct me with the name of the tools)

Cost

I surveyed a few hardware shops.

Items	1st Shop	2nd Shop	3rd Shop	4th Shop
10fts Angle Steel (Large)	RM18	RM20	RM19	RM20
Plywood	RM42	RM42	RM43	RM44
Cutting Service (Steel)	none	Free	RM1/cut	none
Cutting Service (Plywood)	none	RM6	RM10	RM5
Nut and bolts	-	RM4 for 20 pieces	-	-

This is the comparison of price among hardware shop near my house. I summarize into only 4 shop. I don't know the cheapest price for all the items but with limited choice, I had to accept want they offered.

The price of plywood is almost the same with all shop but the cutting services may differ. So the cutting service must be add to the total cost for a plywood. Be aware that some small shops don't have the service.

After a small talk with some of the shop owner they all said that the price of steel increase RM2~RM4. Last time, the price of 10fts Angel Steel is only RM17~RM18 for large angle steel, and RM15 for small.

For angle steel, not all shop have the cutting service. From all the shop I surveyed, only 2 have the cutting tool and other asked me to wait (they send to other shop to cut) or asked me to cut at other shop (surely I will not buy from this shop). Actually the cutting tool is so simple and small, I wonder why not all shop have it?

So at the end I picked shop number 2 because of it free cutting service and luckily the nearest.

Total cost

1. 10 X 10fts angle steel --> RM20 X 8 = RM160
2. 1 X plywood + cutting = RM48
3. Nuts and bolts --> RM4 X 2 packets = RM8

Total --> RM216

RM16 more than my budget.

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The set up

The set up is very easy but take time. I start cleaning up my store room at 11:00 pm and finish set up and tidy up at 2 a.m. May be if only setting up the steel cabinet will only take less than an hour.

Finish products

The finish products. Just ignore the old curtain behind :).

As a reminder, when buying the angle steel please ask the cutter to cut a bit for both ends of 4fts and 2fts steel. If not, you have problem when assembling the cabinet. This happen to me, and it give me really a hard time hammering the steel to fit into place.