3 Room Resale For The Witch And Her Cat

[Luxexplorer 2]

Lazyfatcat, I have about 14 lights heheheh... dunno why so bright hor? For $100 / light conceal better buy the conduit on your own as I dont think it is so expensive. By the way, your WC area is as tiny as mine so now I am wondering if my toilet can fit in!

- What is the sealant for? I dont think my plasterer guys did that.

- Did you rebuidl your MBR entrance?

Edited December 18, 2015 by Luxexplorer

[Ks Toh 74]

So is conduit piping cheaper or more expensive than concealed wiring? O_o.

Concealed wiring means digging a tunnel along the wall, burying the wirings and cementing back the wall so that you see nothing. Conduit wiring means conveying the wiring in some exposed conduits. Concealed wiring will be significantly more expensive.

[Lazyfatcat007 5]

Yup, KS explained it totally...

So is conduit piping cheaper or more expensive than concealed wiring? O_o.

Concealed wiring means digging a tunnel along the wall, burying the wirings and cementing back the wall so that you see nothing. Conduit wiring means conveying the wiring in some exposed conduits. Concealed wiring will be significantly more expensive.

[Lazyfatcat007 5]

14??? Are you having a light house? Lol. Toilet bowl confirm can fit in lah..lol

Sealant is like base coat, makes it easier for further coats of paint. I changed my MBR entrance

Lazyfatcat, I have about 14 lights heheheh... dunno why so bright hor? For $100 / light conceal better buy the conduit on your own as I dont think it is so expensive. By the way, your WC area is as tiny as mine so now I am wondering if my toilet can fit in!

- What is the sealant for? I dont think my plasterer guys did that.

- Did you rebuidl your MBR entrance?

[nextstep 3]

I got total 18 I think lights, excluding table and floor lamp.

[Ks Toh 74]

Me and a techie staff at my sister's shops spent some weeks to troubleshoot the poor wifi signal issues with the singtel fiber broadband installed at the second floor of the shop house, after long ding-dong with singtel technical support over the phone and onsite troubleshooting (which is quite a joke coz all he did was do a speed test via wired connection using his laptop to the server situated in USA and I read that the server is paid by Singtel, and he cant advise me how to address the weak wifi issue when I asked him how to lay the fiber cables for another network pt). In the end I signed up another fiber broadband plan with Viewquest with the intention of terminating Singtel's broadband once the contract ends. With the information I gathered and the recommendation by Viewquest technical staff, I replaced the free singtel router with a highend asus router that worked for the two storey shophouse with many walls , and used my old airport express as an wifi extender at one corner.

The mistake made by many people is that when they find the internet connection on their wireless devices very slow, they think their internet service is not fast enough. So, they want to change their ISP, or upgrade from 100 Mbps to higher, up to 1 Gbps (1,024 Mbps). This is not the correct solution. In reality, you are likely getting very close to what you subscribed for, be it 100 Mbps or 300 Mbps. The problem is that you are getting this speed only at the point of entry to your house i.e your ISP supplied router. So when the ISP technician does a speed test at this point, he will get the maximum speed.

The moment you use WiFi, the speed will drop. If you are relying on the ISP supplied router, then it depends. In the past, the supplied routers were very bad. These days, they are not too bad. One solution is therefore to change this main router to a more powerful and faster router, which you did. However, please check with your ISP first because for some ISPs, this router is pre-configured for your network and you cannot change it.

The other solution is to use range extenders like what you did too with your Airport Express. However, if you are using it as a wireless range extender, the overall network speed will be affected, reportedly by about half. So, it is best to use it in wired mode, if possible.

To fully utilise your speed, and to future proof your home, the best way is to ensure that the connection all the way can support speeds of 1 Gbps and above. This means laying network cables to all rooms as far as possible, and leaving the WiFi to the last leg.

[Changbp 5]

Cat, here's my lighting plan. A lot of lights(30? Lost count) . I conceal all of them. Didn't really have time to update my blog but later on I will post pics of the tunneling and concealment.

Edited December 19, 2015 by Changbp

[sarah833 3]

Toh,

I am with you concerning the "higher broadband speed means faster connection" mentality. The broadband service providers are cashing on this "bedlinen thread count mindset" by seling customers higher speed broadband at a premium, supported by speed tests results they conducted with tiny small prints that most people overlooked or not able to comprehend. The truth is unless you access Singapore based contents with server situated locally, the speed rarely exceeds 100mbps (or much less Toh??) once you are connected to the world. My friends in Copenhagen and Amsterdam have broadband connection of 30-50 mbps and they are able to stream Netflix and YouTube contents smoothly. Given the choice I would rather stick to cable broadband as the cost of relocating fiber broadband service is quite High but starhub and singtel have packaged their fiber broadband plans more attractively than cable broadband plan. I switched to Viewquest from Starhub 1+ years ago mainly because I don't require cable TV service and I read that VQ doesn't do bandwidth throttling (streaming from China TV /movie sites was painfully slow on Other ISPs back then, and some reviews said torrenting and gaming speed is faster on VQ). I am sure the big brothers Singtel and Starhub have caught up since..

The apple airport express that I used as wifi signal extender is connected via wired connection

Edited December 19, 2015 by sarah833

[Luxexplorer 2]

I feel your pain and I think many people are in the same situation of not really knowing is the brightness sufficient so feels better to have more. Don't worry too much as the solution is just to get some gorgeous looking standing lamp etc. In my previous home, i overloaded too much and was so bright that in the end i have to remove bulbs from some of the downlights. Kiasu hahah

That said i have bought most lights either in Singapore or Malaysia therefore able to test the brightness before purchase, guess that is a plus point.

BTW, Nextstep's lightshop is bigger than mine..

Edited December 19, 2015 by Luxexplorer

[nextstep 3]

my whole house only using this kind of light except the service yard

[bykaraanne 30]

Tbh, I only used HDB supplied points (new BTO) for everything and it was more than bright enough. Most people overkill nowadays because LED is soooo bright.

Think of the electricity bill too!!

Actually Pinterest and angmoh homes a lot have trunking for their light wires also, just have to look closely. Unless it's those custom builds... The track might not bother you.

Also, concealed wires are not entirely legal in all circumstances. You can double check with hdb but I know of a friend who was accidentally checked by HDB and had to remove his concealed wiring for part of his living room and do an exposed track because it was apparently illegal.

I think 12 lights doesn't sound too crazy for yours

[Changbp 5]

i have too many lights. My ID say it will look like Xmas tree. Anyway I think trunking is also ok if u use the tiny ones. You can get the ikea trunking which is only about 1cm compared to the typical 1 inch type.

But u'll need a better way to secure it than the double side tape that it comes with.

[Lazyfatcat007 5]

Thanks everyone for hearing me rant.. now reviewing my light plan, worse to worse just get some floor lamps for those dark areas. Ya..read abt tunneling might be not legal. I don't think will do that too. Likely go with normal casings or use skirtings to conceal (skirting was not part of the plan).

Kitchen-wise, im looking at Ikea tracklights for hob area and shift the pendant light nearer utility room..

Edited December 19, 2015 by Lazyfatcat007

[ricepapergirl 21]

Haha thanks for everyone explaining! I figured concealed wiring would be more expensive than conduit wiring but I got confused because Lazyfatcat007's ID seemed to be offering concealed wiring as an alternative to conduit wiring because conduit wiring was considered too expensive. Anyway yes, concealed wiring is against the rules .

We will probably also end up with conduit lighting and no false ceiling for ours. I've been noticing that my parents' house has all conduit lighting and so does my parents-in-law's house but prior to thinking about renovation, I have never noticed it or thought it ugly! I think sometimes we think too much about perfection during the reno period and perhaps spend more money on things we might not have noticed at all a few months later. Sometimes just have to let it go!

[Ks Toh 74]

Toh,

I am with you concerning the "higher broadband speed means faster connection" mentality. The broadband service providers are cashing on this "bedlinen thread count mindset" by seling customers higher speed broadband at a premium, supported by speed tests results they conducted with tiny small prints that most people overlooked or not able to comprehend. The truth is unless you access Singapore based contents with server situated locally, the speed rarely exceeds 100mbps (or much less Toh??) once you are connected to the world. My friends in Copenhagen and Amsterdam have broadband connection of 30-50 mbps and they are able to stream Netflix and YouTube contents smoothly.

You are absolutely right. The connection is only as far as the slowest link. Singapore's broadband speed is now the fastest in the world. As at June 2015, Ookla ranked Singapore in first position at 118.8 Mbps. The global average is only 23.4 Mbps while the speed is 36.2 Mbps for the United States. In reality, you may be accessing the overseas website at speeds much less than 10 Mbps.