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HOW DO YOU GET POWER INTO THE GARDEN?

House planning: the dream of owning your own home

Planning the project takes a lot of time and involves a lot of decisions. You probably know the feeling: at last the time has come, the dream of owning your own home is finally within your grasp and you're already in the middle of planning. But the dream of home ownership first and foremost involves a lot of important decisions. What floor plan best suits your needs? Do you want a basement or would you prefer an addition to the garage? What heating system is the best choice and is a solar power system even worth it?

Decisions about decisions....

Financing

Before starting to plan your future home, it goes without saying that the financing must be sorted out first. Who is the right financing partner – your own bank or maybe the online alternative? How should the loan facility be constructed and what loan period makes sense?

Looking for a site

Are there even free sites in the area where you want to live in the future? What is the lay of the land when it comes to the development areas and what are the specific land-use regulations here like?

Layout design

The possibilities for the layout design are almost limitless. Do you see yourself with an open dining/living area or would you prefer to have the kitchen separate? How big do you want the bedroom to be, and is there a separate dressing room or would you prefer an additional utility room?

Prefabricated house or solid construction

What type of design do you prefer? Solid stone on stone or would you prefer a prefabricated house with a wood frame construction?

Type of heating

With the new German Building Energy Act, the successor to the German Energy Saving Ordinance, there are very clear regulations for the heating systems in new buildings and existing buildings. It makes no difference whether pellet, gas, thermal heat pump or a combination, as long as the requirements are met. Of course it's also a matter of taste whether you prefer underfloor heating or conventional wall-mounted radiators in your living room.

Roof shape

When you think of your dream house, what roof shape do you see? A classic gabled roof or would you prefer a hipped, monopitch or flat roof? Or perhaps there are guidelines in your specific land-use area?

Roof tiles

There are infinite shapes and colours even for roof tiles. Perhaps the colour of the roof tiles should match the windows and the doors, but there may also be regulations in the specific land-use area.

Flooring

You're spoilt for choice when it comes to the flooring too: laminate, vinyl, parquet or maybe tiles? Is the floor also free from harmful substances, moisture resistant, suitable for house pets and also for underfloor heating? Should the same flooring be laid throughout the house, or would you like to vary it by room?

Outdoor facilities

Perhaps you've always wanted a pool in your garden, a space for mobile working in the summer, a robotic lawn mower or maybe you would prefer a beautifully mature garden with the right ambient lighting? In any case, you'll need an EV charging station in the driveway and what about an outdoor socket for the Christmas lights?

And the planning of the outdoor facilities?

After all the decisions you already had to make when building a house, planning and designing the outdoor facilities usually doesn't happen until the house build has already been completed. However, this approach means that both "projects" are planned independently of each other. We want to show why it's an advantage to think ahead to the future garden when planning the building – before the building is put up and the slab is poured. Planning the building services outlet at the right time also gives you complete freedom later when designing your outdoor facilities and keeps all the options open to you.

Electric vehicle charging station

Almost every seventh new car in 2020 was electric. In the next ten years, the number of electric cars is set to increase from around 200,000 at the moment to 10 million, and the number of public charging points from around 20,000 to 1 million. The German Building Electric Mobility Infrastructure Act adopted in March 2021 prescribes the consideration of a charging and power infrastructure only for apartment blocks with more than five parking spaces, but even for an ordinary house it certainly makes sense to provide sufficient charging points for vehicles.

Lighting

It doesn't matter whether the Christmas lights that decorate the driveway or front garden every year, permanently installed path lights or ambient lighting, light is a powerful design tool that plays an important role not only in the house.

Electric bike charging station

A family outing at the weekend or even the daily commute to work, no matter how you use your electric bike in everyday life, a charging station with enough sockets for all the family is an absolute must-have.

Thermal heat pump

Did you know that the percentage of thermal heat pumps in new builds is now more than 40%? And yet, a building services outlet is an area where people often decide to economise these days. In most cases it's also just two small copper pipes and a small cable, that need to be reliably run from the building to the outside.

WiFi antenna

If Covid-19 has taught us anything, it’s that home schooling and mobile working are no longer future aspirations. And who says that your workspace has to be in the house and that you can't sometimes duck out to the patio? However, for this the WiFi connection must be stable enough in the garden too.

Lawn mower

Robotic lawn mowers in the garden are long since as commonplace as robotic vacuum mops in the house. Of course they need a charging station too.

Power column

The chain of lights for the garden party, the leaf blower, the hedge trimmer, the notebook for the mobile office or even the projector for the Champions League final. Be prepared for everything.

Security systems

Again and again you hear about a rash of break-ins. Against this background, an additional security camera in the driveway or in the garden beside the well hidden rear entrance definitely makes sense. However, security systems also need power and possibly even a LAN connection.

Water

The sound of water lapping is known to have a calming effect. And who doesn't like to cool off in the height of summer by having a dip or swim a few lengths in the morning to get the circulation going. Whether a fountain, garden pond or pool, all of them require a pump to operate.

The solution with the new building services outlet ETGAR – Energy to Garden

Step 1: Your building's slab

ETGAR is installed in the utility room, very close to the electrical (main) or subdistributor and is cast in the concrete when the slab for your building is being poured. Flexible empty conduits run from this building services outlet under the slab in all directions of the future garden site.

The ETGAR building package of course covers all the important legal requirements like the protection of buildings from moisture and radon.

From this point on, you have complete flexibility in how you proceed with planning your garden.

Einbau des ETGAR Bauherrenpaketes während der Rohbauphase

Verlängerung und Ausbau nach Hausfertigstellung

Step 2: Extension and expansion after the house is finished

Once the house is finished, at some stage attention turns to designing the outside. Now you can simply extend the access points installed during the build phase and run them to where you want them, branch them again or simply leave them blind sealed to be able to use the access at some future point.