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Things you wish you knew before building


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Love my induction.  My mother in law recommended one when we reno'd the kitchen as the kids would have to make a real effort to burn the house down with it.  I have no issues with burning at all - you do need decent heavy-bottomed pans though, and pans with a large indent for a name brand can cause them to get hotspots and shut down. 

The one thing I wish I realised before doing the reno is that the prettiest stone surfaces aren't necessarily the best choice.  I pretty much clad the entire kitchen in stone and selected a very nice looking surface which unfortunately is very soft and gets damaged easily.  

Edited by Eera
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11 hours ago, newjez said:

Are you having a range? You do get more to choose from for 1000mm, but it's whether you can fit it in. Our last house had 900mm, and we couldn't find a decent one to replace it with, (not one that was on sale anyway), so we got it fixed, which worked out ok actually.

Gas/electric does give you options if you have a blackout. I find it easier to see what's happening with gas.

No not a range. We can only fit 900mm in the space and I've already shaved a bit off the pantry to fit it in. 

I prefer a gas cook top. Just what you get used to I guess. 

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You should try induction. They also look good, just a flat piece of glass on the bench top , a breeze to wipe clean.  If anything boils over the switch off and you can clean it straight away as it cools very quickly.  They can’t be switched on without a pan on them, easy to control and can have sections that will take a variety of sizes of pans.  I always preferred gas and hated electric/ceramic hobs but induction are so different. 

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  • 5 weeks later...

I wish I'd known about Solar Hot Water. We've got one of the most efficient gas boilers - but solar would have been better. We didn't have solar panels and battery from the start (I'm not even sure a battery could have been bought at a sensible price back then) but now that we have them I'd prefer induction hobs rather than gas because why are we paying for gas when electricity is free?

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We bought a place last year, and within weeks of moving in, the gas boiler died, the shower mixer broke, the electric oven caught fire and a lot more stuff went wrong. So we have done some sort of reno.

We installed a 10kW solar system, an induction free-standing hob/oven, as well as a heat pump hot water system.

In hindsight, a simple 3kW hot water heater would have sufficed instead of a heat pump, as I time the water to be heated up during solar production hours.

Edited by DukeNinja
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On 04/06/2021 at 09:56, Ken said:

I wish I'd known about Solar Hot Water. We've got one of the most efficient gas boilers - but solar would have been better. We didn't have solar panels and battery from the start (I'm not even sure a battery could have been bought at a sensible price back then) but now that we have them I'd prefer induction hobs rather than gas because why are we paying for gas when electricity is free?

I thought every house in Australia had a solar hot water system?

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10 hours ago, CaptainR said:

Only the newer ones. Basix requirement I think?

We built in 2015 in Victoria and had different options available in order to get enough "points" for the energy rating, though the system may well have changed since then.  We chose a rainwater tank for toilet flushing instead of solar hot water (the tank does double duty as it is on the western wall of our son's bedroom and insulates it from the afternoon sun in summer).

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 04/04/2021 at 15:11, Melbpom said:

If you are going down the new build route do plenty of research on the builder and check out product review websites.

Read the contract carefully and get professional advice on the contract and each stage of the building.

Unfortunately with 99% of the project home builders , they use a standard HIA contract and will not alter it to suite individual requirements a take it or leave it approach. 
hiring a totally independent inspector would be money better spent.

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