“We like to see everything that’s out there and visualise it for our home. We found out about the Clipsal Powerhouse at the local Adelaide Home Show. We decided to go down and have a look.”

Clipsal Powerhouses are located throughout Australia. The Clipsal SA Powerhouse is located at Sir Donald Bradman Drive and is open every weekend. Each Powerhouse simulates a real home environment and is designed to be interactive, showcasing Clipsal’s latest and greatest switches, sockets and home automation technology.

“The open layout is very clear while the fittings are all quality from the tiles up. What’s very impressive is that the Powerhouse shows you ways to set up your home.”

“While there, we found out about Clipspec and decided to make an appointment.”

Clipspec is Clipsal’s own electrical specification programme, designed to help home-owners with a simple method of choosing electrical products on screen and tailored to the home-owners own house plan.

“Electrical requires some careful planning and with Clipspec you get someone who is specialised in that area. My consultant, Ben Ryan guided me through the process step by step.

“Sometimes in the building industry you get the sales guy’s interpretation of what he thinks you need. But Ben listened to what I had to say and guided me to the options available so I could make my own decision.”

Vlass is keen on technology and has plans for no less than three big screen TVs in his new home. The main TV is located in a dedicated home theatre room, a second in the study and a third TV in the outdoor entertaining area. Vlass liked the idea of networking the TVs and was attracted to the idea of installing a Starserve home networking system for this purpose.

“You look to the future when you are building and Starserve offered me the ability to watch a DVD from any TV without buying additional equipment.

“Clipspec takes you through every room of your home and covers all the minute detail such as external power points, hot water system location and provision for extra junction boxes in the garage. We even spaced out the lighting correctly to keep overuse to a minimum. We also opted for Saturn switches and sockets throughout.

“I like the fact that you can see exactly what the product you’ve chosen looks like on screen as well as on the print out. This was great for my wife Mary who wasn’t able to attend the Clipspec appointment. Even my builder was impressed and said he had never come across a system so detailed.”

Changes are often inevitable for those in the building process and Clipspec accommodates those changes well.

“I had to make some alterations to the electrical plan. I made another appointment with Ben and he was extremely helpful. By the end of the appointment I had my updated version.”

There is a fee for the Clipspec process but Vlass argues that it is well worth the price.

“The money you invest up front saves you a lot of money later on if you make the wrong choices and need to get an electrician to come out and fix it.

“My wife Mary and I have renovated previously and this is the first home we have built from scratch. We haven’t experienced anything quite like Clipspec in terms of its professionalism. Anyone building should take a look at it. Every builder should recommend the service to their clients.“