A short brief for your electrical contractor that keeps every smart option open: switch boxes, curtain power, data points, door and gate, and the network cabinet.
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Before the walls are plastered and the ceilings boarded, ask the electrical contractor for a neutral at every switch box, deeper boxes where smart switches or relay modules will go, a power point at the head of each window that will get a curtain motor, and data cable from one network cabinet to the TV, the desk and a ceiling spot on each floor. Add power and data at the main door and gate for a doorbell, intercom or autogate, and spare space plus clear labels at the distribution board. None of it commits you to a brand; it keeps every smart option open for years. Once plaster and paint go on, each missed item means chasing, patching and repainting. The smart home installation page covers the devices themselves.
Most smart devices are wireless, which leads many renovating owners to assume a smart home can be added later at no extra trouble. The radio part can. The power part cannot. A smart switch still sits in a wall box, a curtain motor still needs power at the window head, and a ceiling access point still needs a cable to reach it. Each of those depends on something buried in the wall or above the ceiling.
While the walls are open, adding a conductor, a deeper box or a spare conduit is a small change on a drawing. After skim coat, tiling and paint, the same change means cutting a chase, patching, waiting for it to dry and repainting a wall that was finished. In a condo it can also mean asking the management office again for noisy work hours. That is why the brief on this page belongs in the first-fix stage, not the handover.
Any mains electrical work, such as a new power point, a change at the distribution board or a hardwired switch that needs new wiring, must be done by an electrical contractor registered with Suruhanjaya Tenaga. That includes every item in the electrical part of this checklist: neutral conductors, switch boxes, power points, and anything at the distribution board.
Your job as the owner is to decide what the house should be able to do, then put it on the electrical drawing before first fix starts. A smart-home brief does not need brand names. It needs positions: which switches might become smart, which windows might get motors, where the router will live, and where cameras or a doorbell may go. Give the contractor the list on this page and ask them to mark each item on the drawing they work from.
This is the single most valuable item on the list. Many Malaysian homes bring only the live and the switched conductor to a light switch, with no neutral. A smart switch fitted in such a box has to be a no-neutral type, which brings minimum loads, faint glow and flicker with efficient LEDs; the explainer on no-neutral flicker shows why. With a neutral present at the box, the switch powers itself properly and almost any smart switch or relay module will work.
Ask for the neutral at every switch position, not only the rooms you plan to automate now. The extra conductor is a small addition during first fix and it costs nothing to leave unused behind an ordinary switch. For homes where the walls will not be opened, the no-neutral smart switch retrofit guide explains the options that remain.
Smart switches are deeper than ordinary switches, and a relay module behind an existing plate needs space too. Shallow back boxes are a common reason a chosen smart switch simply will not fit. Where you expect a smart switch, a dimmer or a module, ask for the deeper box type, and keep multi-gang positions in boxes that leave air around the electronics.
Think about two-way positions as well. A staircase or a long corridor with switches at both ends needs the right conductors between them for a smart switch and a companion switch to work together. Decide now which positions are two-way, and note them on the drawing.
A mains-powered curtain or blind motor needs a power point hidden near one end of the track, usually in the curtain box or the plaster ceiling above it. If the point is not there before the ceiling is closed, the choices later are a visible cable down the wall or a battery motor that needs recharging.
| Motor type | Needs before plastering | Living with it later |
|---|---|---|
| Mains-powered track motor | A power point at the motor end of the track | Nothing to recharge; quietest and suits heavy curtains |
| Battery track motor | Nothing buried | Needs recharging from time to time; no cable work |
| Battery roller-blind motor | Nothing buried | Suits blinds rather than heavy curtains |
| Mains motor added after the ceiling is closed | Not possible without opening the ceiling | Visible cable or ceiling patching |
The curtain motorisation guide compares mains, battery and retrofit motors once the ceiling is done.
Smart homes lean hard on WiFi, and the router supplied with a fibre plan usually sits wherever the fibre enters the house. In a double-storey terrace or semi-D, concrete floor slabs weaken the signal upstairs, and that is where devices start dropping out. Cable is the reliable cure, but only if it goes in before the walls close.
If the house already has weak spots, the guide to WiFi dead zones in double-storey homes shows how to find them first, so the access-point positions land where they are needed.
Most digital locks run on batteries and need nothing in the wall. The devices around the door are different. A video doorbell or intercom outdoor panel usually wants power, and often a cable back to an indoor screen or the network. A landed home with an autogate may later want an app-controlled opener, which is easier when there is a data or power route to the gate side.
Decide early whether the front of the house will have a doorbell, an intercom or both, and where the indoor screen will go. The video doorbell vs intercom guide helps with that choice. For condos, check with the management office before planning anything on the corridor side of the door.
Pick one place for the router, the smart hub and any network switch, ideally central on the ground floor and where the fibre enters or can be brought. Give it its own power point with several outlets inside the cabinet, some ventilation, and room for all the data cables to arrive.
A Zigbee or Thread hub works best near the middle of the house rather than hidden at one end, so it can reach battery sensors in far rooms. If the cabinet is at the edge of the house, plan a central spot with power and data for the hub as well.
Ask for spare ways at the board for future circuits, such as a charger point or an additional aircon, and for every circuit to be clearly labelled. A labelled board makes every later smart-home job faster and safer for whoever does it.
Renovation wiring done today may also use the new cable colours. The Energy Commission has issued Arahan Suruhanjaya Tenaga Bilangan 11 Tahun 2026 (Arahan/ST/No.11/2026) under subsection 50C(1) of the Electricity Supply Act 1990, announced on 11 June 2026. It adopts the IEC 60445 cable colour code for new or upgraded wiring in domestic, non-domestic, industrial and commercial installations. Phase conductors change from red, yellow and blue to brown, black and grey; neutral changes from black to blue; earth stays green or green-yellow. The directive sets two dates: from 1 January 2026 either the old or the new colour code may be used for new wiring, additional wiring or any modification to an existing installation; from 1 January 2029 all electrical wiring must follow the new colour code (the directive applies to new and upgrade wiring work, clause 3 -- it does not require existing wiring to be replaced). Where an installation mixes old and new colours, the consumer distribution board must be clearly labelled, and every connection mixing the two codes must carry a marking label and a standard 'AWAS' notice. In a single-phase home this means the live conductor you may find as red can be brown in newer work, and the neutral you may find as black can be blue, while black is now also a phase colour (L2) under the new code -- so never identify a conductor by colour alone in a house that has had work done since 2026.
The directive is about new and upgraded wiring; it does not ask you to replace existing wiring that is left untouched. The wiring colour code guide covers the colours in more detail.
| Location | Ask for | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Every light switch position | Neutral conductor, deeper box where smart is likely | Lets any smart switch or relay module work properly later |
| Staircase and long corridors | Correct conductors between two-way switch positions | Smart and companion switches need them to work together |
| Windows that may get curtain motors | Power point at the motor end, inside the curtain box or ceiling | Avoids exposed cable or battery-only motors |
| Each floor, central ceiling or high wall | Data point for an access point | Strong WiFi upstairs for every device |
| TV wall and work desk | Data points | Streaming and work calls stay off WiFi |
| Main door and gate | Power and data for doorbell, intercom or autogate | Keeps the doorbell and gate options open |
| Network cabinet | Power with several outlets, ventilation, all data runs ending here | Router, hub and switch in one tidy place |
| Distribution board | Spare ways and clear labels | Future circuits and safer later work |
Motion sensors, door sensors, leak sensors and infrared aircon controllers are almost always battery or plug-in devices, so they need nothing buried. Concealed LED strips are the exception: their drivers must stay reachable through an access panel, so agree the driver positions with the ceiling contractor.
Before plastering, walk every room with the drawing and check each box, point and cable end is where it should be. Then photograph every wall and ceiling run with a tape measure in the frame and keep the pictures with the drawing. Years later, when someone needs to find a cable, those pictures save hours.
The stage inspection before cover-up guide lists the wider checks for this moment, and the energy-efficient renovation checklist covers insulation, glass and aircon choices made at the same stage. For the room-by-room device plan, use the smart home planning guide.
For smart switches and anything wired into the mains, we supply the devices and set up the app, and the switch or wiring work is done by an electrical contractor registered with Suruhanjaya Tenaga that we coordinate.
We do the smart device, app and low-voltage side of the job. Before plastering, we can go through the plan with you room by room and mark where each smart device will sit and what it needs, so the brief is complete before first fix. Make sure the app accounts end up in your own name, so the system stays yours.
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