SBF #22 Make as few penetrations as you can- electrical on the exterior wall

Exterior wall free of wires or holes

 Making a renovation airtight is a challenge.  Using the Airtight Drywall Approach is also challenging because people are used to making lots of holes in this layer.  So re-designing the electrical distribution in the exterior wall becomes an issue.
It's great in that you can eliminate all penetration sealing by not having electrical outlets and switches in the wall.  But figuring out another system can be just a tough.
I really like the idea of floor boxes, but apparently they cost around $40/box vs. the typical $1.50 electrical box.
I decided to try putting the outlets in the baseboard and switches attached to the wall in wood boxes.  We have also designed any wiring runs and ceiling lights to run in grooves routed out in trim and faux beams.
The baseboard needed to be 2" thick and 6" tall to accomodate the thinnest two gang boxes with a little room for wires to pass around the box.  The boxes have 1/4" mud rings for a two gang setup even if we have only one receptacle because we need to cover the two gang box.  We used 1" barn board for the baseboard and had to build up the edges to get the 2" thickness.
Fastening the boxes to the 1" baseboard was challenging to get a secure attachment to allow for the pressure of installing the boxes. Using 2" stock and routing a groove for wire and cutting out for boxes would be a better design.

Cap to baseboard is not shown

3 wires into each box

After installing some of the boxes into the baseboard and then wiring, we thought it might be easier to wire the boxes where they will go without the baseboard and fitting the baseboard to the boxes.  The box holes are just big enough to allow the box with mudring through.

Another way to achieve this goal of not penetrating the exterior wall with electrical boxes is to build a utility chase on the inside of the exterior wall either making the wall 2 1/2" thicker or using that much less insulation.  One way to do this is to use chipboard as interior air barrier and frame another wall to the interior, which becomes utility chase and then finish sheetrock on the interior face of that.  I find that method to take a lot of time and resources and rather like to see the outlets in the baseboard instead of the wall.  It also makes accessing the electrical easier.