Building a house and need suggestions on technology to stuff in it.

[SALvation]

This could go in any number of forums but I think this one is the most appropriate.

I'm building a house now and the builder says he will give me 1-2 days after the electrician has gone through to do some of my own customizations. Now I need suggestions as to what I should do and what types of wires should I run.

So far I've decided on running at least CAT5 wiring into every room complete with wall outlets. I will probably put 2 drops in every room in the same faceplate. I plan on running all wires into my basement where I will keep my router and cable modem. Eventually I can make the basement the central area where my network runs from.

Next I want to run speaker wires for my home theatre in the great room. Pretty simple stuff, just 3 drops by the TV and 2 on the opposite wall for the satelitte speakers.

Now I'm wondering if I should wire the whole house for in-wall speakers. Maybe I will run everything into the basement so I can have a central stereo there and pump music through the whole house.

Can you guys give me other suggestions of what to plan for, new technologies, or other cool things that you would put in a house? It will have no drywall up when I go through, just the frame so it should be very easy to do what I want.

Thanks.

 

[thorin]

Having Audio in two places is great, because: You can play music upstairs (or downstairs) and listen to it in both places (workshop/kitchen on seperate levels). You can use the stereo upstairs to play music for your kid's party downstairs and not worry about them f'in up your equipment (just throw 5 CDs on random or whatever).

Having cable in alot of rooms (or even cable and another seperate coax run) because you'll find that eventually you want cable in a bedroom for a teen or in the kitchen for when you're cooking, etc..... Also having a second coax run within the house is handy because you can play a DVD in the living room and watch it in a bedroom or kitchen.

Phone jacks: IMHO you can never have too many.

Thorin

 

[DOOPYLOOPY]

Yah definitely phone jacks.
Anything that you may want in one room you may as well assume that you might want it in all rooms to give yourself maximum compatibility.
Therefore You'd want phone jacks, ethernet ports, decent speaker wiring, cable outlets, don't forget obviously plenty of power points and if you plan on putting in any AC units make sure you have enough phase power as well as enough power supply. Multiple antenna sockets if u have a house antenna?

If your looking to the future I'd put in Cat6 as that is compatible with Gigabit Ethernet and I don't think Cat5 or 5e is.

 

[thorin]

I thought Cat5e was supposed to be GigaBit compatible??

Thorin

 

[Woodie]

Cat5 = Cat5e....only difference is in the jacketing (non-toxic smoke for use in plenum spaces).
Gigabit over Cat5 cabling...check the networking forum. ScottyMac would have the answer for that question.

Note: you can run telephones over data cabling.

 

[thorin]

Cat5e vs Cat6 (Slightly Dated)
"Crossed Wires" (Oct of Last year)

-----Quote (newer article)-----
In June, the EIA/TIA finalized the Cat6 standard, which, theoretically, makes it possible to send bits faster than Cat5e does, so Cat6 is the obvious choice if you're rewiring, right? Wrong. You'll pay up to 50 percent more for Cat6 than you will for Cat5e, despite the fact that Cat6 provides no known benefits--no existing or planned standard, not even the next version of Ethernet, takes advantage of Cat6. The IEEE's 10 Gigabit standard (802.3ae), also approved in June, runs only on fiber--there are no plans to run it on twisted pair.
.
.
.
Sure, a lot can happen in 10 years. Maybe Cat6 is a worthwhile investment, but for now, it's nothing more than an expensive insurance policy that your cable infrastructure will support some unforeseen technology that may emerge in the next decade or so. Cat6 is backward-compatible with Cat5e, though, so you could just run Cat6 cable now, and upgrade the terminations later, thereby minimizing cost and risk. But you better make sure it will work. Even mixing vendor equipment with a straight, standard Cat6 install is risky this early in the game.
-----End Quote-----

Thorin

 

[BoomAM]

Ask your electrician to make sure that the power for your main network server/workstation, is on a different "power ring" to your heating/other very high current appliances. Otherwise every time your heating comes on, the power to the computer will cut out, meaning that you`ll have to reboot your whole network.

 

[isaacmacdonald]

cat5, yeah good idea.

As far as speakers go, in walls are a great look, but the acoustics are a lot crappier, so they tend to sound worse. If you are running that many cat5 lines, you probably have a closet or somewhere to hide a 20 port switch (something you'll obviously need to anticipate as you're wiring everything up). As long as you're there, you might considering being uber-geeky and running independant stereo feeds to each room or area, and dropping them into the same closet. Assuming these ambient room feeds are sepperated from the entertainment area, you should only need like 3 or 4 small amps to power the speakers. If everything's to be computer controlled you can throw in a couple cheap sound cards, and you'll be good to go.

If you have a bit of money to spare and like the idea of an computer controlled house, you should investigate x-10 devices that will allow you to install sensors and controll units that will interface with a computer. Then you can set little routines to follow, like when the garage door opens, fade hallway light 1 from 0-60% in 3 seconds, pause, fade hallway light 2 up to 70% and so forth. Could be cool if you have a lot of time on your hands.

Have fun.

 

[SUOrangeman]

Is RG75 (I think that's it for cable TV, etc.) too obvious? I think those wires will be able to handle present/future services like HDTV over exising "cable TV".

-SUO

 

[Shagga]

Electric power to your fire place so you can remotely adjust the gas flame Outside sockets for path lights (for those warm nights when the BBQ is all but over but still plenty of beer to drink) and garden tools etc. Electric Garage doorsa must....Electric Blinds/drapes, loft lights...You have the main items like CAT5 stuff and audio cables.

Not exactly something you can do yourself but perhaps you might like to consider them b4 it's too late...

 

[isaacmacdonald]

also, before the walls get erected, try a central vaccum.

 

[benjamit]

what about fiber channel between the floors and access points for a wireless LANs on each floor

 

[PCMarine]

Man your house would be great for a LAN party

 

[isaacmacdonald]

I guess it pays to look forward. But I'm not sure fiber is the way to go. What about that new service that intel et al plan to integrate directly into motherboards in the next two years. I can't recall the name, but it surpasses the pci bus, allows for massive bandwidth (several orders greater than gigabit), and can read and write directly to/from memory of all the machines on the network. I have no idea what type of cable is used, but it might be a good thing to check out if anyone else can recall the name... <scratches head>

 

[rahvin]

Originally posted by: SUOrangeman
Is RG75 (I think that's it for cable TV, etc.) too obvious? I think those wires will be able to handle present/future services like HDTV over exising "cable TV".

-SUO

RG59 is the typical home installation, RG6 is recommended these days though because sattalite recievers use up to a 2ghz signal that will be distorted on RG59. The price difference isn't substantial to warrant not installing RG6, I just bought a 500' spool at Home depot for $38.

 

[thraxes]

The network/telephone part sounds good (do gigabit compatible! consider putting in the more robust fiber-optics from the main switchyard to the computer room and living room for eventual gigabit), so does the sound. I would also suggest putting in high grade coax cable for TV and cable as those above suggested.

The main thing you want is a main distribution point for all services. Having things daisy chained to eachother like phone jacks later turns out to be the biggest pain in the butt ever conceived by man (just installed broadband at my parents house last weekend... had a huge power drill to bash thru 40cm thick reinfoced concrete, when all was done I really deserved my :beer: all thanks to a crappy 20 year old phone installation without any foresight)

Also put in lots and lots of cable runs for easy future installations!

 

[heartsurgeon]

phone, cat5e, cable one line each to each room (you don't really need two cat 5e lines per room (this is cheaper than running another line).

put theater sound wiring into your BEDROOM as well....you will update your "big" tv someday - and you can put it in your master bedroom! if you've got those speaker pre-wired - you save yourself alot of grief.

have all the phone, cable tv, and network lines terminate in patch panels at a central location in your basement. this way you can
have central control of all of them for later expansion. also - if you have/get kids..you can control their t.v., telephone and internet access
from a central site (you can place stuff in locked metal cabinets if needed. when you control their
telephone/tv/internet - their hearts and minds are sure to follow!! a great discipline technique..
no yelling, no spanking, no threats..just shut the stuff off until they capitulate!!

 

[BoomAM]

What about, a special air duct that goes to your main computer, so the air gets sucked in from the outside? You`d need a filter as well.

 

[Shockwave]

If I were you, I'd do 2 plates per room, each plate having 1 phone/1 cable/1 ethernet.
Why 2 plates? You'll re arrange rooms at some point. Its nice to not have cables running all around the room because where you put the plate the first time has now become the opposite wall from the nightstand / PC / whatever. Allows you more flexibility in arranging things. (I HATE cables running along the walls)

In wall audio? No. I wouldnt do it. And the above problem REALLY manifests itself if you decide to rearrange your living room. Suddenly the drops for the satellites may become just a big empty space since you rotated the room 90 degrees or something of that nature. But thats JMO.

 

[thorin]

Electric Garage doorsa must....

Further to this suggestion. Get a Genie or LiftMaster model with the screw drive (no chain or belt) it's:

1) More efficient (direct drive )
2) ALOT quieter
3) Faster (2x open speed 1x close speed ... on the Genie Excelerator model anyway)
4) A long screw gear will never stretch (yes even the metal chain drives use a small cable section which stretches over time .... and I shouldn't even have to mention belt drives). And a screw gear won't wear like a chain or belt either.

Also since everyone is suggesting networking/all kinds of cable, I'll suggest adding (or replacing) a tubular system (similar to the PVC for central vac) so make future cable additions/changes easier.

Thorin

 

[imported_Pablo]

I know this would be tough to do in 2 days, but run some pvc conduit for each room. Its alot easier to replace wiring when you don't have to fish it out from between the studs. I'd run two boxes to each room, as many have stated. But in my opinion, conduit is the way to go.

***EDIT***

I got beat to it....

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: BoomAM
Ask your electrician to make sure that the power for your main network server/workstation, is on a different "power ring" to your heating/other very high current appliances. Otherwise every time your heating comes on, the power to the computer will cut out, meaning that you`ll have to reboot your whole network.

Yes, definitely do this. We had our house rewired - all the computers are on their own circuit now, provided they stay next to their present outlets.

Someone mentioned a central vacuum system - I had a friend back in school whose house had that; it seemed really nifty, and it was quiet too.

Originally posted by: thorin

Electric Garage doorsa must....

Further to this suggestion. Get a Genie or LiftMaster model with the screw drive (no chain or belt) it's:

1) More efficient (direct drive )
2) ALOT quieter
3) Faster (2x open speed 1x close speed ... on the Genie Excelerator model anyway)
4) A long screw gear will never stretch (yes even the metal chain drives use a small cable section which stretches over time .... and I shouldn't even have to mention belt drives). And a screw gear won't wear like a chain or belt either.

Also since everyone is suggesting networking/all kinds of cable, I'll suggest adding (or replacing) a tubular system (similar to the PVC for central vac) so make future cable additions/changes easier.

Thorin

I guess this depends on the door too. We had a chain-drive opener, then got a screw-drive (Genie, and I don't remember why we switched), but the thing is still quite loud. I think most of it is the door itself, and the big springs on the door scraping against the track.

 

[RickH]

You had better get busy!! I ran all the stuff listed above, plus I put empty wall boxes connected to either the attic or basement with conduit in every room so I can pull more wires if I need to. Don't forget wires for an alarm system and switched outlets on the outside of the house. If you are really nuts, put switched outlets inside under all the front windows for X-mass decorations. Do it now, or regret it later. R

 

[Thraxen]

Next I want to run speaker wires for my home theatre in the great room. Pretty simple stuff, just 3 drops by the TV and 2 on the opposite wall for the satelitte speakers.

Don't forget to run a cable for your sub(s). You may also want to run an additional rear surround wire in case you decide to start using a 6.1 format. Actually, you may just want to go ahead and run 2 wires for rear speakers since many receivers/pre-pros that do a 6.1 format support 2 rear speakers.

 

[jose]

checkout www.avsforum.com dedicated to A/V

they have a section for home automation.

You may want to run everything to a central location

You'll probably want 3 rg6qs (quad shield): cable, sat, & OTA antenna
2 cat5e: home networking & 1394
1 fiber optic: ?
12/2 speaker wire(Lowes $60 for 250'spool)

You'll also need distribution amps & balumns & routers & switches.

check milstek.com for some of this stuff.

Regards,
Jose