Xoutpost.com - New House Wiring Suggestions

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Who cares how long someone has been on this board, I've been on here for awhile and I design IT Data Centers for media companies for a living including low and high voltage, and I think you have to be very careful not to over-wire as well, and not because of the cost of the materials but the labor costs and de-marc space requirements.

Fiber to a house is only fiber to the pole, the rest of the way is coax. At least that's my understanding of FIOS.

You can most definitely over-wire a house, the demarc or closet or wherever the cabling is going to centrally terminate is going to have to accomodate an enormous amount of cabling considering the suggestions made earlier and would probably necessitate patch panels!

Rangerfan - I would sit down with a designer with the floor plans in front of you and figure out what you want/need today and build in some room for expansion.

In my house a "pull" consists of 2 cat5's and 2 rg6 coax's that all terminate in a patch panel in my garage. Audio cabling terminates in a corner of my living room where I have my av equipment (i have ceilng mount speaker holes in every room in the house and IR remote plates that i haven't installed yet). Each indiviudal run is pretty thin out on the floors, but the space requirements for wherever it all terminates to centrally can get pretty big.

Don't forget that for data connectivity you can use wireless with well placed repeaters/antennas on each floor instead of running cat5 through the house as well.

Gresch, I just wired my house and it is all in one 36" panel in one interior, climate controlled closet. never put your wiring panel in a place where it is going to get a lot of heat or cold, or where someone can easily sabotage it. There is no enormous amount of cabling, most of it is in one jacketed cable. There is no way to future proof a house with the wiring you put in your home. It is fine for you it sounds by the words 'future proof' that Rangerfan is looking for more than basic wiring. BTW fiber is used for beyond-gigabit audio and video distribution in the home. Not just Internet. And its about a 5% difference in price so that is really a moot point.

I agree with you, he should sit down with an honest AV integrator to develop a good long-term solution.

Rangerfan, don't rely on any wireless technology. Wire your house and use wireless technologies only when you have to... like going to the deck with your laptop or controlling a wirelessly automated light switch. There is simply no substitute for wire that compares, yet.

ps. when you show up and try to sell your business the first time you speak, it tends to make your motives for speaking a little questionable. I think you know what I mean.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ncx

Gresch, I just wired my house and it is all in one 36" panel in one interior, climate controlled closet. There is no enormous amount of cabling, most of it is in one jacketed cable. There is no way to future proof a house with the wiring you put in your home. It is fine for you it sounds by the words 'future proof' that Rangerfan is looking for more than basic wiring that is fine for 2005. BTW fiber is used for beyond-gigabit audio and video distribution in the home. Not just Internet. And its about a 5% difference in price so that is really a moot point.

I agree with you, he should sit down with an honest AV integrator to develop a good long-term solution.

Rangerfan, don't rely on any wireless technology. Wire your house and use wireless technologies only when you have to... like going to the deck with your laptop or controlling a wirelessly automated light switch. There is simply no substitute for wire that compares, yet.

NCX - thanks, yes, i understand the technology, I'm in the middle of building a new data center, master control and broadcast ops facility for 3 tv networks. As with buying cars, everyone has different likes and dislikes and different budgets and different requirements so my points are made to make sure that all avenues are considered.

Quote:

Originally Posted by gresch

Fiber to a house is only fiber to the pole, the rest of the way is coax. At least that's my understanding of FIOS.

Thanks for the advice Gresch. FWIW, I had FIOS installed in my house in CT about 10 days ago (ahhh speed is nice :D ). Fiber goes to the box on the house! There is a cat5e line run from the box on the exterior of the house directly to the router. No modem in the house--I guess it is ON the house. The battery backup runs from inside the basement utility room (next to the phone terminations) back outside to the 'box' on the house. So yes, it is copper 'on' the house.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rangerfan

Sorry for the confusion, yes you're right, it's fiber to cat5 not fiber to coax.

I have Cat 5 and speaker wire avail

I just wanted to let you know that I have 1000ft of 16 speaker wire avail and 194 ft of cat 5 wire avail I was going to put them up on Ebay tonight when I got home.

I just did whole house sound on my new construction and did one room 5.1....it can be a beast, but as usual everyone here is giving great advice. Send a pm if you interested. I have pics of the stuff.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ncx

Hmm post #1 and selling something already. But Welcome to X5world anyway.

You need to read his post better. Try this again and go slow... (Rangerfan)"I am looking for some suggestions on wiring and electronics to future proof the place."

You cannot over-wire a house (within reason). He does not know everything now that he may want later. You forgot to mention that structured wiring averages a 5-8% uplift on the resale of the house. The ONLY time it is affordable to run wire in a house is before the sheetrock goes up. The cost is 5x and up to do it after the walls are sealed up. Some people will rely on wireless technologies to get by, and that is fine for certian functionality. But there is NO substitute for hard wiring for performance and security. Period. If you sell a system to someone and are only looking at their needs in 2005, you should not be in business.

Fiber internet to the home is already a reality. If you have the chance to put fiber in the walls now, you are missing a huge opportunity by ignoring it. (Get it... fiber to the DESKTOP). If you are telling your clients that is is way too expensive to terminate mmf, you should look at some new vendors. The price has been falling consistently for 5 years.

Home-run wired structured cabling is the backbone of any modern home's audio, video, broadband, security, and automation needs, and is a must-have for anyone looking to remain future proof. For someone in the biz, sounds like you need to do more homework. I am not selling anything but I'll tell you this, you can completely wire a house for every possible scenario for about $2 a sq/ft. Structured wiring including fiber is less than .75 a sq/ft on average.

What the industry is actually leaning towards is copper in the home and fiber in the street. They are doing this because copper is cheaper, more stable and durable. It also cost less to produce. The industry is looking at creating standards that are easy to mass produce, allow for anyone with basic hand tools to install and terminate. It is also cheaper for the computer manufactures to use copper and avoid converting light to data. We are seeing the speeds in copper become actually faster than fiber too. You can install fiber, but industry reports show a decline its use in short distances (under 300m).

I would suggest that you wire multiple sides of a room that you think you may use for data/telecom/catv/dss. I would stay away from structured cable as it is actually more expensive than creating your own bundles. It may be easier to run, but per foot it is more money. Creating your own wire bundles also allow you to select different manufactures for each type. For example we use Hitachi Hi-NET CAT-6e cable, Coleman RG-6/Q, and Beldin RGB as our combo bundle. It is just like how you would purchase an Alpine head unit, JM Labs/Focal Speakers and a JL subwoofer for your X5.

Be very selective in hiring your electrician and be sure he understands EIA/TIA wiring standards and proper terminations. I can’t tell you how many jobs we’ve gone into where we have had to re-terminate all off the connections in a 10,000 sq/ft house because the electrician did a great job with the outlets and hi-hats, but didn’t have a clue as to how to terminate low voltage wiring.

Wireless Technology

Yes, don't rely on wireless technology. We typically place 3-4 wireless access points through 5,000 sq/ft houses to allow for good coverage but its never perfect. These access points are still ultimately hardwired back to a centralized switch typically in a basement of utility room. This is the same approach large collage campuses use to provide adequate wireless reception.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ncx

I've been asked by clients, "How do I future proof my house" and my answer is "you can't, but we can try". I say you can't becuase things change so fast and no one can agree on anything. This is why we will see two types of Hi-Def DVDs launched Jan 2006. Toshiba's HD-DVD and Sony's Blu-Ray. As Rodney King says "why can't we all just get along" :-)

Seriously, it is very hard to predict what the future will bring us. Things always get better, and we always want to upgrade. This is why we renovate, build new homes, buy new cell phones and last but not least, buy new BMWs....

Quote:

Originally Posted by Osbee

IThis is why we renovate, build new homes, buy new cell phones and last but not least, buy new BMWs....

buy new houses, new cell phones, and new BMWs? WE? Never! :rolleyes: :D