Home Network Prewire (new house)

Forums › LAN (ethernet/Wifi/routers/Bluetooth) › Home Network Prewire (new house)

bigfut

17 posts

Geek

#19573 22-Feb-2008 08:25

Hi There,

We are about to start building our house, and have looked into pre-wiring the house with a home network, with a little cabinet to host wires for access/changing service going to individual ports in rooms etc, also with the ability to broadcast sky over the other tv sockets throughout the house etc etc. Just wondering if anyone has done this, or something similar? Want to know if it is worth it or not. Thanks

freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
79061 posts

Uber Geek

Administrator

ID Verified

Trusted

Geekzone

Lifetime subscriber

#112234 22-Feb-2008 08:30

Check sbiddle's blog post on DIY wiring.

Quic Broadband

Move to New Zealand's best fibre broadband service (affiliate link). Note that to use Quic Broadband you must be comfortable with configuring your own router.

cyril7

9050 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Subscriber

#112246 22-Feb-2008 09:47

Yes its well worth it, infact in my view a minimum level of prewiring should be mandatory, I see some european governments (Ireland came to my attention just the other day) are in the process of writing laws making inhouse prewiring for both network and TV mandatory and in some cases builders also have to ensure that power and conduit is present to facilitate FTTH in the future. This particualy makes sense in the European multidwelling environment.

Dont forget when a builder builds a new house the house itself and all its systems (plumbing, wiring etc) must be of suitable quality and workmanship to be good for a minimum of 50yrs, this is a legal requirement. (Anyone who has delt with black DUXs plastic plumbing will know thats a crock). However so many new houses (85%+ I suggest) are wired for media requirements that were out of date 20yrs ago let alone good for 50yrs simply because the electrical trade is pretty ignorant of such things.

Cyril

webwat

2036 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#118106 22-Mar-2008 20:48

Since you are pre-wiring your own house, you have a chance to put things in sensible locations. Watch out that the same wire is able to be used for both computer network and telephone, but in future might need to be a cable for each jack if you are planning gigabit ready. So its worth running 1 cable per jackpoint, and allow for extra jackpoints in locations you might want to install a phone or other networked device as well as a computer. Keep in mind that bleeding edge building management systems and connected kitchen/entertainment devices could become more popular in distant future (eg a couple more years...) when your TV's hard drive might be networked to the file server in another room and probably so will your sound system.

Cat5e cable should be enough but watch the bend-radius if you want to keep the gigabit capability. Always use solid cable on installation wiring to get the best termination. Patch panels are good for ethernet/phone but I dont know the best way to connect all your coax RF cables. If you have to run any comms cable together with electrical supply, keep it absolutely minimal and separate them where possible.

Time to find a new industry!

sbiddle

30853 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#118110 22-Mar-2008 21:09

Just for future reference part II of my blog post on DIY wiring is here

Part III will be coming this week as I wire everything up.

richms

27982 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#118578 25-Mar-2008 16:17

cyril7: Yes its well worth it, infact in my view a minimum level of prewiring should be mandatory, I see some european governments (Ireland came to my attention just the other day) are in the process of writing laws making inhouse prewiring for both network and TV mandatory and in some cases builders also have to ensure that power and conduit is present to facilitate FTTH in the future. This particualy makes sense in the European multidwelling environment.

That is because europe like to make laws and remove freedoms. Probarbly at the request of the cable companies too.

Some builders are still specifying enclosures that just distribute the RF out from skyboxes around the house. This it toally unacceptable unless your other TVs are pye vidmatics and thorn tx9's with only RF inputs and a tube with pixels that are huge.

There is major uncertanty in which way the markets will go for tv distribution at the moment. Sky have said something about a server system a year or so back which used cat-5, and sky nz usually follow what sky uk do many years later. So if that happens then all you will need is a network port between them.

Otherwise there is hdmi and/or component out distribution, which can be done cheap with passive converters on component or expensive with mega large matrix switches. Either case, they can just go over cat-5e but you need 2 runs of it and there are lenth issues that are less then ethernet for the hdmi over cat5e.

Then there is just getting a second sky/whatever box which is the easiest and eliminates hassles of people changing channel on you, but costs more per month.

I would just put large holes in the nogs up to the roof space and leave a draw wire in addition to whatever you put thru for now. If you plan your downstairs layout you can often use downlight holes as little portholes to get to draw wires for downstairs, and if the worst comes to it then gib/plaster/paint is not that hard to repair if you have to go chopping into the walls to fish wires thru. Certainly better to spend a weekend getting it back to looking good then to have to spend years looking at half assed surface mount cables running around the place.

Plan for cabling back to a centralized location and if needed put access hatches on the plans so you dont have to cut them later on. just be glad that noone in nz builds properly with cinderblocks and plaster since that is a real PITA to get cables thru, just look at some of the UK DIY sites for the effort you have to go thru to get cables thru one of those.

Richard rich.ms

rphenix

983 posts

Ultimate Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#122443 9-Apr-2008 22:35

sbiddle: Just for future reference part II of my blog post on DIY wiring is here

Part III will be coming this week as I wire everything up.

Hows Part III coming along? especially keen to see move photos!

webwat

2036 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#122456 10-Apr-2008 01:47

If your location where you expect to mount the central cabinet has easy access to a riser that connects under-floor spaces and a comms cupboard on each floor, I reckon that would be ideal for adding cables and outlets in future. Kind of like modern commercial buildings, but dont know if its feasable most of your planned building. Is that completely overboard?

Perhaps you can run square conduit in parts of the house you want easy access or leave some spare cat5 cable in place for later. If you put battery backup in your cabinet, you might also use it for internet equipment and/or a computer eventually, so enough space for extra devices would be worthwhile. Also remember that a cable you want for telephone can be retasked for computer network if you change your mind, so some jackpioints could be multi-purpose.

Time to find a new industry!

CYaBro

4534 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

#122476 10-Apr-2008 09:18

I've just been asked by a friend of my Dad to wire their house for TV/Network/Phone/Audio.
I've only got about a week before the gib goes up!

What I'm going to run:

TV locations:
2x RG6 - One for receiving TV and Sky feed from sky decoder - One RG6 to feed back into the system if they decide to move decoder
3x CAT5e - 1 for iR control - 1 or 2 for video if they decide to go for component or HDMI - Can use baluns for these to convert to CAT5

3x RG6 will be run from the main equipment rack to the roof

Computer locations:
2x CAT5e - Could use one for data and one for phone or both data etc

Telephone locations:
2x CAT5e -
2x CAT5e will be run from patch panel to telco demarc point

Speaker locations:
1x 14/4 cable looped through a volume control/keypad location
1x CAT5e to each volume control/keybpad location

Computer & Telephone cables will all run back to a patch panel and TV/Speaker cables will run back to main equipment rack.
Will also run 3x RG6 and 3x CAT5e between patch panel and equipment rack.

Have I missed anything?

Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.

richms

27982 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#122494 10-Apr-2008 11:17

Passive volume controls for inbuilt speakers suck, they are typically a stepped autotransformer so you have several settings vs a continuous control that you are accustomed to, if they are commoned off an amp then you set the max level on the amp, and the minimum before off on the control may still be too loud, so you turn the amp down and then the other areas are turned down as well.

I would go straight back to the wiring closet and get a cheap stereo reciever for each zone, that way you have a seperate radio as well, and let your IR repeaters take care of controlling it. Cheaper then one of the overpriced 6 channel ones which has no tuner in it. There are some budget pioneer ones for about $3-400 a piece.

You can get inwall keypads but they are really expensive for what is in essence a cutdown univeral learnign remote.

Richard rich.ms

cyril7

9050 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Subscriber

#122523 10-Apr-2008 13:14

I have to agree richms that speaker level line controls are a cludge, I normally prefer to go the amplfier route, either a bespoke amp or as richms suggests.

Only other option I note is dont delineate between ethernet and phone sockets, just treat them as all the same, only real issu is places where you are likely to want both ensure you have more than 1 cat5e feed/socket.

Cyril