Wiring my house for Network! Yet another thread!

[drvnbysound]

I haven't done any optimization like mentioned above on my Sage server as of yet, but it's a great idea. It could certainly go to sleep while I am away at work (usually no scheduled recordings during this time anyway).

I manually put my main desktop to sleep each time I leave my office...

 

[activemind]

I don't have a Kill-A-Watt to test - I have thought about buying one, just haven't worried about it much yet. My power bill for last month was $155 (highest has been $218 in Sept. of 2009). It's within my budget, so I really don't worry about it... :-/

A must have for every tinkerrer.....its $15 on sale most of the times!

 

[activemind]

By LV conduit, I meant a conduit going between your breaker box and LV enclosure, if you ever had plans do energy monitoring where you mount CT's in your breaker box and monitor how much power circuits are using, trigger events for things like the washer or dryer shut off, etc. Brultech is one vendor. I was just saying while you had the wall open, cover as many bases as possible...

Oh ! Now you are giving me new ideas for projects! Just bought a house so first time delving into all of this! Thats why need to get over the fear of drilling holes! I will bookmark this company and read about it later on.

Thanks for the heads up. See thats the reason I came on the forum and not my local shop!

 

[tmbrown97]

I don't have a Kill-A-Watt to test - I have thought about buying one, just haven't worried about it much yet. My power bill for last month was $155 (highest has been $218 in Sept. of 2009). It's within my budget, so I really don't worry about it... :-/

This is all LED lighting, 2 computers (with monitors and peripherals always off); no stereos, TV rarely on... It's ridiculous. The only thing plugged into the kids rooms are the camera for each room and a night light.

 

[drvnbysound]

My wife is bad about leaving the TV and/or lights on all over the house for extended periods of time. Also, until this past bill we had left the ceiling fan in our living room and MBR on 24/7. I have started trying to turn them off when we aren't in either room or home at all... looking to see how much this actually impacts the bill...

Knowing that energy costs vary widely across the country which could result in various charges, I just grabbed my last bill to see actual usage...

Total usage (last month): 1,387kWh... 28 days in billing cycle @ $0.09869/kWh ($0.06193 Energy Charge, $0.03676 Fuel Charge); $136.88 + $15 base charge, and some tax = ~$155

 

[activemind]

Okay, so after scoping out some more and measuring , I dont think the MCB wall is going to work.

The other wall would also be a pain.

I think I will go ahead and mount it in the space underneath the stairs. The biggest reason I wanted it in the garage is because I will have all my servers there but if I would still have to fish wires for wall jacks to connect my servers, who cares where the patch panel is. This will go on the wall opposite the security panel. I used a stud finder and am going to cut it open, little like 6"X6" because the AC detect on the stud sensor was beeping like crazy...

How reliable are those AC things on the stud detectors ?

 

[activemind]

Okay, so after scoping out some more and measuring , I dont think the MCB wall is going to work.

The other wall would also be a pain.

I think I will go ahead and mount it in the space underneath the stairs. The biggest reason I wanted it in the garage is because I will have all my servers there but if I would still have to fish wires for wall jacks to connect my servers, who cares where the patch panel is. This will go on the wall opposite the security panel. I used a stud finder and am going to cut it open, little like 6"X6" because the AC detect on the stud sensor was beeping like crazy...

How reliable are those AC things on the stud detectors ?

 

[drvnbysound]

Okay, so after scoping out some more and measuring , I dont think the MCB wall is going to work.

The other wall would also be a pain.

I think I will go ahead and mount it in the space underneath the stairs. The biggest reason I wanted it in the garage is because I will have all my servers there but if I would still have to fish wires for wall jacks to connect my servers, who cares where the patch panel is. This will go on the wall opposite the security panel. I used a stud finder and am going to cut it open, little like 6"X6" because the AC detect on the stud sensor was beeping like crazy...

How reliable are those AC things on the stud detectors ?

Servers in a garage??

Ideally, you want servers in an environmentally controlled space (not only temperature, but also humidity) and also somewhere that's relatively clean (e.g. dust)... generally speaking, a garage is neither of these.

 

[tmbrown97]

Total usage (last month): 1,387kWh... 28 days in billing cycle @ $0.09869/kWh ($0.06193 Energy Charge, $0.03676 Fuel Charge); $136.88 + $15 base charge, and some tax = ~$155

And for comparison, November above was 1,375kWh, and $337 (before taxes and surcharges and all that). Same bill had $100 for natural gas as well. It's expensive here! The months where it's high is because the A/C is on.

As for the Garage factor, he's already spoken to that previously. Given where he's at, temperature and humidity should be pretty moderate year round. I wouldn't do it either, but I've had a dedicated office since my second apartment.

 

[activemind]

Servers in a garage??

Ideally, you want servers in an environmentally controlled space (not only temperature, but also humidity) and also somewhere that's relatively clean (e.g. dust)... generally speaking, a garage is neither of these.

Point taken! W2P and I were having a discussion about this earlier in the thread.

Anyways, will worry about it when I get there.

I think the patch panel in the garage is a no go. I will move it to the area underneath the stairs.

I was looking around and found the Channel Vision designer plexi-glass 50" can that W2P was talking about for $150, Is that a good price ?

 

[drvnbysound]

And for comparison, November above was 1,375kWh, and $337 (before taxes and surcharges and all that). Same bill had $100 for natural gas as well. It's expensive here! The months where it's high is because the A/C is on.

As for the Garage factor, he's already spoken to that previously. Given where he's at, temperature and humidity should be pretty moderate year round. I wouldn't do it either, but I've had a dedicated office since my second apartment.

Eeek! ... and I don't have any natural gas service! All of my appliances are electric!

 

[activemind]

Eeek! ... and I don't have any natural gas service! ;-) All of my appliances are electric!

I don't know if I should be ashamed or proud. h34r:

My bill generally hovers around $150 every month for both gas and electric.

Granted we don't need to use AC that much (like 10 days a year) ,fans and opening up the window pretty much does the job!

Also, I am anal about turning off stuff if you are not using it or if there is nobody in the room. Power off all my computers/servers over nite.
The ones that remain on are very power efficient. Either Celeron (yes! Celeron) or Atom based servers 250-400W power supplies! :rockon:

 

[tmbrown97]

Ubiquiti is supposed to be pretty close to releasing their mPower strips which will allow you to fully monitor the cost of what's plugged in and also remotely switch things; once those hit the market, I'll likely have them everywhere to track consumption. I already use a smart strip at the TV that turns everything off when it turns off; at my computer, I use a Belkin Conserve that turns off everything but the PC itself. Around the rest of the house, there really just isn't much plugged in. Our electric rates are just obnoxious! Part of it is the dishwasher every day (twice/day on weekends) and the laundry never ending. I need to find a way to meter the dryer to figure out the ROI on switching to Gas.

For the Can/Cover yeah, $150 is about right for just the door. It comes at a bit of a premium, but adds a lot of "cool" factor in addition to it protruding out a bit adding space and vents for the optional cooling fan.

Given where you're located, check out HomeControls.com - they're never mentioned here, but they're a great CA based company and with ground shipping you'll get everything next day. I've been working with them for about 12-13 years now. They also put out a great catalog every so often.

 

[drvnbysound]

I don't know if I should be ashamed or proud. h34r:

My bill generally hovers around $150 every month for both gas and electric.

Granted we don't need to use AC that much (like 10 days a year) ,fans and opening up the window pretty much does the job!

Also, I am anal about turning off stuff if you are not using it or if there is nobody in the room. Power off all my computers/servers over nite.
The ones that remain on are very power efficient. Either Celeron (yes! Celeron) or Atom based servers 250-400W power supplies! :rockon:

I think the AC is a big one. I am in FL, and my AC may be turned off for 10 days a year...

 

[activemind]

Mounting around that box probably won't work because I am betting you have power wires going in the top (I am assuming that is an electrical panel, not sure what MCB means). The enclosures are design to fit in a 16" stud cavity, I would go to the left (if you have no wires there and bigger is better go witht the 42"). And Ideally I would try to stay 1 stud bay away from the HV panel (you may find wires on the side cavities as well). Also when you do open the wall, make sure you run power to the LV enclosure, and you may also want a LV conduit if you plan on ever doing power monitoring (i.e. Brultech, etc).

I am not sure that that 42" enclosure you linked to has standard holes or not, they look a little funky to me. It just looks low-quality. Some manufactures have non-standard hole layouts to force you to use all of their modules. I would stick with Elk, Leviton, or Channel Vision. I personally like the Leviton the best, they cost more but they are higher quality than Elk. Channel Vision also makes a 50"....

If I were you I would just open up the wall and see what your options are....

Just to be sure before I go ahead and place the order, if I buy the Channel Vision 50" ...would be able to use Channel Vision , Leviton or Elk modules inside. I dont have to stick to the same brand ! Right ?