Broconne's Wiring Adventure

[beelzerob]

I ordered all my wire from the same place, keystonewire.com, and even within that order, I got 2 different types of wires at times. Some of the 22/4 I got feels more like 24/4..as in my 22 hole wire strippers wouldn't work on it. The jacket was definitely different...much "tighter". And the two boxes of cat6 I got were vastly different...one had a clear plastic wire divider running through it, the other didn't. Made one much bulkier than the other.

*shrug*

Can't say that one doesn't work as well as the other...but there certainly was variety coming from the same place!

Oh, and there were about 8 - 10 colors of almost every wire available, I'm pretty sure at the same cost. I used color coding as much as possible, and for the most part I stuck to it...but towards the end, when I had a ton of orange cat5e left, and no yellow....I wasn't going to pay for more just to keep a coloring scheme! But it is still quite helpful.

 

[felixrosbergen]

You have cat6 without the plastic divider..i thought that was one of they features of cat6. I agree it makes it a bit harder to handle....but it also prevents a lot of kinking and forces you to respect bend radii and such.

 

[Neurorad]

I found the cheapest, and easiest place, to get 22/4 was the local electric supply store.

I had to buy cat6 in a pinch, so I just bought what they had at HD/Lowes. Seems OK - no probs so far.

 

[felixrosbergen]

broconne:

Not sure if it's been covered but i just remember some things.

If you have a pantry closet of sort nearby your kitchen you want want to put an outlet inside the closet so that you can wall mount a mini-vac (e.g. dirt devil) on the wall in the closet. I forgot about this and will be trying to fish a wire to that location soon.

Similar situation for the laundry room, make sure you have convient oulet in there (i.e outlet at light switch level rather than floor level).

 

[Neurorad]

Speaking of additional outlets - will you need 110v for any cordless phones, near the jacks? I think it's Smarthome that sells a combination phone jack and 110v outlet, ~$30. I'll get one when we renovate the kitchen.

Will you have any curtains in the house? Any need for motorized shades, plantation shutters, or curtains?

I don't recall if you covered an irrigation controller.

If you're using wiring enclosures, leave a stud bay open between 2 cans, for easier side-side runs, if you can. I don't think I'll have the room myself, with the current setup. I'll be forced to put them in adjacent stud bays, if I want a rack in the same area.

 

[Neurorad]

Our house came with some type of Nutone ironing center in the laundry room wall - ironing board folds out. I think it has an outlet in there.

Make sure everything you want is in writing. If it isn't, there is no guarantee it will get done.

 

[pete_c]

Does anyone know of any good flipdown touchscreens or flipdown mounts for a television?

I installed a "flip down" LCD a couple of years ago. Actually I am on flip down TV #3. The first one was a 13" - currently its a 15". The issue with me was sound. The first one had decent sound and the second one was tinny. The third one is OK. It is a combo TV/Monitor. The most difficult part was mounting the brackets inside of the corner kitchen cabinet. I can send pics. I also just recently installed a 19" flat panel on the wall. (still not sure why we have two LCD's in the kitchen?) Using the new combo power / low voltage "built in" boxes it was easy to hide all of the wiring behind the television. Looking for short (less than 10") cabling was more difficult. Will take a couple of pictures.

About 4 years ago we started to build a home - in my search of contractors I included low voltage wiring my home.

Needless to say our contractor stumbled in the beginning with the foundation / footing and contract. IE: My wife had created spreadsheets for what we were getting in the included price and what the contractor agreed to after we signed for. We decided to cancel our contract after about 3 months of the contractor backpeddling on everthing from the brick, electrical, HVAC, etc. The contractor ended up giving us our deposit back ($60 K) and we purchased a home that was 6 months old about 1/4 mile from the contructed home. That was four years ago. I ended up wiring this home with HA, Sound, video, etc myself. I found a means to pass the wires from the basement to the second story attic and from there dropped all cables into the bedrooms/bathrooms. On the main floor put the cabling in from the basement up.

IE: for speakers (a pair in every room including bathrooms) I ran 14/4 to the rooms (box) then 14/2 to the speakers from the rooms' box. For video security ran cat5 with balums or rg6 simese cables. For the HAI-Omni Pro II IR, Keypads, temp, door switches, smokes I just ran cat5. I also am using cat5/microphone cables for line level inputs/outputs from media room to master bedroom. In the media room installed an "extra" 120V outline and line level input for the subwoofer in the opposite corner of where the LCD is. Each room also has 3 RG6's for video. I put my speakers in the walls but many folks prefer them in the ceiling. I used Pyle speakers (purchased two-three cases of these). Just recently rewired my media room for 7.1 sound with ceiling speakers for the middle center sound and external speakers for the rear sound.

In FLA was contructing a home and the builder let us pre-wire it during the weekends. The time lag of about 3 weeks gave us plenty of time to wire the entire home.

I am impressed with your drawings and planning of your home.

Reading the post below - I too have put an outlet inside of the kitchen pantry and today my wife is using it for charging her little vacumn. In the laundry room I installed a second combo outlet - video rg6 connection for a 13" LCD. My wife sometimes hovers between watching her TIVO between the laundry room, main kitchen and kitchen counter LCD.

I have a 200 AMP electrical panel and have adding a number of circuits dedicating a breaker for every new run.

 

[broconne]

broconne:

Not sure if it's been covered but i just remember some things.

If you have a pantry closet of sort nearby your kitchen you want want to put an outlet inside the closet so that you can wall mount a mini-vac (e.g. dirt devil) on the wall in the closet. I forgot about this and will be trying to fish a wire to that location soon.

Similar situation for the laundry room, make sure you have convient oulet in there (i.e outlet at light switch level rather than floor level).

Good point MavRic - I had already added one in the pantry for a mini-vac. What would the one in the laundry room be for?

 

[WayneW]

broconne:
Similar situation for the laundry room, make sure you have convient oulet in there (i.e outlet at light switch level rather than floor level).

Good point MavRic - I had already added one in the pantry for a mini-vac. What would the one in the laundry room be for?

clothes iron or (in our case) dog grooming tools

 

[broconne]

Speaking of additional outlets - will you need 110v for any cordless phones, near the jacks? I think it's Smarthome that sells a combination phone jack and 110v outlet, ~$30. I'll get one when we renovate the kitchen.

I really don't know what to do about cordless phones. The leviton thing that smart home sells, locks you into phones that have a wall mountable base of at least a certain size. I would have to get new phones to fit that. I would love some advice on what people do for phones like that. I would think I would roll with one cordless base station somewhere, and then cordless extension phones in places like the kitchen, etc. Although, perhaps I would want one non-cordless phone, just not sure where to put it The kitchen is the most obvious place, but I would have to have the builder put the jack in. I am afraid of drilling through tile

Will you have any curtains in the house? Any need for motorized shades, plantation shutters, or curtains?

I looked at those, and am interested. But I haven't found a compelling technology to pre-wire for. And pre-wiring 18/2 and cat5 to each window was really expensive. I think $120 per window.

I don't recall if you covered an irrigation controller.

I didn't.. I am really not sure what to cover for this? I would like some points. I expect any controller to be in the mechanical room. Is there anything I would need to pre-wire for? I am not installing any irrigation until after we figure out what we want to do long term for landscaping.

If you're using wiring enclosures, leave a stud bay open between 2 cans, for easier side-side runs, if you can. I don't think I'll have the room myself, with the current setup. I'll be forced to put them in adjacent stud bays, if I want a rack in the same area.

I might have some space constraints with that too. I need to go and measure, then visio what should go where. That is my first priority when I get back from this work trip I am.

 

[broconne]

Our house came with some type of Nutone ironing center in the laundry room wall - ironing board folds out. I think it has an outlet in there.

Make sure everything you want is in writing. If it isn't, there is no guarantee it will get done.

Do you like the ironing center? Would you recommend it?

 

[broconne]

Does anyone know of any good flipdown touchscreens or flipdown mounts for a television?

I installed a "flip down" LCD a couple of years ago. Actually I am on flip down TV #3. The first one was a 13" - currently its a 15". The issue with me was sound. The first one had decent sound and the second one was tinny. The third one is OK. It is a combo TV/Monitor. The most difficult part was mounting the brackets inside of the corner kitchen cabinet. I can send pics. I also just recently installed a 19" flat panel on the wall. (still not sure why we have two LCD's in the kitchen?) Using the new combo power / low voltage "built in" boxes it was easy to hide all of the wiring behind the television. Looking for short (less than 10") cabling was more difficult. Will take a couple of pictures.

About 4 years ago we started to build a home - in my search of contractors I included low voltage wiring my home.

Needless to say our contractor stumbled in the beginning with the foundation / footing and contract. IE: My wife had created spreadsheets for what we were getting in the included price and what the contractor agreed to after we signed for. We decided to cancel our contract after about 3 months of the contractor backpeddling on everthing from the brick, electrical, HVAC, etc. The contractor ended up giving us our deposit back ($60 K) and we purchased a home that was 6 months old about 1/4 mile from the contructed home. That was four years ago. I ended up wiring this home with HA, Sound, video, etc myself. I found a means to pass the wires from the basement to the second story attic and from there dropped all cables into the bedrooms/bathrooms. On the main floor put the cabling in from the basement up.

IE: for speakers (a pair in every room including bathrooms) I ran 14/4 to the rooms (box) then 14/2 to the speakers from the rooms' box. For video security ran cat5 with balums or rg6 simese cables. For the HAI-Omni Pro II IR, Keypads, temp, door switches, smokes I just ran cat5. I also am using cat5/microphone cables for line level inputs/outputs from media room to master bedroom. In the media room installed an "extra" 120V outline and line level input for the subwoofer in the opposite corner of where the LCD is. Each room also has 3 RG6's for video. I put my speakers in the walls but many folks prefer them in the ceiling. I used Pyle speakers (purchased two-three cases of these). Just recently rewired my media room for 7.1 sound with ceiling speakers for the middle center sound and external speakers for the rear sound.

In FLA was contructing a home and the builder let us pre-wire it during the weekends. The time lag of about 3 weeks gave us plenty of time to wire the entire home.

I am impressed with your drawings and planning of your home.

Reading the post below - I too have put an outlet inside of the kitchen pantry and today my wife is using it for charging her little vacumn. In the laundry room I installed a second combo outlet - video rg6 connection for a 13" LCD. My wife sometimes hovers between watching her TIVO between the laundry room, main kitchen and kitchen counter LCD.

I have a 200 AMP electrical panel and have adding a number of circuits dedicating a breaker for every new run.

Sounds like you have done a lot of work! Awesome, do you have any details on the flip downs? Model numbers, etc?

 

[beelzerob]

Motorized shades are probably most useful for windows that are normally pretty inaccessible...like 2nd floor windows. So if you were going to put shades on a window like that, then it might be good to wire for the possibility of controlling them. Or, if your normal morning ritual as soon as you get out of bed is to throw the shades open...then that'd be another case. Otherwise, it'd hard to plan for...I didn't wire for ANY motorized shades. The price of the actual motorized shades threw me more than anything.

As far as irrigation...you'll most likely use the rain8net, which is a valve controller. So it powers the irrigation valves open or closed depending on serial command. In a case like that, you'd want the controller inside somewhere most likely, and the valve wires (18/2) would go to wherever the valves are. Probably not a lot of pre-wiring you'd have to do in that case, unless you want to mount the controller in the garage and control it from somewhere else.

 

[Neurorad]

We had an irrigation system installed about a year and a half ago, before I got the HA bug. The system was very expensive (to me) - 11 zones, and included a fully programmable controller. The controller does not have a serial port, AFAIK - haven't really given it a close look, given the high level of programming on the controller, and the rain sensor. Honestly, I don't even know how it's connected to the valves. It's mounted in the garage, on a wall.

Estimates for installation (~8) varied over a huge range - I ended up going with the second cheapest, and I think I got a great deal.

From a brief search, it appears that the Rain8 is controlled through serial communication. Running a wire from the garage wall (where an irrigation controller could be mounted) to the mechanical room. Someone else should certainly confirm this. I think most people run serial over catx.

I'll take a close look at my controller this evening.

In my last house, which was new at the time, we had considerable difficulty starting a new lawn, until we installed an irrigation system. Give it a couple years to find out.

I think WiFi could be an option to fall back on, as a nice looking lawn isn't at the top of most people's priority lists. Too much work and $ for the result.

 

[Neurorad]

I agree about the motorized shades - only where they are inaccessable, or in a media rooom/theater.

I have 2nd story plantation shutters that I've never touched - difficult to run power to them, and retrofitting existing shutters turns out to be a big project. The motors themselves are probably the most expensive part. Would be cheaper to buy new motorized shutters, but that would take the fun out of it.

If you have second story windows, run power, and possibly catx, to the top of the windows. There are battery powered options for curtains/shades/shutters, but changing the batteries would be a real chore.