Building a new house

[tmbrown97]

Good luck in your endeavors. It seems like you don't care for feedback, hence the Blog suggestion... that's a good place to document what you do so those interested can see how it plays out for you. I get thinking outside the box, but there's a lot to be learned from others as well, as there are a lot of very knowledgable people here.

 

[easytimhal]

Hey all. I'm building a new house. My main goals for automation are:
- Security
- AV Distribution

Obviously things like lighting controls and temperature are nice, and since they seem to be way cheaper then the AV distribution will be things I will likely add, but my priority is around those two things.

I found a local dealer around here and he gave me a price to wire the whole house (3 story, 2200 sq ft finished) and it was 2800. Only 950 of it was labor he seemed to just crush me with the pricing for wiring. I was planning on getting his price then seeing if its worth it to DIY it. I think I will end up doing this myself, as I'm fairly technical and I think I can handle it. I have no idea what system I want to use, the dealer that I went to uses Control 4. His own setup was very slow and it is also very closed so I am not really interested.

So I guess my questions are, for a low budget system which prioritizes AV/Security/Openness, what should I use? Are the wiring requirements basically the same?

Lastly, where do you all buy your wire from? I was able to find most of it on monoprice.com but couldnt find the speaker/cat5e siamese wire

jms5180 Take a look at this, there are other DVDs as well, but this is one of the better ones.
http://cocoontech.co...-and-video-dvd/

 

[jmorris644]

Hey all. I'm building a new house. My main goals for automation are:
- Security
- AV Distribution

Obviously things like lighting controls and temperature are nice, and since they seem to be way cheaper then the AV distribution will be things I will likely add, but my priority is around those two things.

I found a local dealer around here and he gave me a price to wire the whole house (3 story, 2200 sq ft finished) and it was 2800. Only 950 of it was labor he seemed to just crush me with the pricing for wiring. I was planning on getting his price then seeing if its worth it to DIY it. I think I will end up doing this myself, as I'm fairly technical and I think I can handle it. I have no idea what system I want to use, the dealer that I went to uses Control 4. His own setup was very slow and it is also very closed so I am not really interested.

So I guess my questions are, for a low budget system which prioritizes AV/Security/Openness, what should I use? Are the wiring requirements basically the same?

Lastly, where do you all buy your wire from? I was able to find most of it on monoprice.com but couldnt find the speaker/cat5e siamese wire

FWIW, Here are my thoughts. You can also search for other posts from me. I vaguely remember writing a fairly lengthy post about the research that I did as well as my final decisions.

I just finished building a 8000 sq ft house. I do not do electronics and/or programming for a living but both are hobbies of mine. I research for a year looking for what I considered a good DIY system. I ended up choosing HAI as the core of what I put together. Once I chose HAI I looked for an installer to help me with the planning and installation. I must admit, there are not too many installers that are DIY friendly. I did not find one locally. I did find an installer in Colorado (MileHighAutomation) that was willing to do any part of the installation and let me do any part that I wanted to do. I sent them my blueprints and they laid out the necessary cable runs. I also contracted with them to order the cables and pull them. Boy am I glad that I had them (or any other experiences installer for that matter) pull the wires. This is definitely one area where you don't want to make a mistake. Especially for the video because you really can't replace the video with wireless if you forget a cable run like you can for motion or contact sensors.

I did all of the final component connections and programming myself. It was a lot of fun and because I did all of the connections and wire terminations I know how everything works and fits together. One other factor that really adds to the ease of use to my environment is HAIKU. HAIKU is a 3rd party software that controls HAI systems on IOS devices (and maybe Android). I can control security, lighting, HVAC, cameras,etc form anywhere in the world with my iPhone or iPads. Additionally I run the HAIKU Helper on a MAC Mini in the house and create my own web pages that also control the house.

Here is what I have installed in the house:

HAI for security and automation
HAIKU for remote control of the house
HDMI 4x8 distribution with Atlona (I have 3 Tivo premieres all in one place and distributed throughout the house using the Atlona)
Nuvo for the whole house audio distribution (I have 16 zones)
Sony dome infrared cameras that all tie into the HAI system.
WGL Rain8 irrigation controllers that are controlled by the HAI system
9.1 surround in the theater powered by Denon equipment which is also connected to the HDMI Atlona. (22 foot diagonal screen, 1080p)
Plus a bunch of other little stuff. Just ordered a Tivo Stream box. (Sounds like fun.)

If you have any questions please feel free to ask.

Joe

 

[treo650]

@joe

WOW 8000ft house is more than I can ever dream of... You're a LUCKY MAN.

Can I ask how many bedrooms/bath?

 

[easytimhal]

Finding someone that can do the job can be really really hard, and a good one even harder. Thanks for the nice post, I enjoyed it. I would love to see some pictures THANKS for sharing Joe -----COOL
I'm going to be building a 2200 sq ft home in Florida, I will be doing the total install myself, I have 100% of this equipment bought and ready to go

Home automation will run all lighting, home audio and yard lights
with an ISY-99 using Insteon - controllable with iPhone

Cameras will be 4 Pelco III w/dome IP with Pelco DD53CBW Security Cameras - High Resolution With 23x Zoom Lens
Day /Night with all 4 cameras connected to a Axis 241Q video server. - controllable with iPhone

Whole house audio, ATON DLA6 6-Room Speaker Level Audio Router w/RF remote and IR remote and touch wall plates in each zone

All lighting is 100% LEDs with 23 dimmable LED downlights and 6 zones with LEDs in tray ceiling or indirect
all are RF controlled to change color or to keep beat with the music at any zone - controllable with iPhone

Water system is a Toro Ecxtra 6 zone drip system, computer programable with USB dongle to upload into system controller

Thermostat is a FILTRETE WI-FI TOUCH-SCREEN PROGRAMMABLE THERMOSTAT MODEL 3M50 - controllable with iPhone

Music will be coming from Internet Radio and from PC files using a networkable Pioneer vsx-1022-k receiver - all controllable with iPhone.

Security is lots of motion detectors and a Uplink transmitter.

Internet radio station is from http://www.live365.com/index.live#./ its called Island Time - controllable with iPhone


I bought 85% of these things off e-bay and I was able to shop for months to get the best prices. I'm retired and have too much time on my hands
I'm going to be doing all of my own structured wiring. RG6,CAT5e,16ga speaker wire,CAT5e burial,18/4 and 22/4 wire for LEDs above cabinets, pavers,lanai lights etc.
I have become an expert on all types of in-wall wire ratings and putting on RJ45 and RG6 Snap-N-Seal connectors and I'm sure there will be alot more to learn.

One other thing that I bought is a Davis Wireless Vantage Pro 2 Weather Station 6152
Living on an Island off the coast of Florida, a weather station will be helpful - I will be setting this up to view all weather station info on my web site.
I'm a newbie with this weather station stuff, it should be fun, I can't wait This cool gadget, will hold me for awhile

A good forum here for Weather Stations : http://www.wxforum.n...08f2f85b620ff77;


Like Joe, if you got any questions just ask,


Thanks, Tim



.

 

[drvnbysound]

I see that a number of your 'systems' are controllable via iPhone... are any of these integrated together? Or do you have to open different apps for each 'system'?

For me, I really want the least amount of interfaces possible, rather than a bunch of stand-alone products...

 

[jmorris644]

I see that a number of your 'systems' are controllable via iPhone... are any of these integrated together? Or do you have to open different apps for each 'system'?
For me, I really want the least amount of interfaces possible, rather than a bunch of stand-alone products...

That's hat I like about Haiku. One app controls everything except the theater electronics.

 

[jmorris644]

@joe
WOW 8000ft house is more than I can ever dream of... You're a LUCKY MAN.
Can I ask how many bedrooms/bath?

Thanks, a master suite plus 3 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms. 1000 sq ft is the theater.

 

[tmbrown97]

I see that a number of your 'systems' are controllable via iPhone... are any of these integrated together? Or do you have to open different apps for each 'system'?

For me, I really want the least amount of interfaces possible, rather than a bunch of stand-alone products...

That's exactly what I was going to ask. It's great that there are apps for each thing separately, but you're losing the integration. Like for most of us, we can have the HVAC set back by the Security system when arm/disarm it. Or if we want to, we can have the audio system set on or off depending on what time of day it is and set the mood as we disarm the alarm or even enter the garage. We can have the lights come on automatically if the house alarms or to light a path as we open the doors. We can use the weather station results to control our sprinklers and frequency of watering or even just pull from a local weather service (thanks to wunderground.com, I can get the results of my neighbor's station 6 houses down!).

As long as you're happy that's cool - but I know most of us (and our wives) prefer a single point that has everything in one place.

 

[jmorris644]

We can use the weather station results to control our sprinklers and frequency of watering or even just pull from a local weather service (thanks to wunderground.com,

Is there a data feed of some sort? How are you using the data programatically?

Joe

 

[tmbrown97]

Is there a data feed of some sort? How are you using the data programatically?

They have an API for integration. Currently I have the $99 Intro version of Elve running on a PC and it has an interface for it. I'm able to tell it which weather station I want, and I located that person - he's literally just around the corner a couple houses down.

With the API, a TON of stuff is exposed including several sets of weather icons to show today through the next 5 days, chance of rain, current temp, apparent temp, and a whole lot of other stuff. Once I have that, I can use Elve to stuff it into custom variables in the Elk for programmatic use. This can be sprinklers, HVAC, or anything else. One handy use I have is sending the current outside temperature to my RCS thermostats to be displayed on-screen; and if the outside temperature is lower than the upstairs temperature, I send a "message" to the RCS thermostats which causes them to flash a red light. Once the temperature outside is warmer, the red light flashes. This is to indicate to turn off the A/C and open up some windows so the Whole House Fan can be turned on to save some $$$.

Now that I'm thinking about it, I really should make that a UPB switch today; then I can automate the setback of the HVAC when the fan is kicked on as well, and tell it to cycle the HVAC fan for 15 minutes every hour to distribute the fresh air...

 

[jms5180]

Well I can see things got a little hijacked here. I am going to be doing all of the wiring myself, so I will be looking into that extensively. I have a pretty good idea as to what I need, but the first thing I need to decide HDMI or component for video distro.

Seems like eventually I'll be going with HAI/Lustron/NUVO/ELK. We'll see though. Any other input would be helpful. House isnt huge (3k sq ft) but should still be a pretty big project. Thanks!

 

[jmorris644]

Well I can see things got a little hijacked here. I am going to be doing all of the wiring myself, so I will be looking into that extensively. I have a pretty good idea as to what I need, but the first thing I need to decide HDMI or component for video distro.

Seems like eventually I'll be going with HAI/Lustron/NUVO/ELK. We'll see though. Any other input would be helpful. House isnt huge (3k sq ft) but should still be a pretty big project. Thanks!

3ksqft is a BIG project. Especially if you get something wrong and all the walls go up.

I am a little confused by both the HAI AND the Elk. Also, I woulkd look very closely at the HAI lighting offerings vs the Lutron. The NUVO works great at my house and it talks directly to the HAI so my HAIKU controls all of my music too.

In regards to HDMI vs component I would recommend HDMI and I would use a HDMI switch. These use dual Cat5 runs which are a lot easier to run and you can run them a lot further.

joe

 

[jms5180]

3ksqft is a BIG project. Especially if you get something wrong and all the walls go up.

I am a little confused by both the HAI AND the Elk. Also, I woulkd look very closely at the HAI lighting offerings vs the Lutron. The NUVO works great at my house and it talks directly to the HAI so my HAIKU controls all of my music too.

In regards to HDMI vs component I would recommend HDMI and I would use a HDMI switch. These use dual Cat5 runs which are a lot easier to run and you can run them a lot further.

joe

That sounds great.

During the house construction. I will only be doing:
Wiring for everything
In Ceiling/deck speakers
Possibly In wall speakers for family room
Ip cameras

Shortly after I hope to add NUVO system followed by a good distributed video solution

 

[jmorris644]

That sounds great.

During the house construction. I will only be doing:
Wiring for everything
In Ceiling/deck speakers
Possibly In wall speakers for family room
Ip cameras

Shortly after I hope to add NUVO system followed by a good distributed video solution

That reminds me, I also used CAT5 with baluns for the security cameras.

Joe