Getting ready to pre-wire new construction - your thoughts?

[skcocoon]

Hey everyone! Just want to briefly introduce myself, say hi, and ask for your advice/feedback on my pending plans to wire my house.

I'm building a 2 story house + walkout basement. Approx 2800 sq ft + about 1300 in the basement (which will be finished later). I'm planning on running all of the LV cabling for immediate use, as well as futureproofing as much as possible. Right now the house is about 75% framed - so the electrian will be in in about 2 weeks to start the HV stuff, and I'll come in after with the LV.

The main goals I want to accomplish:

• Full Structure wiring for Network and Phone
• Distributed A/V
• whole home audio (Nuvo Grand Concerto)
• futureproof for home security (probably ELK?)
• futureproof for home automation (probably ELK?)
• futureproof for On-Q ALC Lighting (read about 36 pages of a thread on this earlier in the week )

Some details:

• I have a LARGE wiring closet planned out beneath the stairs. It's actually much bigger than I could have even figured it would have been. I had one side of the stairs framed out with 2x6s so that I can have a some 4" conduits run between the basement and attic for current and future use. All LV wiring will be homerunned here.
• I'll have access to the first floor walls from the basement, and to the second floor walls from the attic. Obviously I'll only have preliminary access to the first floor ceiling until it's finished off.
• I have an open-source DVR product I use (mythtv). I plan on distributing the audio and the video from the closet, to eliminate A/V equipment in several of the rooms.
• I do want to wire for whole home audio, but I will not be putting the system in until much later.
• I want to put in security sensors now while I have the opportunity.

Now - I'm pretty confident I can handle this task, but that doesn't mean I don't have a million questions. I've read many of the guides on here, and suggestions here and elsewhere. However, some areas are a little more foreign to me than others:

1. Security sensor wiring - This is one area where I'm a little lost. I know there's 4 wire conductors and 2 wire conductors. I know that some sensors need the 4 wire for power, while others don't. I would assume it's probably OK just to use 4 wire everywhere to eliminate mistakes in wiring. I'm also confused with the concept of EOL resistors, and when/where they're needed.
2. Distributed HD Video - I'm a little lost on exactly what kind of Coax I should consider when distributing Component Video. I do not want to use Cat5 and Baluns for this purpose.
3. Where to purchase - I have bought boxes of Cat5 from monoprice before, but they don't stock security wire. Any favorite suppliers around here for DIY structured wiring projects?

In general - I'm just looking for any additional advice/suggestions you might have to help me get off the ground and running. I appreciate all the help and the community has provided me a ton of info as I've researched in read-only mode for the past 2 months. Thanks!

 

[beelzerob]

If you haven't read this recent thread and all its sub-threads, that's a good idea.

 

[AceCannon]

Component video: I used RG59 "minicoax" in a bundle of 5 conductors. Found it on Ebay, I believe for cheap. I also ran cat5e x four runs per video location for future-proofing, baluns, etc.

 

[beelzerob]

I was very pleased with keystone wire, and if you order enough from them (which it sounds like you will), it'll be free shipping. Just try to have all your wire needs ready to go in the first order.

 

[Ridgeline]

What is the deal with Keystone? With no product descriptions or pricing, their website seems totally useless. Way too many cryptic codes, but I guess it helps keep out the riffraff! I get the feeling that they only recently graduated from the world of faxes.

 

[beelzerob]

Heh...ya, I forgot to mention, you DON'T order off their website. You just get the phone number from there. I think they have several different locations around the US (Steve directed me to keystone, but he ordered from florida...my order went to Philly).

 

[skcocoon]

I was very pleased with keystone wire, and if you order enough from them (which it sounds like you will), it'll be free shipping. Just try to have all your wire needs ready to go in the first order.

I think part of my problem is that I won't be able to put it all in at once. I suppose I could order all at once, but part of the beauty of the conduit was that I could come back and do some of it later. I'm sure keystone is good... I saw their website a month or so ago. If I remember correctly, they had a TON of products in their catalog. Might be a bit confusing trying to pick out the right product from that list.

 

[skcocoon]

Component video: I used RG59 "minicoax" in a bundle of 5 conductors. Found it on Ebay, I believe for cheap. I also ran cat5e x four runs per video location for future-proofing, baluns, etc.

Yea - I've been thinking about minicoax - but it seems a little bit more expensive and harder to find from an on-line storefront. It is appealing though as you can snake it much, much easier. I just can't seem to come to a decision on how to transport the component video.

Thanks!

 

[sic0048]

Yea - I've been thinking about minicoax - but it seems a little bit more expensive and harder to find from an on-line storefront. It is appealing though as you can snake it much, much easier. I just can't seem to come to a decision on how to transport the component video.

Thanks!

I bought mini coax from a local supply house. It ran about $225 per 1000' spool. The mini coax size is cheaper than the RG-59 or RG-6 sized precision wire due to the smaller amounts of copper and other materials used - size does matter B).

It is easy to work with and terminating it isn't that hard - especially if you use one part compression fittings. I've used both one part and two part fittings and the one part fittings are much easier to use. The smaller wire size makes it easier to pull and takes up less space. It is probably 1/2 the size of RG-6 wires. This could be very important if you are using conduit.

Running the precision cable will allow you to distribute HD and digital audio. While it is more expensive than regular RG-6 wire, I know it will work. I originally tried running component video over my existing RG-6 cable (it is not quad shield) and got very bad results which were not watchable. Running the mini coax fixed my problems even on long runs.

 

[AceCannon]

RG59 minicoax, 5-conductor cable. 250ft box: $87.99 plus $41.63 shipping.

Ebay item# 400016950798

I ran inexpensive cable like this to most locations, but backed it up with four runs of cat5e.

 

[felixrosbergen]

I think it's great people introduce themselves....and it seems like most have done a good bit of somework before actually posting...

Generally it seem to work to find somebody with similar goals or a similar setup and kind of model after that...and just READ READ READ...forums and manual...like crazy...

Or in case of pre-wire don't worry too much about the hardware and just get the cabling in...you did sort of need to know if you're going to do component distriution or sagetv type system ofcourse for that..

For the EOL...just read a bit more...it will become clear...i decide not to bother with it...but to each his own..for ELK you don't need em..think for HAI you need them..

 

[skcocoon]

I think it's great people introduce themselves....and it seems like most have done a good bit of somework before actually posting...

Generally it seem to work to find somebody with similar goals or a similar setup and kind of model after that...and just READ READ READ...forums and manual...like crazy...

Or in case of pre-wire don't worry too much about the hardware and just get the cabling in...you did sort of need to know if you're going to do component distriution or sagetv type system ofcourse for that..

For the EOL...just read a bit more...it will become clear...i decide not to bother with it...but to each his own..for ELK you don't need em..think for HAI you need them..

Happy to introduce myself. I'm a big fan of searching and reading beforehand so I can answer my own questions, but sometimes a little reassurance is helpful - even if I've read the answer a dozen times - so I appreciate the warm welcome

As far as research - I think my mistake was that I should have taken notes along the way. I've spent way more than 100+ hours on this and other forums over the last several months, but now that it's almost go-time, I'm finding that I have a really good high-level overstanding of all of this, and my comfort level is pretty high, but I'm lacking some of those lower level details and suggestions that I've come across. There have been a lot of great tips and tricks that people have learned along the way and shared with the community, hopefully I can find a lot of those all over again without spending days upon days of searching through a bazillion threads.

So - now it's back to the bookmarks, and to try and bullet point some of the finer points.

I walked the house today and I'm finding that I'm already going to have to workaround some interesting structural things. Like the fact that my main A/V wall on the first floor sits on top of a huge steel I beam in the basement. Of course I asked them to build that wall as a 2x6 to make running some of the wires and in-wall speakers easier, but now I'm going to figure out how I'm going to get into that wall from the basement in the first place.

I'll probably start a new thread shortly, like some of the others, to document my plan of attack, ask specific questions, and talk about how the install goes.

Thanks!

 

[ysualum]

For the EOL...just read a bit more...it will become clear...i decide not to bother with it...but to each his own..for ELK you don't need em..think for HAI you need them..

Just wanted to clarify, and correct me if I'm wrong: HAI doesn't require EOL. You can have them all with EOL or all w/o. You can use up to 2 of the 16 zone expanders (10A06-1) and still not require EOLs. Once you go over that and need to add in the expansion boards (17A00-9), this will require the use of EOLs.

Smokes require 1K resistors.

 

[skcocoon]

For the EOL...just read a bit more...it will become clear...i decide not to bother with it...but to each his own..for ELK you don't need em..think for HAI you need them..

Just wanted to clarify, and correct me if I'm wrong: HAI doesn't require EOL. You can have them all with EOL or all w/o. You can use up to 2 of the 16 zone expanders (10A06-1) and still not require EOLs. Once you go over that and need to add in the expansion boards (17A00-9), this will require the use of EOLs.

Smokes require 1K resistors.

So - don't worry about EOL? How "screwed" would I be if I don't put in EOLs, and then find out they're needed a year down the road?

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

IF you run into a panel that requires EOL's you could always place them at the panel itself. Mind you that this will not provide the monitoring of the wiring to the sensor, but it will at least give you EOL compliance as far as the panel is concerned.