Wiring your new house 101

electron

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I know people have been looking for this document for a long time, but once you download the zip file, you will understand why it took so long. This is not a final copy yet, but I am looking for comments/suggestions before I start converting it into other formats as well.

Many thanks go out to jlehnert, who has spent a lot of time compiling all this information into an easy to read format!

Download: 'Wiring your new home 101.zip' (148k)
 
Now that I've been away from the document for a few days, all sorts of errors pop up when reading through. Missing the trees for the forest type of situation.

In the 101 document under "Coax", it should read

"A special type of coax called mini-coax is used for connecting the components of a home theatre system. This is the only place mini-coax should be used. The benefit of mini-coax is a much smaller bend radius, allowing it fit behind the equipment without leaving 2 ft of space between the wall and the equipment.

Also, RG59 is still used in some cases for security cameras. However, unless you intend to have a significant number of cameras, or a large amount of cable, you can substitute RG6QS instead."

Under "A word about wireless", the second to last sentence should read

"The only (practical) time you can install wires is during construction, and the cost is negligible".

In the 102 document, all the embedded HTML links are changed. This didn't happen to the links in the 102 document, so I'm assuming it wasn't intentional. I also forgot the setup the hyperlinks between the check sheet and the "Automation" section.

In the 103 document, I'm still not sure if I should have included the electrical suggestions. I reserve the right to be indecisive. :)
 
Very nice.

I too am in the process of designing and building a new home. That project is what brought me here and to other HA forums.

Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

Larry in Denver
 
Forgot to thankyou jlehnert. I am endebted to your work and patience with this.

You have done all of us a great service. Not to mention, saving me countless weeks of research.

Thankyou!
 
Any more comments anyone?

There are a couple in this thread, and I've also received some private feedback. Now that it's been a month and my head has cleaned out, I want to go back and see about finishing things up. Once that's done, E can do the formating and move it into the "How-To" section.
 
Any more comments anyone?

I just spent the past week doing the structured wiring for my new house. This included phone, internet, cable, audio, IR, security, and cameras. I must say the guide helped a great deal and I appreciate the effort that we put into it.

As I was doing my wiring, here are the things that I would do differently next time. I think some of these were covered in your document, some are not...

- Figure out how much wire you need prior to starting your project. Or at least find a local distributor that has the type of wire you want. Home Depot and Lowes in my area don't have CAT6, and Quad Shield RG6 is rare. I was shocked how quickly I went through a 1000' spool of wire. I thought 1 spool would be enough, but I recently ordered my 4th.

- Don't mess with Cat 5e wire...Cat 6 is MUCH easier to run. I read this before starting my project, but dismissed it and went with the cheaper CAT5e wiring for my phone system. I quickly came to realize that the money savings was not worth it.

- Buy multiple boxes of wire so you can have multiple runs of the same type of wire at the same time. In other words, rather than buying a 1000 foot spool of wire, buy two 500 foot spools.

- Don't buy wire that is not in a spool. Some of the security wire I purchased was not on a spool or in a box and quickly got tangled up to the point where I couldn't use it.

- For Audio wire, use 4 conductor from the keypad/volume control to your distribution panel and two conductor from the volume control to the speakers. This way, you don't have to run two runs of 2-conductor wire to the distribution point.
 
- Don't mess with Cat 5e wire...Cat 6 is MUCH easier to run. I read this before starting my project, but dismissed it and went with the cheaper CAT5e wiring for my phone system. I quickly came to realize that the money savings was not worth it.
I am curious as to why you feel that way. The industry experts at EHX recommend just the opposte in fact. They feel that Cat5e is more than sufficient for the foreseeable future. Cat5e is 24 gauge vs 23 gauge and it has no 'twizzler' inside, so Cat5e is smaller diameter and less rigid. So how does that make it more difficult to run?
 
I am curious as well, everyone I know swears by Cat5E , because Cat6 is stiffer, more expensive etc.
 
electron said:
I am curious as well, everyone I know swears by Cat5E , because Cat6 is stiffer, more expensive etc.
I think the fact that it is stiffer is what made it easier to run. I used Belkin for both the cat 5e and cat 6.

The Cat 5e got twisted and kinked very easily. The Cat 6 hardly kinked at all, pulled off of the spool very easily and was much, much easier to run than the Cat 5e. The cat 6 ran just as easily as the RG6. The cat 5e was very difficult to run...even my girlfriend, who was helping me, commented that the "blue wire" (cat6) was much easier to pull that the "white wire" (cat 5e).

I'm really not sure how else to describe it... I definitely agree that cat 5e is sufficient for the forseeable future, and is a lot cheaper, but from now on, I will only buy Cat 6...even if I'm only running wire for phone lines.
 
What about terminating it, did you run into any problems there? Which RJ45 jacks/tools did you buy?
 
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