- Phone, video-intercom, computer LAN and Internet, pay TV, free-to-air, surveillance camera video distribution, multi-room audio, automatic watering and keyless entry?
Browse Forums General Discussion 1 Aug 14, 2007 10:02 pm With modern technology I know there are meant to be heaps of whiz bang electrical wiring and techo things a new home can be set up with but what do you think are the best things to include when building a new home? Has anyone had any joy or bad experiences relating to any of the following things :
Re: Electrical wiring options for building a new home ? 2Aug 16, 2007 8:00 pm donuts With modern technology I know there are meant to be heaps of whiz bang electrical wiring and techo things a new home can be set up with but what do you think are the best things to include when building a new home? Has anyone had any joy or bad experiences relating to any of the following things :
Well i'm building at the moment. Not up to all that yet as i'm almost up to the fix but my sparkys have run cables for: phone, cable internet (in 3 rooms), cable t.v (in about 4 rooms), free to air in 4 rooms, video intercom, alarm and my partner just ordered two front door locks that are both key and keyless entry today. All those features will add costs as many are non standard. Best ask your sparky directly and they will let you know about cost. As for experiences i can't tell you yet as my house isn't finished but I did make the decision not to get ducting vacuum as I had it growing up and it was a lot more trouble than it was worth. Re: Electrical wiring options for building a new home ? 3Aug 17, 2007 9:48 am donuts With modern technology I know there are meant to be heaps of whiz bang electrical wiring and techo things a new home can be set up with but what do you think are the best things to include when building a new home? Has anyone had any joy or bad experiences relating to any of the following things :
Phone - Not much to go wrong here. Generally run to 3 points in the house. Office, Kitchen and Master Bedroom but can have unlimited points video-intercom - Most DIY systems are 2 wire these days and dont require an electrician to put them in. A simple run of cat5 cable will generally do the job well. computer LAN and Internet - Only limited by the budget and your imagination. Needs to be run back to a central point and you will need to factor in the cost of a router (switch) to get the internet to each point. Cat6 is quickly becoming the new standard but cat5e will do 1000mbps well. multi-room audio - this is becoming very popular today. There are lots of different ways of distributing sound throughout a house with some units dedicated to just this job with special wall plates. (like lights switches but prettier) Most systems require a run of cat5 cable and pair of speaker cables back to a central point. Running speakers over a long distance can be tricky so make sure you get the correct cable. pay TV - Again not a lot can go wrong with this cable. I suggest using a thicker cable (RG6 quadshield) and runningit to several points in the home. Generally to all living areas and master bedroom. Also if in the future you will upgrade to foxtel IQ you will need to do a dual run to each point. free-to-air - same as above but to each bedroom and possible to the alfresco area also. surveillance camera video distribution - depending on the size of your house 4 camera's is generally enough. The cable you use here will be dependant on the system you are running but generally it would be RG59 with power on the side. automatic watering - almost a waste nowadays as you cant water anything (including yourself) this is something a landscaper would be best to give you an idea on. keyless entry - Not an area that I personally have delved into yet so I can't give you any help on this one. There are a few (lockwood etc) companies doing wireless entry but it is expensive and IMO not perfect yet. Hope this helps I used to be .... but I am no more! Re: Electrical wiring options for building a new home ? 4Aug 17, 2007 10:03 am internet - the only thing I'm concerned about when putting the internet in every room is child protection. If you put a computer and the net in a child's room - then they have pretty much unmonitored access to everything great (and not so great!) the web has to offer. You may think "I'll install some sort of net-nanny software" but I'm sure kids will figure out a way around it.
There are plenty of adults out there masquerading as kids - I'm not taking the risk. Re: Electrical wiring options for building a new home ? 5Aug 17, 2007 10:18 am alterego Phone - Not much to go wrong here. Generally run to 3 points in the house. Office, Kitchen and Master Bedroom but can have unlimited points Personally 2 points, one for phone and one for internet. Could use one but nice to have some redundancy. Also may have a seperate line for alarm system but this should be dedicated. Use wireless phone and wireless ADSL router. No need for multiple points. alterego video-intercom - Most DIY systems are 2 wire these days and dont require an electrician to put them in. A simple run of cat5 cable will generally do the job well. Again just use wireless alterego computer LAN and Internet - Only limited by the budget and your imagination. Needs to be run back to a central point and you will need to factor in the cost of a router (switch) to get the internet to each point. Cat6 is quickly becoming the new standard but cat5e will do 1000mbps well. Again wireless??? alterego multi-room audio - this is becoming very popular today. There are lots of different ways of distributing sound throughout a house with some units dedicated to just this job with special wall plates. (like lights switches but prettier) Most systems require a run of cat5 cable and pair of speaker cables back to a central point. Running speakers over a long distance can be tricky so make sure you get the correct cable. Sounds good, or just turn the volume up. alterego pay TV - Again not a lot can go wrong with this cable. I suggest using a thicker cable (RG6 quadshield) and runningit to several points in the home. Generally to all living areas and master bedroom. Also if in the future you will upgrade to foxtel IQ you will need to do a dual run to each point. Yawn, wireless alterego free-to-air - same as above but to each bedroom and possible to the alfresco area also. ditto alterego surveillance camera video distribution - depending on the size of your house 4 camera's is generally enough. The cable you use here will be dependant on the system you are running but generally it would be RG59 with power on the side. What have you got against wireless? alterego automatic watering - almost a waste nowadays as you cant water anything (including yourself) this is something a landscaper would be best to give you an idea on. DIY, only really worth it if you have a decent sized garden and a water tank. Go to Bunnings, get yourself a controller unit, piping, joins, glue or rings, popups, wire and some valves. alterego keyless entry - Not an area that I personally have delved into yet so I can't give you any help on this one. There are a few (lockwood etc) companies doing wireless entry but it is expensive and IMO not perfect yet. One thing I think is really worthwhile but can probably be done at a later date without too much difficulty. Although you could DIY this, I would probably get in a pro. I should ignore strange egos if I were you. Re: Electrical wiring options for building a new home ? 7Aug 18, 2007 12:00 am donuts This is great advice. Thanks very much. It really gives me a great platform of understanding to move forward. Really donuts Im now more confussed then before you asked this question. I am blonde though! But I think there is no way I would pay $20000 plus as people do, as it will all be outdated technology before the installation is completed. It just seems all a bit much for what you get Re: Electrical wiring options for building a new home ? 8Aug 22, 2007 7:58 am I'm thinking about this stuff for our place, and I've decided on the following:
- Wireless networking throughout the house - TV and Pay TV distribution via a distribution system (I like the Hills setup), which will allow running of a single piece of coax to every room - phone points in the study (for internet access) and kitchen area, with cordless handsets elsewhere. I've also decided to "future-proof" the house by running conduit through all the walls - that way I can run additional cables later! The Hills system: http://www.homeintegratedsystems.com/arbitrage/pages/Hills%20Home%20Hub%20Features%20&%20Benefits Re: Electrical wiring options for building a new home ? 9Aug 22, 2007 8:43 am Ahhh, the old lets make it all wireless trick.
Just a couple of points to think about. Make sure that you read the specs of the devices first, especially the frequency ranges, so that they do not interfere, or suffer from interference. Whilst most items have separate frequency ranges, you can get some intereference from other wireless units or devices, including cordless phones, garage remotes, TV remotes and external interferences. Wireless LAN? OK Great for laptops and PCs, but if you want to stream media to a theatre or other location, I would maybe go Cat5e or Cat 6. Better speeds, less chance of interference. Also need to think about security of wireless LAN, Encryption is essential, for your protection of information, and your wallet. Itis very easy to 'steal bandwidth' from another person and download whatever you want. Children and the internet. It is simple. Until they are old enough, AND YOU TRUST THEM, do not let kids surf the net unsupervised. Use some software like netnanny or similar, and control the use of it as well, and be with them. You might learn something as well!! My 2 cents worth. Adrian B Re: Electrical wiring options for building a new home ? 10Aug 22, 2007 9:00 am I'm with Perry and 3xb on this one. Keep it simple.
Cordless phones take care of the whole house. One phone point with a GPO next to it to charge the base station, one in the study for the internet, one next to your Pay TV point to book movies etc. If you split pay TV all over the house, remember you can only watch one program through out the house. You can't have different programs without additional set top boxes. Not much fun when you are upstairs relaxing in front of the TV and the kids switch to Cartoon Network AGAIN! I have found that Foxtel IQ eliminated our desire for a second set topbox. You just record the show you want to watch and watch it when convenient. Wireless networking takes care of the computers in the house. Put in cables for your surround sound so you don't have them running around the skirting. Or use wireless surround sound, but then you need an extra GPO for each speaker. Don't forget about the internet connection for the fridge Why would you want one of those stupid things??? Re: Electrical wiring options for building a new home ? 11Oct 09, 2007 5:50 pm stonecutter1309 internet - the only thing I'm concerned about when putting the internet in every room is child protection. If you put a computer and the net in a child's room - then they have pretty much unmonitored access to everything great (and not so great!) the web has to offer. You may think "I'll install some sort of net-nanny software" but I'm sure kids will figure out a way around it. There are plenty of adults out there masquerading as kids - I'm not taking the risk. I dont really agree. But i work in IT I guess, so I suppose I have quite a bit of info available to me. Anyone can be locked down on a PC as long as its setup correctly. I lock my parents down because they are a danger to themselves. They can barely do anything, including running programs that I dont want them to. Wireless is such a common thing these days, so by not installing outlets doesnt prevent the clever kids accessing the net. The time we have kids, the kids will have the internet wherever they go. A cable to their bedroom will be the last place they will expect to connect to the internet from! But as far as 'today' is concerned, there are many hardware based devices that can run on your internet connection (not as software on your PC, therefore preventing tampering) helping block harmful items from all the PC's in the house (except Daddy cuz he probably still needs his porn Re: Electrical wiring options for building a new home ? 12Oct 09, 2007 7:29 pm wait for it ..... waaaaaaaaait for it!!! I have reverted to username - mattwalker Carlisle Homes - Grande 43 My building experience is here: http://www.ourgrandeplan.blogspot.com Must be labour only. One of those how long is a piece of wire questions. 4 4105 |