Structured wiring plan?

[homersapian]

Hey guys,

I'm planning to put a structured wiring cabinet in, and trying to figure out all the runs. So far, I've got:

Main Panel:
power supply
1X16 coax splitter/amp
cable modem
1X16 network switch
(Possibly adding security video in the future)

Bedrooms: (X3)
2 coax, 2 cat6

living room:
2 coax, 2 cat 6

garage
2 coax, 2 cat 6

I'm not planning on land line distribution. Anything else I should think about including? What's the next technology coming down the pipe?

 

[volleyball]

If you can run conduit, you will be able to change out wire as needed.
Think about doorways and maybe putting wires on more than 1 wall in a room.
I would run an extra cat wire to rooms that may ever get phones. think security system or if you get laid up. Maybe run extra wire to whatever room you run your security system from, usually an office or master bedroom. You may want to run wires for cameras to places like entrance and back yard.

 

[Mustang51js]

Intercom system

 

[hilld]

Hey guys,

I'm planning to put a structured wiring cabinet in, and trying to figure out all the runs. So far, I've got:

Main Panel:
power supply
1X16 coax splitter/amp
cable modem
1X16 network switch
(Possibly adding security video in the future)

Bedrooms: (X3)
2 coax, 2 cat6

living room:
2 coax, 2 cat 6

garage
2 coax, 2 cat 6

I'm not planning on land line distribution. Anything else I should think about including? What's the next technology coming down the pipe?

I think you have the right type of wiring. You could probably cut back on the coax to a single line (make sure you use RG6 (quad shield if possible)). If you ever wanted to run HDMI, that is possible over Cat5e or higher nowadays.

One thing you might want to consider is to run a Cat5/6 to each location (ceiling) where you want to put a wireless access point, you can then power it via POE injectors and not have to worry about outlets for that. If you have an office, you might want to run more than the 2 Cat5/6's to that room, maybe even on multiple walls in case you have a wired printer, phone system, etc.

Other runs to think about.

Furnace, Fridge, in wall sound....some of this stuff is just future proofing your house.

Derek

 

[n8n]

I'd keep the double CAT6 - that way you can run a land line to each room if you want, the double coax will allow you to maintain a rooftop antenna also. so I like the plan. I also like the idea of running in conduit or smurf tube, and leave a pull string in each run just in case.

 

[justsam]

Don't forget to run cable to the source. I would recommend 2 cat 6, and two RG6 to the respective network interface boxes.

Consider future video, and I would run cat 5 here as opposed to coax. Use IP based cameras. Front porch comes to mind at a minimum.

You may want to consider wired, low voltage smoke/CO detectors. They can be tied into a system to alert you or any problems. Cat 5/6 can be used here.

Furnace was mentioned above. Tie into smoke detect to shut down blower if smoke detected.

Driveway monitor was one of my wife's favorites at our previous home, especially if drive way is blind to living portion of house.

Not low voltage but consider wiring for a electric vehicle, and run Cat5/6 to it.

You won't get them all but consider wired for anything that requires throughput and reliability. There will be enough wireless going on.

Your structured wiring cabinet can never be too large. It will be full of small transformers, power strips, etc. Don't forget to leave room for the POE injectors mentioned by others.

 

[volleyball]

I am not in favor or those expensive cabinets. You can leave it out on display or put it in an old cabinet or put a picture hinged in front of it.
Bottom line is you will never fully future proof your cabling. New stuff comes out daily and things you never thought of will be something you cannot live without next week.
I am on my 4th wired network. I've even had to rip out and redo my conduit.

 

[Jawn]

I think you're on the right track. I used a Leviton SMC. I wired for phone even though I don't have a land line. I ran conduit to both attic and basement for easy distribution through the house. Don't skimp on the conduit size.

Here's my outlet distribution so far:

Living room: 2x CAT6, 2x RG6
Master bedroom: 2x CAT6, 1x RG6, 1x CAT3 (telco)
Basement hobby/office area: 4x CAT6, 1x RG6, 1x CAT3
1x CAT3 to kitchen phone receptacle
1x CAT6 to hallway ceiling for WiFi AP (powered by PoE)

Other bedrooms may get wired as the need arises.

 

[ACDNate]

Only thing I'd do different is I'd use cat5e instead of the cat6. Not many residential uses that will be able to utilize the only benefits of cat6. ALso the difference in price is substantial and its stiff as all get out making it tougher to work with.

 

[yeldogt]

I tried to ask this in the main forum a few days ago -- I'm in the same situation as the OP. I did a full structured setup about 15 years ago in my home/office -- it was just when cat5e came out - wires everywhere .... never use 90 percent of them?

Everything is wireless today ....... I have Comcast cable in one place and FIOS in another .. I only use one RG line to each TV (I have two and a cat5e and 3 - never ever used them)

Can someone explain why all these wires are ever going to be used? I have a phone system in my current place -- wired audio ... both basically obsolete in todays world ... my internet is wired to two access points ... so I can see some of that.

I just don't see with all the wireless -- and it keeps getting better - how these wires are ever going to be used.

 

[volleyball]

There is only so much wireless spectrum to go around. If you live far from anyone, it's just your stuff. You live close and you get in a traffic jam, just like being on the road.
Wireless works when you have tons of devices but only use 1 or 2 at a time.
Have a few people doing different things and you start seeing traffic.

 

[ACDNate]

Cat 5e is nice if you want to push large volumes of data around your network (ie the home). Also if you ever want to send HDMI signals around you can use 2 Cat5e cables with an adapter and not be limited to 35' runs. Better to have and not need than to have to sweat in an attic trying to run cable...

 

[Jawn]

Also, don't forget documentation - cable labels, spreadsheets, etc.

 

[michaelrc51]

Don't use POE injectors, just get a POE switch.
There are all kinds of converters out there so make sure if you are going to convert HDMI to Cat6 you check the specs. Crestron uses 4 Cat6 lines for their converters.
Cat5e is much cheaper if you can get away with it for whatever your purpose. I would much rather run Cat6, it kinks much less and due to the larger guage it is easier to make RJ45 ends with but it doesn't bend as easy. Beware when using Cat6 you shouldn't use zip ties or staples, only velcro pieces. Most likely you could use whatever you want to fasten the cat6 but zip ties can actually limit the bandwidth and also possibly break conductors.

Are you going to any kind of home automation? Alarm? CCTV? other integrations?

 

[Jawn]

Don't use POE injectors, just get a POE switch.

That is assuming your PoE devices conform to the PoE standards... there's a lot of devices out there requiring proprietary PoE injectors.

 

[michaelrc51]

That is assuming your PoE devices conform to the PoE standards... there's a lot of devices out there requiring proprietary PoE injectors.

Yeah, most of the devices I use conform to the standards, can't even remember the last camera that I installed that used a proprietary injector. I just hate having all of that unnecessary stuff cluttering up my racks .....if it can be avoided.

 

[Coolerman]

I built a log home about three years ago. Like most I pulled extra Cat5e and RG6 quad shield to each room. Instead of full conduit runs everywhere I used 1 1/2" conduits from the basement to the first and second floors to make it easy to get future wires ran. I have a hard wired phone system, hard wired alarm system, satellite TV. hard wired sound system, and hard wired ethernet system with satellite internet to each room, with extra runs between the living room where the entertainment system lives and the basement where the structured wiring control box lives.

I do have wireless capability on my network for the laptop. Wireless is great, but slow compared to a hard wired system. I work with a lot of graphic files and moving them around is slow on wireless. If all you use wireless for is surfing the net, then wireless is the way to go.

What did I do with the extra wires? Use them! For example: In my shop and the basement I did not want to spend the extra money per month to have satellite boxes there. So I used a remote switched A B video switch that allows me to select either the basement or the shop as the video destination and my upstairs cable box with a video converter as a source. I set the channel on that box upstairs, choose shop or basement and go watch TV. No, I can't change channels, but normally if I'm in the shop I'm working, if in the basement, I'm working out so don't need to change the channel. On the rare occasion I do want to change channels, I pick up the shop phone and tell the wife to change it for me!

I can do that kind of source/destination thing with any video source in the house to any room in the house. In the future I plan to add video cameras to the security system and will use some of the extra cables for that.

Run the extra cables!

 

[volleyball]

Log home. Reminds me of a coworker who was building one. I helped them plan all their home runs. Asked about extra and they said it was more than they would ever need. Anyways while running the wires, the guy figured he might need a phone jack over here so instead of home running or going to the end of the wire run into the room, he tapped it just before the wall got closed in. Guess what, the wire didn't work and the room had gotten planned with the phone being used in the new location.