Conduits for new build

0lordy

I'm building a new house and just about to talk to the electrician about requirements.

I guess this is a very open-ended question, but I want to future-proof my house in terms of cabling requirements - I want to minimise the necessity to chase walls or have wall-mounted conduits down the line. This applies to phone/broadband, power and TV cabling. I need to consider PC, TV, phone locations, but would also like the ability to have multiple room sound systems, maybe have TV/broadband access in many rooms.

I guess need to locate a space for a central cable access point in a central location, then have conduits linking incoming data from satellite dish, TV, broadband, internal network server, and outgoing to each room. I would then need to identify a location in each room for TV/broadband access. That should be OK. Things like integrated sound systems maybe I can forego, just don't know enough about it at the moment.

So, the question is, where do I start? What are the bits I'm not thinking about? Am I over complicating things? Time was when we had one cable to one TV point and one phone line and that was it!:rolleyes: Has anyone been through this process before and maybe had some links to useful practical information on home networking design?

davelerave

you could get a company like smarthomes to put in a system or plan something with your electrician.if you're fitting conduits you're as well to wire it at the same time

I recently floodwired the whole house with cat5 cable and stat grade coax to some rooms, all of these cables go back to a small box room "node 0" where I plan to place (ethernet) switches and other equipment.

I haven't installed any conduit, most of the walls have "service voids" where the cables run.

In the future if I need to upgrade, I intend to use one of the cat5s as a draw lead and pull the new cable through the void in the wall with it.

I can't future proof my house as B&Q are out of stock on crystal balls at the moment.

Musha

Hi 0Lordy,
when we built our house i wired every room with everything t.v phone loads of power points, put a phone point in a central location for the wireless router, and power kill switch for the T.V room this mean the last person out of the room hits one switch (like a cooker switch) located beside the lights and it cuts all the power to sockets so things aren't left on standby all day and night. if i was building again i would put one in the living and dining rooms as well..even if you think that you won't need them you can blank them off for future use. also you can bump a tv signal around the house from sky box which means you can watch sky in the kitchen from the living room box during the day or take a film down to the bedroom without paying extra subs to sky

delly

Moved

Musha

Musha wrote:

power kill switch for the T.V room this mean the last person out of the room hits one switch (like a cooker switch) located beside the lights and it cuts all the power to sockets so things aren't left on standby all day and night.

Brilliant idea must do that!

cast_iron

Musha wrote:

and power kill switch for the T.V room

I don't like the sound of that myself.

For a start, I'm not sure electricians will actually do it for you.
In any case, in the case for your Sky Box, it must be plugged in overnight - to call home and make sure your phone line is plugged in (required whilst under contract).
Also, be sure to wire the main tv point with at least 4, if not 5 runs of CT100 cable to a central point (generally the attic), and enough slack on 2 or 3 to run to your dish/aerial (so no breaks in the cable).
Also, run a phone point to the main tv point. Probably audio and Cat5 cables to your "central room" also for distribution.

scholarswalk

the sky box will be fine, what if you had a power cut at night? I think it makes that call only every few weeks at some random time, not necessarily at night.

Run cat5 around your house, all going back to a central point, possibly hallway. Cat5 can be used for the network, phone or TV, e.g. Magnet have done this to provide interate service for same in new housing estates new clare hall in dublin in the
Speaker/audio cable, its cheat so; stream it from your tv point to about 6 or 7 locations around your room. You may not always use them all, but it will give you the option to mix n match your surround sound speaker setup and locations, handy.

Having said all that tho, my wireless telephones and wireless broadband router work just fine throughout my house - no wiring needed there.

cast_iron

scholarswalk wrote:

the sky box will be fine, what if you had a power cut at night? I think it makes that call only every few weeks at some random time, not necessarily at night.

If it's under contract, it won't be fine. You don't have a power cut every night. The call is made at night, but only once in a while. How would you know when? When Sky start sending letters demanding over €300. That's when.

0lordy

Thanks folks, I like your thinking.

dolanbaker: yep, just trying to identify the "node 0" location. As the house is a storey and a half, I don't have attic space to locate a server/network switch, so it's looking like a boxed off location in an upstairs room.

Musha: I like the kill switch idea, but wonder about the power surge if starting up a lot of equipment at once; the electrician can advise. I will also ensure theres a spur for the SKy cable, although I've lived without Sky thus far.

scholarswalk: will get the speaker cabling set up. Looks like CAT5 all over it is then. I want to avoid reliance on wireless at this stage - I want the ability to get a wire to as much of the house as possible - increased bandwidth and lower equipment costs.

Thanks for your tips, all opinions and advice greatly appreciated

eoghan.geraghty

appoint a central location as your "comms room".i prefer to keep this beside the fuseboard,or if no room then attic,hot press,under the stairs depending on house design.
from this run 4 sat coax cables to either a south/east facing exterior wall or to your chimney for your sky dish.
run 3 sat cables to your primary viewing location(s).
run 2 sat cables to your secondary viewing locations, (bedrooms)
bring your incoming phone to comms room, and send out to phone points and tv locations via cat5 cable.
the idea of a single switch to turn off all appliances is a good and electrically safe idea.i have used it before.do not worry about a "power surge",though i am guessing what you really mean is called arcing.
this does happen when closing/opening the contacts of a switch under heavy load, butt add up the wattage on your tv + dvd + sky box + sound system + lamp + whatever else you plug in around your tv and it won't even reach 1kw (5A) so it is not an issue with a 20A switch.
if you are using this switch in a kitchen then you are looking at a heavy load if say your kettle,george foreman,microwave,toaster etc were to come on at once so ask your electrician to use a contactor on your kitchen circuits.
regarding sky box not being able to "call back" at night, it will simply do so during the day.it performs the call back once a month approx. and if its monthly attempt fails it will keep trying at random intervals until successful.
sky cannot insist you keep box plugged in at night if you are fearful of an electrical fire ( 46 fires attended to by donegal fire brigade in 2004 werecaused by electrical related faults).

of course double check all this with your electrician/local sat tv installer.
i am an electrician and worked for sky for 18 months.
hope this helped.

eoghan

Musha

Cast Iron? "If it's under contract, it won't be fine. You don't have a power cut every night. The call is made at night, but only once in a while. How would you know when? When Sky start sending letters demanding over €300. That's when."

Do you speak from experience? i have multiroom connect since last august and the additional box is not connect to phone line and switched off from 8pm til 4pm next day its in the kids playroom and no issue from sky.. the other one is turned of at night surely they cannot insist on us burning energy and possible fire risk in our own homes

cast_iron

Musha, I can't understand how Sky haven't contacted you yet.
I speak as an installer and I know people have gotten the letters.

Also, someone mentioned there to run 3 cables to the main point.
Run 5, at least. 1 for Sky, 1 for Sky plus, 1 for aerial signal, 1 to re-rout it to other rooms and 1 for whatever comes out in 5 years time.

smashey

Please stay on topic here. Any queries about Sky and the status of the phone line should be posted in the satellite forum.

cast_iron

eoghan.geraghty wrote:

...is called arcing.
this does happen when closing/opening the contacts of a switch under heavy load, butt add up the wattage on your tv + dvd + sky box + sound system + lamp + whatever else you plug in around your tv and it won't even reach 1kw (5A) so it is not an issue with a 20A switch.

This sounds a little odd to me.
Surely an electrician should not "assume" what will be plugged in. Down the line, God knows what will be plugged in a few years down the line. What if they plug in an electric heater and the like.

eoghan.geraghty

no assumptions made here cast iron.
you will note i mentioned a 20A switch.
as the circuit should be protected by a 20A MCB it is safe,(ok i am assuming current regs are adhered to).
The largest domestic portable electric heater available in ireland is 2.2kw,(10A).
Also mentioned is use of contactor where you feel heavy load is likely to be an issue,ie kitchen.
Olordy, as i said before doublecheck ALL information with your electrician and best of luck with the new build.

eoghan

0lordy

Eoghan, Thanks for all the info, of course the electrician needs to be OK with any wiring set-ups.

cast_iron, I appreciate your words of warning on both the Sky call-back and power load issues.

For anyone else, please update with your opinions/experience in this area.

Thanks again

jpfahy

Get some 20mm white overflow pipe in a plumbers merchants. Run that behind the drylining in your walls, across under your floors, across your attic, etc. You can get clips and joins and bends for it easily enuff. Go to a fishing tackle shop and get a roll of their heaviest fishing line (Cat Gut) Leave a few runs of this in each conduit. Label each pull wire. Using this you can pull through any new cables later as required.
Network bandwith is going to go through the roof over the next few years, with huge broadband speeds becoming available. Wireless will never be able to handle this nor will Cat5. If I was starting now I would run Cat6 cable, not Cat5. Try lindy.ie or connectix.ie. UTP is the normal grade. Where you have long runs near other cables use FTP which has a foil sheath which stops interference and saves your bandwith.
Lash in plenty of cables. For example: at my TV in the living room I have:
Cable 1: Xbox live
Cable 2; Connect to other Xbox
Cable 3: Philips Streamium media streamer
Cable 4: Media Center PC
Cable 5: Slingbox

Have all cables going back to a central location with a power point and some space for an IT cabinet.
Run cables to (apart from the obvious):
Entry points (IP Cameras, future alarm systems)
Attic (Satellite, Wireless AP etc.)
Kitchen (Appliances phoning home)
Hall (ip phone)
Living spaces (IP Camera - watch the babysitter/ catch the burglar)
Fuseboard ( future control of circuits)
Boiler room (future control of climate in house)

Am I over the top or what...