Wiring Your New House 101
From CT.wiki
"Future-proof your home" edition
Welcome to the first step in planning your new automated house. Instead of focusing on the “How to wire”, we instead intend to focus on “What to Wire”, and “Why”. This tutorial consists of three parts.
Wiring Your New House 101 includes this introduction, some general comments and preplanning information, and detailed descriptions of all the various types of wires involved.
Wiring Your New House 102 includes checklists for each of the major subsystems for the automated home, and detailed descriptions of various ideas you can implement.
Wiring Your New House 103 provides a room by room set of wiring suggestions
Contents |
Introduction
Since the question "how to wire your new home" appears quite often on the forums, we thought it might be a good idea to create a guide that will answer that question. This document was created with the assumption that your house is still under construction, and the walls haven't been finished yet. You also might notice that we make many suggestions based on structured wiring design, if you aren't familiar with this term yet, feel free to ask any questions you might have.
General
- Label all your wiring! Make sure you use labels which are designed for use with wire, since you don't want them falling off after a few months.
- Once you are done with all the wiring, try to take some detailed pictures of all the walls, before the drywall goes up. If possible, use a tape measure in the pictures to show how far certain areas are from outlets, making it easier in the future to 'dig' for a certain wire, or avoid hitting it when nailing something into the wall.
- Try to get at least two different wire colors for your Cat5E and RG6QS, preferably more. This will make identification much easier.
- Obey all local regulations. Talk to the local inspector BEFORE you start wiring. Nothing will kill your project, WAF, and wallet, faster than having an inspector find your work does not meet code.
- Use wire that is rated for in-wall use. This usually means types CM, CL2, or CL3. In short, speaker wire must be rated CMX (or CM or CL3), twisted pair must be CMX (or CM), coax must be CATVX (or CATV), Fire Wire must be FPL, and security wire must be CL2X (or CL3X or CL2 or CL3). Checkout this chart showing the full NEC cable substitution hierarchy.
- If possible, work closely with, and supervise all subcontractors. They more they know about what you are doing, the less likely it is that they will do something that interferes with your plans. For example, on one installation the HA installer installed two 4” conduits from the basement to the attic. Arriving on the job site a few days later, he discovered that a subcontractor had used one conduit to run a pipe for the whole house vacuum, while the electrician had used the other conduit to run the wires for the second floor HVAC.
Pre-planning
- Keep some type of document where you show where each wire goes, with details if needed.
- Many people use a spreadsheet to capture all the details. Some possible tabs are;
- A sample spreadsheet showing this information can be downloaded from HERE.
- A blank template of the same file can be downloaded from HERE.
- Make sure you have everything you need BEFORE you start. Depending on the arrangements you have with your builder, you may have only a limited time frame to pull your wires.
- It’s better to have excess quantities than it is to be short.
- An hour of planning now will save you 8 (or more) hours of heartburn later.
The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) has developed a wiring standard for residential infrastructure, known as TIA-570. The original standard was developed in 1991, and then upgraded in 1999. In 2004 the latest version (TIA-570-B) was released. There are many parts of the standard, but one of the most important are recommendations on how many wires should go to a location, and how many drops are needed. These recommendations can be broken down by grade, and location.
Grade
Grade describes the number of cables to a location (AKA drop).
- Grade 1
- One 4 pair unshielded twisted pair (UTP) cable, minimum of Cat-3 or higher
- One Coax, minimum of RG6
- The above results in one data and one RF connection at each outlet
- Grade 2
- Two pair of UTP cable, minimum of Cat-5 or higher
- Two Coax, minimum of RG6
- The above results in two data and two RF connections at each outlet
Location
Location describes the locations where outlets are needed. The standard requires a minimum of one outlet in each of the following locations.
- Each bedroom
- Kitchen
- Family/Great/Living room
- Den/Study/Office
- No point (measured horizontally) on a wall should be more than 25 feet from an outlet.
A Word about Wire
This section lists the various types of wires. Many of the wire types, especially Cat-5, can be adapted to other uses. Because of the multiplicity of adapters and options, we will concentrate on the PRIMARY use of the wire type, and what the wire is primarily designed for.
Security wire AKA Station Wire
Bundled Cable AKA Composite Cable
Summary
We have not mentioned electrical wires for a reason. There are multiple codes that need to be followed, and unlike the other wires, lack of knowledge with electrical wires CAN kill you. If you know enough to do your own electrical work, then you don’t need the limited advice we can give in this document. If you DON’T have enough knowledge to do your own work (or if you even have a doubt about your skill level), please hire a professional. Money comes and goes, but if you goof with electricity and end up six feet under, all the money you saved doing your own work won’t help you.
Good installation principles are a must. Some types of wire (security, speaker) are very forgiving, and can put up with multiple kinks, bends, etc. Other types of wires (Cat-5E, Coax) are NOT forgiving, and careless handling can damage them. For example, if you kink a coax cable during installation, it needs to be replaced. Some cables also require specific termination techniques. HERE is information about good installation practices.
And finally, some advice about wire choices and usage. The choices shown are what a professional installer would use for the job. However, a pro will generally carry all the different wires in the truck, and what doesn’t get used on this installation will get used in the next installation. You do not need to buy every type of wire listed. In many cases, you can safely substitute a similar wire. For instance, it makes no sense to buy 500 ft of RG59 when you are only going to use 40 ft. RG6QS can be used instead. Likewise, many of the station wire (22/2, 22/4, 18/2, 18/4) can be replaced by Cat-5E in a pinch. Just hook multiple conductors together to provide an equivalent size wire.
A spreadsheet showing the correct wire for each application is attached HERE].
A Word about Wireless
A frequent question is “Why should I run all these wires, when I can get a wireless network card for my laptop at the XYZ Bargain Basement for $39.95”? Why can’t I just use a cordless phone”? The basic answer is performance and security. While the performance of wireless cards has increased, it is still far below the performance of a wired connection. Also, there is no comparison between the security of a wired connection vs. a wireless one.
Many people do use a cordless phone exclusively, and installing wires does not preclude that option. However, some people don’t use cordless phones, and cordless phones do not work when the power is out. The only (practical) time you can install wires is during construction, and the cost is not negligible. Put the wires in now, and you will be ready for any future eventuality.
Links
Continue to Wiring Your New House 102, where we have some pointers on where to run wires, and how to prepare for some future projects.
