[KAT5] Rewire Planning

["Ben Harper" <benjaminjharper@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Everyone,

I've just moved house and before we decorate or anything I need to do
all the cabling I can envisage needing to be done for a long time, plus
routes for additional cabling in the future. I know this isn't directly
KAT5 related but this is the best place IMHO to ask :-) I will look into
running KAT5 in the future though - so there's my excuse :-p

This is what I'm planning so far, if people can comment on it or give me
some suggestions then that'd be great :-)

By the way, I have a 'Node 0' which will be a walk-in cupboard about the
size of the downstairs loo at the back of the house near the utility
room. This is an ok location as I think I can route cables easily from
here.

Ok, this is what I have planned:
- Each room will have a speaker and a line balanced run from node 0 to
it in the ceiling in case I install speakers/mics for home automation,
etc. Each room will also have a minimum of 2 CAT5 in it.
- Security wise I'll have a commercial system but split the inputs into
the computer as well so I can detect motion in the PC for future
applications. There will be 4 core alarm cable or 6 core alarm cable
pulled to where I'd want window/door sensors or PIR sensors.
- The living room will have 2 CAT5 pulled to it behind where the sofa
will be (near the main window). There will be 4 CAT5 pulled to the TV
area along with 2 coax. Another coax and CAT5 will be pulled to a
location in the ceiling where I may be interested in installing a
projector in the future. There will be speaker cable pulled into the 4
corners of the room (for 5.1 surround), 2 near the back behind the sofa
where I will put the subwoofer, 2 speaker and 2 line balanced pulled
into the ceiling near the projector spot and all the speaker cables will
run back to the media area with the balanced back to node 0. There will
also be a CAT5 pulled near every switch box in case I replace them with
intelligent devices.
- The kitchen will have the basic CAT5 above the worktop somewhere plus
extra CAT into some overhead cupboards, a wall box (hopefully put a
touchscreen there in the future!), and some near the fridge/freezer for
any future applications and also 2 coaxes, one below worktop height and
one in the overhead cupboards so I can run them anywhere within a
cupboard if needed.
- The office/study will have 16 CAT5's pulled into it, ran to 3x 4 way
outlets and 2x 2 way outlets. This may sound like overkill but at the
moment I have an 8 port switch in my home office with all 8 ports used
(7 devices + 1 uplink). There will be extra speaker, balanced and sensor
wiring in here and also some coax for additions of feeds to/from
computers for audio/video/whatever.
- The airing cupboard or loft, not sure which will have 2 CAT5 for a
wireless access point (A/B/G standard).
- The bedrooms will all have 2 coaxes, and 2x 2 way CAT5.
- In the garage will be 8 CAT5 (I will be using as a workshop so will
probably have a PC in there for reference/testing serial electronics and
stuff), and a coax in case I want to watch TV.
- The bathrooms will have 2 CAT5 run to the ceiling above, and a coax,
speaker and balanced audio for ceiling speakers/mics/whatever (listen to
radio in bath maybe) - will also be putting sensor wiring in here for
PIR/occupancy detectors.
- Outside will be CAT5 available under the eaves in certain locations
plus some special connectors/wiring for low voltage circuits in case I
want to put up christmas lights/etc. There will also be some composite
style cable and speaker cable for cameras or external speakers if
wanted.
- Additional to all of this I will be running a CAT5 to about 1/2m down
from the ceiling in each room to some boxes I am buying from Rapid
Electronics which look like small plastic thermostats. In the future I
may wire temperature/humidity/photocells into these.

Phew! Thats a lot to do. I'll be making sure to pull drawstrings and
there is a clear route from the loft to ground floor I will try and
install some large conduit in for future pulls.

Note: I'm not decided on the type of coax or composite style cable I
will be using yet, reccomendations appriciated. Speaker wire will be
good quality stuff not bell wire type wire and the audio line-level
wiring will be 2 core + foil screen stuff.

Node 0 will contain for now a few patchpanels, 24 port 10/100 switch, 2
servers (inc a media server running MythTV) and all the phone/internet
connections needed (ADSL modem, etc). For now, patch throughs for the
roof aerials will be put in through a booster into the cheap freeview
box I have which connects to an input on my media PC's tuner card, and
also goes through to my TV in the bedroom for standard TV watching. I
also have a Sky Digital box in Node 0 connected to the Sat dish on the
side of the house, which routes through the media PC with a passthrough
into the lounge PC, which will also have remote IR connected up through
a circuit of mine through some CAT5 in the lounge. I have 3 small amps
for the ceiling speakers in here too. Also two UPSs, the alarm CCU and
my storage server.

Well thats your lot, I know its a lot to read and thanks very much for
your time. Any help will be greatly appriciated.
Benjamin


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