Re: FW: CAT 5 for new-build --- how many per room?

[Keith Doxey <keith.doxey@xxxxxxx>]

Whoops....thought this was giong to the list as well !!

Keith Doxey
http://www.btinternet.com/~krazy.keith
Krazy Keith's World of DIY Home Automation

-----Original Message-----
From:	Keith Doxey [SMTP:keith.doxey@xxxxxxx]
Sent:	Monday, July 19, 1999 10:47 PM
To:	rhughes@xxxxxxx
Subject:	RE: [ukha_d] Re: CAT 5 for new-build --- how many per room?

Hi Rick,

Presumably your shell with roof also has floor joists as well :-))

When I helped Mark McCall to prewire his house we spent the first 4 hours
staring into the joist space and up into the rafters planning where to run
the cables.

Node Zero in Mark's house is located at one end of the house which means
EVERYTHING had to go to that end of the house. In an ideal world Node 0
would be located as centrally as possible so that everything radiates from
that point but the house design didnt permit that.

Make no mistake..... you will have a VERY large bundle of cables possibly
6-8 inches in diameter or even greater. (The alarm and TV coax wasnt in
when I left and there was already a 6 inch bundle.

The major problem we had was that the cables needed to run along the house
but all the joists were across the house meaning that our path was blocked.
This presents severe problems in routing the cables.
YOU CANNOT CUT HOLES THAT SIZE IN THE JOISTS !!!
Well you can but the house will fall down :-((

We decided to run the cables through the roof space and I had the bright
idea to get some guttering and lay it in the roof trusses as a cable tray.
This kept everything nice and neat as well as supporting and protecting the
cables. Luckily the upstairs walls are studwork construction so it was a
doddle to drop through the walls of the first floor to reach the ground
floor. From our central cable run we were then able to run between the
joists to get across the house.

The big disadvantage of running through the loft is that every downstairs
run used an extra 8 metres of cable to go upto the loft as opposed to
running between the ground floor ceiling and first floor :-((

One idea I have in a new construction is to decide where you want the
central run through the house, ideally above a corridor/hallway, and have
the architect specify different sized timbers for the joist in that area.
Instead of 9x3 a timber of equal stength but smaller height eg 7x5 would be
used. The top of the joists would be aligned with the other joists leaving
the lower edge approx 2 inches higher. By running 2x2 timber in the
opposite direction gives a fixing for the ceiling at the same height as all
other rooms but gives you a clear run with several channels of approx 2x14
inches to run as many cables as you like.

For a renovation project a similar approach could be adopted but the
ceiling in a hallway being reoved and lowered by a couple of inches. I
would imagine that the difference in ceiling heights would be barely
perceptable unless you already had low ceilings. This could also be done on
the ground floor by constructing a cable tray under the floor joists with
2x1 and plywood. That is what I intend to do in my next house.

As I have already said...its impossible to think of everything you could
ever need, you WILL forget something....guaranteed.

Just give thought to how you can add at a later date and make provision for
that event.

Dont forget to wire for automated curtains and blinds. Most seem to be low
voltage with Wall Wart power supplies. Consider a run of conduit to a
location (cupboard etc) where you can mount several power supplies and run
the power to the windows so avoiding the need for a power unit at the
curtain track.

Consider....
Security -PIR's, door contacts, CCTV
Environment - Temperature sensors, Fans, electrically operated radiator
valves.
Audio - Ceiling speakers for whole house audio, mikes for Voice Recognition
The list is endless.

You have this one chance to do everything easily and relatively cheaply.
It can always be done later but will be much more difficult and expensive.
Retro-fitting is a nightmare involving all sorts of hassle with the decor,
try and get it right first time....and if you succeed let us know all about
it. If you fail, warn us of the mistakes you made.

By the time we have all done this we should have the UK Home Wiring Guide
to beat all others.

Good Luck

Keith

Keith Doxey
http://www.btinternet.com/~krazy.keith
Krazy Keith's World of DIY HomeAutomation


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rick Hughes [mailto:rhughes@xxxxxxx]
> Sent: 19 July 1999 17:18
> To: Keith Doxey
> Subject: Re: [ukha_d] Re: CAT 5 for new-build --- how many per room?
>
>
> Keith,
>      I am in the middle of building my own place now - be
> interested in any
> thoughts you might like to pass on cabling, what you would do now on a
new
> build etc.
>
> At the moment it is a shell with a roof on, so I can add anything
> .... now.
>
> Rick
>
> Keith Doxey wrote:
> >
> > Hi Des,
> >
> > Run trunking inside fitted cupboards/wardrobes to go between
floors.
> > you ought to be putting it in now. .............
>
>
> --
>
_______________________________________________________________________
>
>            Rick Hughes
>    \   Customer Services and Support Programme Manager
>    \\   Newbridge Networks Limited
>    \\\   +44 1633 772327
>            +44 831 680524 (mobile)
>
>
_______________________________________________________________________
>

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