quick advice for new home build

["happy_hammer66" <bill.mcmahon@xxxxxxx>]

All,

I am new to HA, so bear with me. I plan to start having my house
built in Feb/Mar '02. I have only just purchased a couple of X-10
starter kits, PC active home and RF remote to see whats it all about
but wont get them till Feb (don't ask). Any comments on the following
would be appreciated.

1. Heating. My present plan is for a Geothermal Heat pump and
underfloor heating (although maybe radiators for upstairs). An
additional heater for temporary high output requirement(baths etc.)
The Geothermal is supposed to be 75% free.

2. I will run two Cat5 to all rooms, also to the front porch/rear
door/ garage. This may be used for sending audio/video/cctv if
suitable

3. I will run two CT100 cables to each bedroom/living room. I have
sky digital, VHF and UHF TV (i live in ireland). I have two digiboxes
at present, one irish, one UK for C4/C5/R5. I will probably have one
or two more in the future so a Loftbox may not be much good. I am
awaiting Global DIP diplexers and triplexer wallplates to see how
they work.

4. I was going to have all cables come into the attic and use this as
my distribution point/patch panel. Should i run all the cables out to
the garage and make this node 0 or leave them in the attic and make
this node 0. Expense is the question.

5. Not sure about the Electrics. X-10 modules are expensive. If i had
110V run to some points in the house would the cheaper US modules
work given differences ie 50/60 HZ or 433 Mhz/418Mhz or PAL/NTSC?

Should i use the DIN rail X10 modules? are they mounted right next to
the circuit breakers?

6. I have a wireless alarm system from my old house, it was installed
in 1997 by Eircom's 'Phonewatch' and is stored in my attic (i'm
renting at present). All i can find  out so far is that its made by
ITI, was a special model for them called Eurovector. Apart from the
usual wireless sensors installed at the time i also had a lamp module
and an appliance module, so i can assume the box can do X-10.
Any one had experience of this system? know hopw to program it? can i
use the sensors with a different alarm panel?

thanks for any replies, i know you should plan these things well in
advance, but its only when i started to look about getting a loftbox
thay i came across the other HA stuff.