RE: quick advice for new home build

["Ian Lowe" <ian@xxxxxxx>]

As always, my 2p..

>All,
>
>I am new to HA, so bear with me. I plan to start having my house
>built in Feb/Mar '02.

Good for you! I hope to join the happy band of self-builders some day.

>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.

Wow. I didn't think that stuff would work in the UK. I assume the Geothrmal
element is using deep clay as a heat resevoir? so it will keep the house
cool in summer, warm in winter?

>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

Not enough! When my house was built, I got the builder to drop 2 CAT-5
cables into seven locations throughout the house. I found this very
limiting
almost straight away, and have since upgraded to four CAT-5 cables per
drop.
CAT-5 terminations are expensive, but you can happilly run four cables, and
only terminate two. if that meets your needs, you have two fairly cheap
cables hanging behind each wall, if not, then pat yourelf on the back for
having the foresight to run more, and terminate the other two ;)


>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.

Hmmm. My own personal choice would be to centralise a couple of digiboxes
at
Node Zero, and then use a CAT-5 pair and KEith's KAT-5 modules, with anther
CAT-5 pair for IR Distribution from each room back to NZ. I use SCART
cabling from NZ to each location, but it's a damn bitch to work with.

Again, others have installed CT100/125 cables to each room, and can
probably
give you the reasons for that decision.

>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.

As you have the control *now* to determine how ducting can be placed in the
walls, it's completely your preference. Your Attic will get hot in summer,
your Garage cold in winter.

The Node Zero decision is usually based on ease of routing cables in a
retro-fit.
You could even ensure your house plan has a suitable cupboard in the middle
of the house.

>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?

Well, I would think you won't be able to supply a decent 110V 60Hz supply
without investing a *serious* amount of money, more than the cost of
getting
UK modules. (it's easy to get a 50Hz 110 supply, but correcting to 60Hz is
rather more costly)

433/418 RF can't work together :(

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

They are, but others have *much* more experience than me of this, so....

>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.

Best advice? start searching the archive of the group, and research fast!!

Hope some of this helps
Ian.