Re: Structured Wiring Questions

["AutomatedOutlet.com" <Martin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

A few comments:

1)       Security - 22/2 is fine for door/window sensors. You only need
to run separate wires if you want each window to be a separate zone.
What I mean is, in your living room, for instance, you don't need each
window on a separate zone, you can tie all of the windows together as
one zone. If you prefer, you can still homerun individual wires back to
your structured wiring cabinet but then you would just have to tie them
together there before connecting to the alarm panel. Otherwise, you'll
have a ton of zones and a lot of programming and expense.

2)       Sound. - Nothing wrong with Monster Cable but I think you're
paying a lot for the name.... For most speaker applications, 16/2 is
fine but 14/2 won't hurt.

You also talk about 2 different technologies for the audio, The system
you mention with the cat5 is A-Bus, It's a good system too. You need to
just think about what you are trying to accomplish with the audio. Yes,
the A-Bus just has cat5 going to the volume controls and speaker wire
out from there.

For cameras, I wouldn't personally use RG6. I like running them over
cat5. It's cheap, easy, and you can run both the power and the video
over the same cat5. For longer runs you will need baluns but these
aren't too expensive.

For microphones, I would really use shielded 16/2, not cat5.

Yes, add extra cat5 everywhere. Lots of uses - IR, controls, automation
speakers, motion sensors, cameras, and the list goes on. Can't have too
much cat5!


Good luck!

Martin Custer
www.AutomatedOutlet.com