what to consider to future proof when rewiring a house

Linto

We've just bought a house that needs total renovation including entire rewiring and replumbing. What should I be asking my electrician to consider when wiring bedrooms in terms of future TV and computer requirements?? Its a good opportunity to do what we want now!
Any advice greatly appreciated!

TheChizler

Cat 6! Lots of cat 6!

flintash

TheChizler wrote: »

Cat 6! Lots of cat 6!

Lots of cat 6! if the house in Ireland.
Otherwise, the rest of the world have gone wireless.:D

Linto

flintash wrote: »

Lots of cat 6! if the house in Ireland.
Otherwise, the rest of the world have gone wireless.:D

What is cat6 and why so critical? Does it carry hd TV?

matt-dublin

Cat6, will cost a fortune in whiskas..... Gets coat...

fasttalkerchat

You could put in the speaker cable for a home cinema.
Set-up vga/HDMI and power for a ceiling projector.
USB points on some sockets to charge a phone/tablet.

TheChizler

flintash wrote: »

Lots of cat 6! if the house in Ireland.
Otherwise, the rest of the world have gone wireless.:D

You know I'm right...

Ethernet cables basically, always worth throwing some in when the walls are being ripped apart anyway. If you ever want internet/network connectivity for stationary devices it is vastly superior to WiFi, current WiFi isn't fast enough if you're transferring large files or watching high quality HD, can be prone to dropouts, black spots and interference.

I would ideally have two pairs of cables going from each room you think you might have some stationary device in (and more depending on how much redundancy you might want) going back to some central location, possibly under the stairs or dry garage or attic or something.

I recently put in 16 cables around my house and it's a lot of trouble to go to after you've redecorated!

fasttalkerchat

Linto wrote: »

What is cat6 and why so critical? Does it carry hd TV?

Its ethernet cable. You need it if you have thick walls or a big house usually.

Irish Steve

As above, Ethernet cables, and Co-ax satellite quality cables to places where TV's may be installed, up to an accesible place in the roof void, for later connection to a sat dish or similar . Network cables can also be used for phones, so that's not a major issue.

Alarms can be either wired or wireless now, if you want wired, they need to go in at this stage.

Kitchen. Sockets, LOTS of sockets, all over the place in the kitchen, the Utility, and near TV locations, and anywhere that a computer may be installed.

Heavy duty cables for cookers, hobs, and potential for dish washer, washing machine, tumble dryer, maybe even waste disposal in sink, fridges and freezers

If water is hard, power to near the incoming supply for water softener, it will pay for itself many times over in detergent, shampoo and the like savings, and not having to replace things like Electric shower units

Power feed to hot press location for standby immersion heater.

Power feed to bathroom area(s) for electric showers.

Dedicated supply to alarm panel area.

Alarm wiring in ceilings for smoke and Carbon monoxide detectors to link them to main house alarm

Some of these may already be there, but make sure that any new ones are suitable capacity.

TheChizler

TheChizler wrote: »

Cat 6! Lots of cat 6!

I did that, most of it is currently unused.
Actually I only used one!

TheChizler

Deleted User wrote: »

I did that, most of it is currently unused.
Actually I only used one!

Depends on the house I guess, we've a couple of extensions with the result being many exterior walls currently in the middle of the house, so using WiFi for bandwidth intensive purposes is no great joy. We got a 32 port gigabit switch and currently 14 of them are being used! Handy for a gadget family.

Gambas

Linto wrote: »

We've just bought a house that needs total renovation including entire rewiring and replumbing. What should I be asking my electrician to consider when wiring bedrooms in terms of future TV and computer requirements?? Its a good opportunity to do what we want now!
Any advice greatly appreciated!

Don't waste your money on stuff that won't be used - I did that in a new build. It isn't hard to add extra wiring in the future - although I suspect that won't be necessary anyway. Just go with a decent spec for what you need now.

harry21

Put in a conduit and fish line - done

homewardbound11

dolanbaker wrote: »

I did that, most of it is currently unused.
Actually I only used one!

100% correct. I'd need to take out a loan to populate all the wiring with devices.

Having said that, when doing our build over 3 plus years. The networking and av distribution technology around the home changed dramatically..
Example. Smart televisions, netflix, Skype built-in on your tv. video distribution around the home is now becoming a network distribution rather than coax.

My network is now almost all linux based rather than windows. Something I never thought of.

.I would say that even for poor mugs in the country living off 1 mb broadband. When 4 g arrives it should speed things up dramatically.
So more iptv more internet based channels and more dependancy on home networks.

When I worked out my home wiring ( total novice). I went with the idea of each device could be either front end ( located in the room) or backend (centrally located in its own cubbard). Devices started out front-end but thankfully all are now moving to the backend where all the family can enjoy things like network storage of movies. Recorded tv programs. CCTV across the home
What I didn't know was the time this has taken. It's no longer a project but a hobby.

So for the moment you still need coax satellite cable and dvb broadcast. Each tv needs 2 satellite and 1 terrestrial cable. Each tv will also need 2 cat 6 or 5e. One for the newer type TVs and one for the htpc or networked sat box or other device.

Best of luck. Got to go and fix my old washing machine today.

leanbh

This post has been deleted.

geoffwode

homewardbound11 wrote: »

...

When I worked out my home wiring ( total novice). ......

Ehh, you certainly don't sound like a novice. False modesty perhaps

tred

flintash wrote: »

Lots of cat 6! if the house in Ireland.
Otherwise, the rest of the world have gone wireless.:D

Different houses different setups. I have a concrete second floor. Wireless unable to penetrate. luckily i have run some cat6 back to one place. I have TV and skybox now connected to hub, and hub connected to one network point behind TV. Working perfectly. I have ran another cat 6 to attic. Now i can re broadcast wireless for upstairs. I wouldn't rely on wireless totally. Cat5e would be good enough and a lot cheaper.

Gulliver

tred wrote: »

Different houses different setups. I have a concrete second floor. Wireless unable to penetrate. luckily i have run some cat6 back to one place. I have TV and skybox now connected to hub, and hub connected to one network point behind TV. Working perfectly. I have ran another cat 6 to attic. Now i can re broadcast wireless for upstairs. I wouldn't rely on wireless totally. Cat5e would be good enough and a lot cheaper.

I'm in the same boat.

Concrete floor + double foiled insulation under screed + ufh pipes filled with water = no wireless upstairs.

So glad I put cat 6 in each room. I put two cat 6 and 1 coax at each TV point with the intention of doing HDMI over ethernet. With smart TVs, smart Blu-Ray players and the Raspberry Pi this has all gone by the wayside in favour of streaming with Plex and XBMC.

+1 on the surround sound/projector setup. If you have a suspended ceiling, you could even hide the projector up there.

You could run speaker cable to each room in case you decide to do multi-room audio.

If you're a real geek/lazy git you could run wires to each window for remote control curtains, also to each light switch. It's taking things a bit far, though...

BarneyMc

tred wrote: »

Different houses different setups. I have a concrete second floor. Wireless unable to penetrate. luckily i have run some cat6 back to one place. I have TV and skybox now connected to hub, and hub connected to one network point behind TV. Working perfectly. I have ran another cat 6 to attic. Now i can re broadcast wireless for upstairs. I wouldn't rely on wireless totally. Cat5e would be good enough and a lot cheaper.

I'm going to be meeting with my electrician soon and will need to sort out what I need to future proof my house. I'll have the same setup, i.e. concrete first floor.

Can you explain in more detail how you configured the cat5 cable please? Was it just brought from the ground floor to one point on the first floor?

Technophobe

BarneyMc wrote: »

I'm going to be meeting with my electrician soon and will need to sort out what I need to future proof my house. I'll have the same setup, i.e. concrete first floor.

Can you explain in more detail how you configured the cat5 cable please? Was it just brought from the ground floor to one point on the first floor?

for what it's worth, I wired 2 CAT 6 points (more in certain rooms) to each room up and down stairs (make sure one is besides beds etc) and brought them all back to a central point downstairs in my Study. I then connected all into a Patch Panel and Switch.
Works brilliantly for my requirements especially in my Sitting room where I have a PS3, Blu Ray player, SKY box and Sonos connected up to it...

BarneyMc

Technophobe wrote: »

for what it's worth, I wired 2 CAT 6 points (more in certain rooms) to each room up and down stairs (make sure one is besides beds etc) and brought them all back to a central point downstairs in my Study. I then connected all into a Patch Panel and Switch.
Works brilliantly for my requirements especially in my Sitting room where I have a PS3, Blu Ray player, SKY box and Sonos connected up to it...

Excuse my ignorance but what does that allow you to do upstairs? Does it give you access to everything you have downstairs?

galwaytt

Irish Steve wrote: »

As above, Ethernet cables, and Co-ax satellite quality cables to places where TV's may be installed, up to an accesible place in the roof void, for later connection to a sat dish or similar . Network cables can also be used for phones, so that's not a major issue.

Alarms can be either wired or wireless now, if you want wired, they need to go in at this stage.

Kitchen. Sockets, LOTS of sockets, all over the place in the kitchen, the Utility, and near TV locations, and anywhere that a computer may be installed.

Heavy duty cables for cookers, hobs, and potential for dish washer, washing machine, tumble dryer, maybe even waste disposal in sink, fridges and freezers

If water is hard, power to near the incoming supply for water softener, it will pay for itself many times over in detergent, shampoo and the like savings, and not having to replace things like Electric shower units

Power feed to hot press location for standby immersion heater.

Power feed to bathroom area(s) for electric showers.

Dedicated supply to alarm panel area.

Alarm wiring in ceilings for smoke and Carbon monoxide detectors to link them to main house alarm

Some of these may already be there, but make sure that any new ones are suitable capacity.

Lol - are people still fitting immersions ???

matt-dublin

galwaytt wrote: »

Lol - are people still fitting immersions ???

Yes, incase your heating breaks down. Better than boiling kettles and pots of water

matt-dublin

matt-dublin wrote: »

Yes, incase your heating breaks down. Better than boiling kettles and pots of water

Been in the house for over seven years, can count on one hand the number of times the immersion was on, most of those were before we had fully moved in.

tedimc

Got these somewhere - may have been here actually but can't remember now.

May be a bit dated - but should be useful.

riclad

Depending on thickness of walls,wifi signal gets weak,
over 15 ft from router.
so have ethernet cable run ,to room where router, is,
to rooms upstairs where you want to use the net.
ethernet cable gives very fast connection,and uses less power than wifi .