New home tech

[Paid_Peanuts]

After finally being granted planning permission for a new build house, it has got me thinking about the tech to go inside.

 

If you had the opportunity to deck out your house, what would you be looking at?

 

Would you cable it up with Ethernet or rely solely on WiFi?

Would you implement Control4?

How about smart lighting and Google/Alexa?

Local CCTV to a NAS like Synology or cloud based recording?

Would you even bother with a tv Ariel or simply stream everything?

 

Possibilities are endless I guess, however it needs to be child friendly and easy to use for the grandparents

[FN-GM]

I cabled our house with Cat 5 around 15 years ago when it was rewired and it was the best thing I did. I would defiantly do that.

 

Personally I wouldn't bother with your other points apart from CCTV and keep it as simple as possible. Personally when I am at work with technology all day I want to get away from it.

[caffrey]

You could flood with wired network but as I've found out as in schools they are never in the right place if you move furniture around, so I've kept them to the location of TV's and runs for access points for wifi. You may also want to install speakers for surround etc. so run that cable too. Coax for broadband \ tv etc.

[LTurner3692]

Now this is something i have thought about alot! i would have WIFI all over, but for certin things i would have cables running to roughly where i want them! As for control4 it looks brilliant, just not sure its something i would want!

 

I would have smart lighting, something like Hive (Like the fact i can control temp with it to).

 

I would have local CCTV, but i would look at something you can also access on your phone, i would have my alarm set to call me first so i can hear whats happening in the house!

 

I wouldnt hav a TV ariel! well not a proper one, but i guess that also depends if your going to use sky or someone else to!

 

You'll have to show us pictures of the stages! ive always wanted to build my own home!

[3s-gtech]

I rewired my house a couple of years back as I was doing a pretty comprehensive refurb. I didn’t want to fit anything proprietary or fleeting, and kept costs down. I went with plenty of extra sockets, adding an extra ring to split them down. I then ran CAT5e to each TV point, along with coax for TV (wired to satellite on one and Freeview on another) and 7.1 surround in the living room walls. I chose the airing cupboard as the comms cab - it doesn’t have a tank in it now - so that’s where the patch panel, router and main BT point are.

 

Being a bungalow, making any future changes is much, much easier!

[jmak]

For a complete new build, I'd put in ducting.

 

Anywhere you're planning on TV, put speaker connections on all four walls.

 

At least some wired LAN - I get that you won't need it everywhere, but you're doing (240v) cable runs anyway, so why not stick it in?

[XiJ]

For a complete new build, I'd put in ducting.

 

Anywhere you're planning on TV, put speaker connections on all four walls.

 

At least some wired LAN - I get that you won't need it everywhere, but you're doing (240v) cable runs anyway, so why not stick it in?

 

Ducting is a good idea. I’m in a new build and it’s easier to run than our old terrace house - but still had to go external for some things.

 

Cat6 everywhere. Cat5e at a lush but I’d go for a bit more if poss. Never run a single cable to a place - as easy to run 2 as one. So as many as you can on each wall! Same for power sockets (that contain usb for power too).

 

We don’t use our TV aerial but worth having. But cat5/6/7 can run pretty much anything for me.

 

I have a local unifi cctv with a nvr. If I had a lot of spare upload bandwidth I’d run in something in a cloud server.

 

Don’t forget high / ceiling points if you want to fit internal cameras or wireless AP’s.

[Sonic007]

I would put CAt6 ports in every room leading to a main area in the house where you can have a cabinet with switch, router, etc.

I wouldn't rely solely on wifi as many things can drop connection, cause interference, etc.

 

Definitely make sure you have some ethernet (maybe even POE) going to ceilings / outside for IP Cameras. I'd go to the NAS for your CCTV or a dedicated unit if you are using the NAS for other things too.

 

I wouldn't bother with an aerial as most services are now through your Internet. You could always add one in the event of Internet goes down but its adding another cable up to the loft for no real purpose.

 

Are you having any multi-room audio? Ceiling speakers?

 

Think about all things that could potentially need a connection......Any doors opened using fobs? Central Heating? Printers?

Edited January 16, 2019 by Sonic007

[Davit2005]

+1 for Wired, Access Points, CCTV, Media Connections, VOIP. Put at least 2 doubles in everyroom and a double or quad at Media positions.

 

I use Alexa with Hive, Hue and Harmony. Been playing a bit with Home Assistant which also intergrates with loads of other devices. CCTV is dealt with at local storage but emails snapshots on motion sense

[Garacesh]

I'd 100% definitely run Cat5e/Cat6 through the walls, probably feed them back to the cupboard under the stairs. Stick a 12-port switch in there, run 2 to each bedroom (4), 2 to the living room (6), 2 in the kitchen (8), 1 to each of the outside walls, front and back, for CCTV (10), then the last 2 ports for a router and a NAS (for said CCTV).

'Smart' appliances are a no-go though.

 

I personally probably wouldn't bother with speakers as I'm not really 'into' that sort of stuff, but if you do a lot of tv/movies/gaming in the living room, it might be worth it.

[hardtailstar]

Have a look at youtube videos of other people doing it their house for ideas.

 

Sometimes they have great ideas!

[XiJ]

We use smart heating, Alexa, Alarm and Hue. They are wireless to be honest. CCTV is wired in a seperate vlan as is guest internet.

 

It’s my dream to build my own house - this new build was built before I could request changes. I would have asked for power to the doors for Keyfob entry. And also to power home automation - blinds / curtains etc.

 

In our house I have a cab upstairs and one downstairs with 2 x cat6 running between them. Easier for future cable runs.

 

Home assistant does look interesting tbh.

[Sonic007]

I'd 100% definitely run Cat5e/Cat6 through the walls, probably feed them back to the cupboard under the stairs. Stick a 12-port switch in there, run 2 to each bedroom (4), 2 to the living room (6), 2 in the kitchen (8), 1 to each of the outside walls, front and back, for CCTV (10), then the last 2 ports for a router and a NAS (for said CCTV).

 

I'd go for a 128 port switch. Better to go bigger than have to replace later on. They quickly fill up. And 5E is old hat now. Go for atleast 6.

[Garacesh]

I'd go for a 128 port switch. Better to go bigger than have to replace later on. They quickly fill up. And 5E is old hat now. Go for atleast 6.

 

I was thinking maybe a 24-port switch but 128?! Bit overkill, no? lmao.

Yeah, on paper I'd go for 6, but 5E is still more than sufficient for small home networks, so would be no big loss if I ended up with that.

[Sonic007]

We use smart heating, Alexa, Alarm and Hue. They are wireless to be honest. CCTV is wired in a seperate vlan as is guest internet.

 

 

What hardware have you got your VLAN setup on? Im behind a normal Sky router and keen to seperate my CCTV and other gadgets.

[FN-GM]

I'd go for a 128 port switch. Better to go bigger than have to replace later on. They quickly fill up. And 5E is old hat now. Go for atleast 6.

 

128 ports for a house? By all means get plenty of data in but I doubt anyone in a house will have all 128 patched. We have bigger buildings than houses that don'e have 128 ports...

[Sonic007]

128 ports for a house? By all means get plenty of data in but I doubt anyone in a house will have all 128 patched. We have bigger buildings than houses that don'e have 128 ports...

Ok, maybe Im being a little over the top. Ill settle for 64.

[ultima170387]

I have 24 Cat6 points currently in my house. Living room has 8 points (2 by BT Master, 4 by TV/Sat and 2 in another corner of the room), Bedroom 1 and 2 has 6 points (2 in 3 corners of the rooms), and small bedroom 3 has 4 points. All have double sockets by them. May as well put what you can in while fresh or rewiring.

[XiJ]

What hardware have you got your VLAN setup on? Im behind a normal Sky router and keen to seperate my CCTV and other gadgets.

 

I have a virgin ‘router’ in modem only mode. And use a Mikrotik router at the moment. I forget the model - a little one with 5 x gigabit ports. I’d like to upgrade to an RB3011 as its rack mountable and has a nice little lcd. But it’s overkill lol

 

As for switches. I have an 8 port PoE upstairs that provides power for CCTV and Wireless AP. But for more cctv cameras I’d need bigger. So I’d look for for a 24 port PoE next.

Downstairs I’m using the remaining 4 ports of my Mikrotik router. That’s enough for now.

[dhicks]

After finally being granted planning permission for a new build house

 

What bits are you building yourself - are you hiring bricklayers, electricians, plumbers, etc? Are you living on-site while the house is built? Self-building, especially, can take years, and technology can change over that time.

 

How is the house heated / cooled? Is the garden big enough to fit a ground-sourced heat pump in? That, coupled with good insulation and some smart monitoring, could mean you have no heating bill and cooling in the summer.

 

How is the house powered - will there be solar panels on the roof? Either way, you could plan for a Powerwall-style battery storage facility, either fed from solar or off-peak electricity or both. If you have in-house electricity storage, it might be worth thinking how you distribute that power throughout your house - you could provision 5V DC (USB) or 24V/48V DC (PoE) direct from the battery storage, with no DC-to-AC-to-DC conversion. Might also be worth fitting an electrical car charging point.

 

If you're positioning CCTV, place PoE network points where they are useful for face recognition - head-height near doors. Also PoE points and additional power for actuators, should you want automated door locks / window openers.

 

Servers / switches: probably a good idea to have some provision for a small on-site server / network cupboard, but check how noisy your server / PoE switch is before you buy - you (and/or spouse/children) might not want to put up with the kind of equipment we stick in our server cupboards at work.

Edited January 16, 2019 by dhicks

[jmak]

What hardware have you got your VLAN setup on? Im behind a normal Sky router and keen to seperate my CCTV and other gadgets.

I use a Draytek router - plenty of VLAN configuration options.

 

I reckon 24 ports is about right for a switch at home (I have 11 in use) - although having run 2 points to the living room, I needed a mini switch at home as there's a high concentration of devices in one location.

[XiJ]

This kind of thing really excites me - Planning an energy efficient house (powerall, solar tiles/panels) - but also running cabling everywhere for all the network and electronic devices Interesting idea re PoE etc wth a powerwall.

 

What internet provision would you have in this new-build? My plex server runs 'cloud based' in a server at work. But I don't quite have the upstream bandwidth for CCTV footage. So anything that is mainly downstream I'm happy to store offsite - but still a good idea to have a low power server / Decent NAS onsite too

[Danp]

Cable everything.

 

Plan for space to store the gear (I quite fancy some space in the loft for switches etc)

[arwen]

I really like the ducting that looks like normal skirting boards. I'd be using that all about the house to make running cables a breeze. Save having to worry about decorating if you ever need to run another cable.

[jthompson]

Definitely some Cat6 running into each room, back to a central spot somewhere that you can put networking gear and a server of some description. And some UPS for all of that. If you're doing that, would be daft not to use PoE for WAP(s) and CCTV.

 

If it were me, I'd plan on having an external WAP to cover the garden if you're lucky enough to have plenty of outside space.

 

I'd keep a TV aerial, even if it's only to serve something like an HDHomeRun that'll stream broadcasts to your LAN (perhaps with Plex DVR?).

 

As for wiring in speakers, I'd not bother, as I'd rather spend the money on decent (conventional) HiFi in the living room. I'm not sure speakers up in the corners make a room look or sound its best, but that's just me.

 

Have at least one power socket in each corner of each room, because https://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/environment/couple-pretending-their-home-is-designed-around-feng-shui-not-plug-sockets-20170503127010.