Since I did not have the
luxury of
seeing my home being built, I could
not specify the preinstallation of structured wiring. If you read many
of the home automation magazines that are out there today, you would
know
that they suggest no intelligent home should be without one. This is
where
you have TV and computer network cabling installed 'home run' style to
every room in the house. I would tend to agree only because I found
that
I needed to install conduit and cabling to accomplish my home
automation
goals.
My first installation occurred during the
Central
Vacuum project. In that case I was of course installing PVC
piping
for the vacuum line. I then later installed Cat 5 (computer) cabling
during
the
Phone System project,
and then RG6 (TV)
cabling
for the
Whole House Video
project. Despite
the
fact that it was a retrofit, I was able to completely hide the tubes
and
cables inside walls and closets so that none showed, leading to a very
professional appearance. This was possible on one end of the home by
using
the chase for the furnace flue, and on the other end by using my
garage.
The chase was a box that led from the basement to the attic and
measured
about two feet by two feet wide. It had of course fire blocks built
into
it which blocked air from going from one floor to the next, so these
had
to be drilled thru with a 2.5 inch hole saw. I then ran two vacuum
pipes
thru the holes of the chase, sealing the gap with caulking. One pipe
was
for the vacuum system and the other served as a conduit for cabling. I
finished the installation of the vacuum system first, noting and
thinking
about how I would install the TV and computer cables. Since I was
installing
only two vacuum outlets per floor, but many more outlets per floor for
the electrical connections, the latter was a bigger challenge.
Electrical connections from the second floor are routed as follows.
A hole is drilled from the attic into the stud space above the new
outlet.
I then saw out a hole into the drywall and insert a new outlet box. The
type of box is called '
old
work box', and allows you to slide the box
in and swing two tabs to secure the box in the drywall. Wire is then
routed
from the new box into the stud space, and then into the attic where it
is led down into conduit to the basement. Here it is then run into the
wiring closet.
Connections from the first floor are possible because my finished
basement
has a suspended ceiling. I drill a hole from the basement below into
the
stud space of the future box, and route the cabling down into the
basement
and wiring closet.
Connections from the basement are most simple since I can remove a
ceiling panel and get access to the stud space of the basement wall.
Once at the wiring closet (see above), the wiring
terminates
in the appropriate type of block. For TV, I have a bank of splitters
mounted
on a plywood plank. I can then patch the right combination as needed.
The
Cat 5 is terminated into a 66 style block with RJ11 connectors if it is
used for phone, and a panel of RJ45 style patch panel if used for
computers.
The phone connections are then patched into my 'phone hub' or phone
system,
and the computer connections go into a normal computer network switch.
One challenge was finding
an attractive
way to terminate the cabling
in the lived in areas. I found a system that uses blank wall
plates
with square holes into which you can snap inserts to mix and match the
type of connectors you need. I don't know the name of this technology
as
individual manufacturers have their own names. Examples are 'Quickport'
(Leviton), 'TechWire' and 'Keystone'.