internet cable etc house wiring
Can anyone give me information on wiring of my brownstone with cable for internet (cat-5?), speakers, intercom & alarm systems? We have a short window of time to put this in before we repair plaster etc & repaint. Can you recommend websites that have good info on this stuff? I am mostly looking to do…
Can anyone give me information on wiring of my brownstone with cable for internet (cat-5?), speakers, intercom & alarm systems? We have a short window of time to put this in before we repair plaster etc & repaint.
Can you recommend websites that have good info on this stuff? I am mostly looking to do the essential stuff to give me flexibility to put in internet plugs, speakers etc in later when I have more liquidity… Also I will be doing the wiring myself for the same reason.
We don’t want to rely on wireless internet WiFi but are considering wireless alarm (ADT). A friend told me that the wireless alarm systems can be annoying because the batteries run out without warning. Is this still a problem in the newer systems?
Is there any other essential backbone wiring (or?) that I should consider?
Thanks!
We just wired a five story house with structured bundle from each room “home-runned” to a panel box in a central closet. This controls all audio, visual, computer, and phone for the house. We opted to do the alarm seperately and make it wireless. Its complicated but well worth it. We used a honeywell panel box and structured bundle of two coax and two cat 5 es…wish we had opted for fibre in the bundle as well. Hometech.com has great information on how to do this. Check out consumer reports for info on wireless alarms–they have gotten a lot better and are equal to wired. If you want a consultant we used ed gilmore of gilmoresoundadvice.com….
good luck
There is something called “structured wiring” which I’d recommend looking into. I got the kind that had two CAT-5’s and two coax’es, all in one jacket. Then I ran that in a “star” configuration, emanating from a panel box I installed in our of our bedrooms. In that panel box was also the main feed for cable, and phone, as well as my router.
In each room I had a outlet box with a phone, network, and two coax outputs.
You can learn more here:
http://www.broadbandutopia.com/homewiring.html
I bought the stuff here:
http://www.futurehomesystems.com/w177.shtml
You can call that company also, and I think I got the owner on the phone, who gave me a lot of helpful hints.
There are three parts to the installation:
the rough part, runing the wires through the walls, etc. Your GC should be able to do that.
The other part is the actual connections, stripping the wires, etc. It’s time consuming and delicate. I found a guy to do it, but I don’t think he’s doing that anymore. You might try befriending someone who works at verizon.
Lastly, is just connecting the equipment, etc, which you should be able to do yourself.
This doesn’t solve your sound or alarm questions though.
For sound, you can try sonos, which runs on your home network. Or, if you know where you’re home theather system is going to be, see about running basic speaker wire from there to various points. You can get speaker wire at Lowe’s by the foot.
For the alarm, mine is a combination wired/wireless, and they did the wiring when the walls were open. You can try them if you want an alternative to ADT:
All Security Locksmith 718-435-9055
Locally-owned, not a chain, but they work with a central call company that does all the usual things when your alarm goes off.
hope that helps.
ideally you should run cables (cat-6) from all rooms down to a patch panel in the basement. or cat-5e if you are not concerned about being totally future proof.
I’m sure you can google up some home wiring how-to sites. Try “home wiring cat-6” for instance
eg:
http://www.fadden.com/homewiring/index.htm
I have an ADT wireless system that was installed nearly 10 years ago. The batteries do not run out without warning.