Starting a selfbuild house - Recommendations

[kenco]

I'm trying to weigh up the best systems to use throughout the house for reasonable cost, regarding:-

Lighting - Opinions please on downlighters (all of ground floor + bathrooms upstairs), is LED worthwhile regarding quality of light/dimmability etc....

AV - Advice on running cables in for futureproofing, likely to be run through SKY HD - is CAT5 shielded best, best way to distribute thoughout house....

Security - Seems prudent to run cables in to front & rear of house for CCTV, possibly with a dedicated PC, what cabling is required. Recommendations for hardwired alarm systems, both professionally installed and DIY....

Anything else worth considering at the build stage regarding this sort of stuff?

I know it's a bit vague, but I'm grateful for any opinions. Thanks

[dunks517]

Kenco, I have completed a self build in June 07. I ran Cat5e to all living rooms and bedrooms. I ran 2 runs to each room from a centralised hub. Also from the hub I ran speaker cable to the kitchen, living room and family bathroom. All the bedrooms also have speaker cable in the ceiling from an access point is each rooms and all the above room also have CT100 coax running from the hub.

The ethernet carries data, voice and Sky HD, all the pcs in the house are connected via a workgroup sharing video music and a networked printer. I can with the appropriate balun switch any port from data to voice to video.

[hornydragon]

Originally Posted by kenco

Anything else worth considering at the build stage regarding this sort of stuff?

I know it's a bit vague, but I'm grateful for any opinions. Thanks

Professional advice, its all about having the right cables in the right place,

[kenco]

dunks517

Thanks for the advice, I ran cat5 cable to all rooms to a central hub in my previous build 5 years ago, but I never connected them up since the advent of wireless internet routers.

I think I'll take your advice though and get the cables in, it only costs a few quid and I can do it myself, so I'd be daft not to.

Regards

Kenco

[mark88]

LED lights don't provide sufficient light for main room lights. Don't replace your GU10's with LED version. You'll be really dissapointed.

[mark88]

Originally Posted by kenco

dunks517

Thanks for the advice, I ran cat5 cable to all rooms to a central hub in my previous build 5 years ago, but I never connected them up since the advent of wireless internet routers.

I think I'll take your advice though and get the cables in, it only costs a few quid and I can do it myself, so I'd be daft not to.

Regards

Kenco

I'm going to do that in mine. I'm gonna have ethernet points everywhere. At least 1 in each corner of a room I think.

[hornydragon]

Originally Posted by mark88

I'm going to do that in mine. I'm gonna have ethernet points everywhere. At least 1 in each corner of a room I think.

Thnis is a common mistake and while fine for basic data and telehone its next to useless for AV and more exciting options also you need more than just Cat5e.

[charris cy]

Follow the dragon's advice and get a pro to help you or do the job. All the projects that we have seen thet the electrician or the architect "prewired" for smart lighting and control were a mess. Also as an integrator I find it difficult to prewire for the ANY system that will be installed in the future. Maybe for video it is ok but for the other subsystems e.g audio,lighting, touchscreens each system is different and many run on their own bus so they need special cables that are specific for them. e.g Lutron Homeworks or Vantage Infusion lighting system. Also for audio the design of a big Sonos system is different to a Russound or a Netstreams one. Another example is touchscreens e.g AMX and Crestron ones require special cables.

Ethernet points in every corner of every room will almost be useless for "smart home" prewiring.

The best advice is to hire a pro.

[vex]

If you think about it, a single cat5e in every corner is pretty useless (I went through that design idea about 5 years ago)

What we tend to do is a pair of cat5e's in opposite corners. One with a pair of Coax's as well. That should keep you covered on the comms network (TV, Audio and Video)

As has been said, use a professional, we do this everyday and can have a design and system done for you very quickly. most CI installers well also design it, sell you the cables and let you 1st fix it and even help out on the 2nd fix to keep costs down.

HTH

V.

ps, where are you based (kenco and Mark88), we might be able to suggest an installer.

[Liam @ Prog AV]

The best thing a pro will do is sit you down and make you come up with an actual plan for each room (TV and speaker locations etc), and then a plan for the overall house (distributed audio and video, control, and lighting). To try and cable for every eventuality is madness, nothing will be in the right place. I spend a LOT of my time trying to make the best system I can from jobs where a bunch of CAT5 has been run to each room but with no real overall plan. Without speaker cables, or with the wrong number of or wrong location of CAT5 cabling you might find all the cable is a waste!

[kenco]

Some really great advice here, thankyou.

I am not seeking the cutting edge of home automation though (although who wouldn't like to?). Unfortunately, the build is going to strrrrreeeeeetch me financially by the looks of it, and that's without going mad on automation!

I'd just like to cover the neater possibilities regarding audio/HD video and the like.

I totally understand that the house really needs to be 'planned' out properly to get the best out of it.

I'll stick to non-LED lighting for now (apart from a few fancy ones in the kitchen plinths).

I'll also run cables in for CCTV to the main TV points and a hard drive server.

Thanks for the advice so far.

[hornydragon]

Originally Posted by kenco

I'd just like to cover the neater possibilities regarding audio/HD video and the like.

Thi is exactly why it needs to be planned other wise you might as well save the cost of the cable.

You mention about running CCTV cables to the TV points (so you must have TV points then) what cable will you run for CCTV? from where? Where will you put the CCTV DVR? What video sources would you want? and where? Audio in what rooms? What sources? this all needs to be planned befor eyou even consider installing cable a Full multiroom Audio and video system fitted for say 6 sources (mixed audio and video) to 6 rooms (Audio, Video or Both) fully installed with all the hardware, excluding sources and screens can cost under £10k. SO why not plan for this system knowing it will cost you approx £10k? Any installer/designer/competent person would be able to design the wiring to suit your intended £10k system or adapt it to suit a cheaper or more advanced solution.


SLapping a bit of cat5 here and there is no good you have to know where to slap it and how much, there are peope on antoher forum talking about having 70+ cat5 sockets in their house the reason they need so many in a 4 bed? They havent got a clue what they are doing or what they need.

Reasonable 4 bed (3 reception, 1 bath, 1 ensuite) property i would say 20 cat5 around the rooms max! and 20 more you cant see thats 40 and thats overkill all punched to a nice 48 way panel with some extra bits cable (this is the special bit) where needed.