Episode 20: Low Voltage Systems
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- Опубликовано: 15 мар 2024
- Welcome back to the Build Show podcast! In this episode, Matt Risinger sits down with Steve Lesem, Chief Operating Officer of Matt's homebuilding company, to dive deep into the world of low voltage wiring and why it's crucial for future-proofing your home for new technologies.
If you're like many homeowners or builders, you might not think much about the wiring in your home beyond the standard electrical setup. However, as Matt and Steve discuss, the world of home technology is rapidly evolving, and having the right wiring infrastructure in place can make a huge difference in your home's functionality and convenience.
Steve, a University of Texas electrical engineering grad with a background in high tech and software, brings a wealth of knowledge to the table. He explains the different types of low voltage wiring, from Cat 6 ethernet cables to speaker wires and everything in between. These low voltage wires are essential for connecting devices like cameras, thermostats, and even washing machines to your home network, enabling seamless operation and communication between devices.
One of the key points Steve and Matt emphasize is the importance of planning ahead. While it may seem like a small detail, the wiring decisions you make during construction can have a big impact on your home's ability to adapt to new technologies in the future. By investing in a well-thought-out wiring infrastructure now, you can save yourself a lot of hassle and expense down the road when you inevitably want to upgrade your home's technology.
So, whether you're building a new home or thinking about upgrading your current one, don't overlook the importance of proper wiring. Tune in to this episode of the Build Show podcast to learn more about how low voltage wiring can future-proof your home for the technologies of tomorrow.
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One thing to consider with low-voltage wiring, especially for data (ethernet, etc.) is to run the wiring in chases that will let you replace them as data speed standards evolve. Houses in the early 90's were wired with 4 conductor phone lines and coax (typically RG-59 or RG-6). 10 years later, they were being wired with Cat5 cable and coax. Planning a house now should, at the least, include a 'data closet' that all of the data lines run back to, and some sort of chases that they lay into as they run throughout the house. Steve is absolutely correct about not relying on wifi for everything. It should really be used only for the truly 'mobile' devices (phones, watches, laptops). And a really forward thinking home layout would include a couple of low-voltage boxes in the ceilings for ceiling mounted wifi access points. The difference in coverage between a ceiling mounted access point and the ones that are built into the routers that the internet providers give you is night and day. Mostly because of the things that come between the routers and the end-point devices. Steve mentioned different types of walls, but it also includes human bodies, metal filing cabinets, metal lathe in some surface treatments (including stucco, if you are considering getting a wifi signal out into a backyard, etc.). Ceiling mounted access points will look somewhat like another smoke detector on the ceiling, and send their signal out above a lot of those obstacles.
One area that needs much, much more discussion is HVAC controls. We now have ERV, Dehum., AHU, dedicated makeup, and dedicated exhaust, zone, etc. Making them all work together and .......my wife needs to be able to easily use it.
I would love more content on this topic. Integrating security, house wide connectivity, new controls for HVAC, etc. Great stuff!
Thank you! Answered a lot of questions. Steve is easy to understand. Can’t wait for episode 2.
This was GREAT, thank you! Too many homeowners don't understand the complexity of these systems or the hassles that come with everything on WiFi. Prewiring with CAT6 or similar is absolutely the way to go. I'd love to hear more about low-voltage lighting systems. Pros/cons, etc.
I'm already seeing the DC lighting in new houses being built in Colorado.
I'm so glad to hear you talking about this issue! I'm a low-voltage contractor in Utah, and most of the time when I talk to contractors, they look at me like I'm taking crazy pills, and suggest that most of their clients use wifi. We're talking about million plus dollar custom builds, 7000 sqft. At the same time, I get customers who contact me all the time, in the same type of large custom home, who's wifi can't reach to the home office in the basement, and they are frustrated from trying to use wifi extenders with poor results. If I could have been there 6 months previous, I could have saved them a lot of money and headache!
Another note on the home automation systems: I don't like any of them because, like you said, they all end up like bricks and the cost a lot of money! I offer my customers: hardwired network, distributed whole-home wifi, Cameras, Speakers, and motorized blinds (the best upgrade in a house imo). These are the things that most people need and want in their house, and the devices that they will use every day!
In addition to the pre-wire, it's important to have someone who knows the equipment, how to set it up, and how to prepare for that equipement in the pre-wire. Lots of electricians will "Pre-wire" a house with a couple of Cat6 runs, but I've never seen any of them finish the job with the hardware necessary to use the system, nor do they place cat6 runs in places where you would want an access point.
Keep up the great work, I love learning from your channel!
If anyone in Utah needs a low-voltage contractor who can help with the must-have systems in your new build, look me up online, my business is Wires and Wifi. Wiresandwifi.com
Great Podcast on a good topic in today's homes. As a retired data center engineer and as Steve knows communications technology changes often. First it was coax/twinax, then twisted pair then fiber, radio wave and so on. Use a flexible conduit from the main communication control location to the extended outlets and remotes for media and other control spaces. This allows the change of communication cable (wire, CATx, fiber, coax or other) to newer higher bandwidth technologies.
The only issue I found with prewires when I did Fire/Burglary/antenna/CCTV/Video/audio/security work was with the electricians (mad they didn't get the job), insulation installation (wire in the way use hammer on it) and drywallers cutting or damaging or burying the cables. I would go in and test continuity of the cables often. As Steve mentioned the only problem with most Wi-Fi security, fire/CO2 sensors is changing all the batteries often and they are not cheap either most clients would rather have wired (with power) sensors then changing all the batteries every six months to a year.
This is a subject I have a great interest in. Matt I remember making a comment on one of your videos of your house you built with regards to the low voltage wiring you ran. Why didn't you use low voltage conduit to fee the wires through? This would have 'future proofed' your wiring when your cat-6 is no longer adequate.
At the end of the video you mentioned the absolute minimum in cases of a tight budget. IMO, That would be installing low voltage conduit to well thought out locations through out the house. Fishing the required wiring to only the legs/locations that need it. The existing conduit can be useful for future upgrades to existing wiring and expansions using the preinstalled conduit.
As a low voltage (network) guy.... Preach! WiFi is convenient, sure, but you can't beat wired connections. I'd say stick with the things that are standardized like Ethernet, put more in than you think you'll ever need, and choose products that use standardized wiring / switching standards. I can roll 48v+ over PoE, plenty for LED lights as well... the low voltage standards are there, we need to see products in the home that can use them.
Control4 is a very reliable system. I’ve been a Control4 dealer for almost 10 years and I never had a problem where a customer would be unhappy or a system would be “Bricked”. It is a shame that companies like Matt’s can’t find a reputable dealer to work with. Like in every other industry, who you work with makes a big difference.
But I agree completely, it makes so much more sense to wire, the more technology we get in our h houses, the more sense it makes. I feel that if na device is installed or sits somewhere, it should reconnected with hardwire, wifi is for portable devices.
As I see many of the comments talking about CatX cabling; do I take this to also include POE as part of the discussion?
coax is neat!
bought a 1970s house and was considering running cat5/6, but already had coax in the walls (rg-59/rg-6) and cable drops in almost every room. turns out you can use something called multimedia over coax (MoCA) to use the existing coax cabling in the walls and only need ethernet for the last 5-10ft (depending on where your cable drop is) and still achieve ethernet-like reliability, latency and throughput (up to 2.5Gbps). costs $100-ish per MoCA adapter, as opposed to however much it would cost to run cat5/6 through the walls after the fact.
the downside is that this is total traffic shared between devices over MoCA (unlike pure ethernet) but for most people this won't be an issue.
Also, there is a lot to be said about the different sorts of home automation systems, such as Control4, Crestron, etc. They can be very powerful installations, but they will always require a home automation professional to program them. So any time you decide to upgrade a receiver in your home sound system, or change out a TV, unless it is with the same brand and a very recent model change (meaning the unit being replaced is only a couple of years older than the new one), you will be paying that home automation specialist to come back out and reprogram things. That is why Crestron in found mainly in office installs, where a company can keep the installer on a retainer contract to make the updates. Distribution of audio signals hasn't changed much in the last 20 years, but distribution of video has changed drastically (and will continue to evolve). So using those sorts of systems to control all of that will make for difficult and/or costly upgrades as you enjoy the home over several decades.
Researching for low voltage lighting has been a pain. Just so few options and a mess to sort through from the large lighting suppliers but there seems like a lot of upside in general. I will likely end up with poe lighting as I will be doing that already for cameras and doorbell
There is another way that home automation is evolving, where lighting and sound are being managed by cloud-based systems such as Amazon Alexa. Using Sonos or HEOS distributed sound systems, and using the 'smart switch' high-voltage light systems will allow you to talk to 'Alexa' and control so much. The down side of that is the potential network security issues that the cloud-based stuff represents. There are new standard that have been evolving over the last 3-4 years, which are making the interoperability much better between different vendors.
Great podcast, I just have some comments...
Wi-Fi certified house, just another excuse for some builders to cheap-out on value.
In several cases I know of, in order to be able to work from home, the computer you use, or is provided for you to use, must be on a wired internet connection for security reasons.
Low voltage is typically less 48V, or less, (based on the original home "low-voltage" wiring, the telephone circuits).
LEDs are low voltage, but LED fixtures (where there are enough LEDs to produce any significant lighting, may not be. The luminaires do produce heat, and are also very sensitive to it. The LEDs need a reasonable level of air flow to keep cool, or their lifespan can be dramatically reduced. But these lighting devices work well with 48V supplies, so you get low voltage, and reasonably low current, so small gauge wire (18-#20AWG) could still be used.
For maximum reliability, put the really "dumb" system (the wiring) in the walls and provide the necessary connections for customers to upgrade as time goes by.
The thing that scares me about lot's of these "smart" devices is that they're only smart as long as they are supported from the vendors. When vendors cancel support for those products, they often cancel your use of it.
EE also, double up cat6e everywhere
Power over Ethernet (PoE) Lighting?
>"If you're listening to this podcast you're probably like minded: You're probably inquisitive; you're probably a builder, or a modeler or an architect..."
Jokes on me; just a software engineer.
Insurance agent
my solution as a computer engineer was to run pvc conduit to each room just in case
totally missed power over ethernet. the new spec supports up too 100W per cat5 wire. there isn't much in a modern house outside of large appliances that actually needs 120v mains.
samsung makes a 32" poe TV
I found poe ceiling and bath vent fans
I know this is a building channel but equating signal degradation with loss of transmission speed was a huge mistake. Many modern WiFi devices use both 2.4GHz and 5GHz signals. The 2.4 can penetrate common home materials better but doesn't provide as much bandwidth, nor offer as many channels. It also tends to get more interference from other devices such as the microwave in the kitchen. The signal will also bounce around and interfere with itself both constructively and destructively so repositioning the router or access point can make a huge difference. Weak signals or interference can result in dropped packets which need to be sent again which the user experiences as a slower connection. However, a strong enough signal can hit full speed even through drywall. I do support the concept that a wired connection will generally be more reliable. However, WIFi can use multiple access points and there are even mesh setups. You can make your WiFi work well in any home with the right setup.
DC lighting =‘s less/no heat =‘s less A/C load.
Now about all those plugged in ready-to-use devices….🤦♂️
The use of wifi and cell phone jammers during break-ins is becoming more common so plan accordingly.
Your watch has WiFi connection? Most watches just do Bluetooth.
Would love to have a part 2
Any advice on finding a high performance home builder? My google searches haven’t been very successful.
i have no idea why we do not switch to 220V outside of being stuck on 110V?...
>"If you're listening to this podcast you're probably like minded: You're probably inquisitive; you're probably a builder, or a modeler or an architect..."
I'm actually a mechanic. And yes, I did steal the first line from @samuelkelemen9597 because he typed it perfectly.