Properly Plan your Low Voltage Wiring in Your New Build
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- Опубликовано: 23 окт 2023
- Take a walk with me as I go through my latest new construction home project and talk through the Cat6 Ethernet planning. We are going to talk Wi-Fi, TV Drop locations, Network Head End planning and even some future proofing (if you watch to the end). Don't miss this chance to see what proper low voltage planning looks like.
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Links from the video:
- FREE PLANNING GUIDE: www.ethernetblueprint.com/fre...
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- ($47) WI-FI HEAT MAPPING COURSE: www.ethernetblueprint.com/3d1...
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Thank you for this great video!
You are so welcome! I hope it helped you out!
Happy to see you installing a rack downstairs in the basement. I am not a fan of the in wall on-q style network boxes. I would run several drops of Cat6 to each room. Network cable is cheep and on drop room usually is not enough.
Thanks for the comments! Appreciate you watching.
Hey Tim, great video. I'm currently having my house built in Tenn and my electrician is old school and doesn't know anything about ethernet, so I'm doing all the wiring myself. I saw that you used single gang fully enclosed boxes vs the open boxes that you can get almost anywhere. Is there a reason you went that way ? FYI, I am running cat6A cable throughout the entire house.
Good catch... You can use LV open boxes for your runs, no problem. If you are doing WAPs, you may want to use a solid box for the ceiling locations though. They are a bit more rigid and won't sag at all from the weight of the AP. I'm sure either would work. That has just always been my preference. Thanks for watching!
I would just like to say that the most efficient "mesh install" would include cat six to the mesh repeaters so that they can enjoy a hard line to the switch. This improves signal quality and speed coming from the mesh repeaters and in the case of a fully enclosed theater, I would have a hard wire to the projector as well as to the mesh repeater in the room if you needed that kind of redundancy.
I agree that without a hard wired, physical connection the mesh would not work well in this house. Especially in the theater. Everything is hardwired with Cat6 cables and POE powered in this home just like you suggest. This home did have coax pulled just in case they wanted cable boxes and weren’t ready to cut the cord. Moca is fine when you don’t have any other options IMO.
Another key issue I've seen design woes with - in-floor heating! We had a client with in-floor hydronic (hot water) heating no only in their basement, but 1st and 2nd levels as well. Moving water and WiFi don't mix. Had to have multiple WAPs for every floor!
That’s a good point. Never ran into that issue but that makes sense.
Great video. I have concrete home theatre as well. I had a mesh system that worked ok not greatest wifi in theatre. I then upgraded my mesh system to Asus XT-9 that comes with two units wifi was very weak in theatre so I added a router that joins mesh system and put it inside theatre now wifi is great. Why don't you just put an access point in the theatre?
I am installing a hard wired AP in the theater. Sorry if that wasn’t clear. Mesh and concrete don’t mix. Glad you found a fix.
Use eero wifi and run a cat 6 cable to every access point a.k.a "backhaul data over ethernet" for way better performance and reliability
Out of curiosity why didn't you do a full size plastic structure wiring panel or even a half size. Also do you guys normally do your rack bundles down low not up high?
Are you talking about the boxes built in the wall that comes with some homes? If you are, I strongly dislike those boxes. IMO, they are not practical for "most" unifi network gear - especially if you plan to have a UPS. As far as rack placement, it really depends on the home. Some are high, some are lower... I try to find the happy medium between not needing a ladder to access them, but also having them out of the way... It really depends on the home though. For this house, this location made the most sense based on how the fiber was entering the property.
Does having data and electrical wires did not affect the signal for Ethernet in that house? I get that the wiring wasn't going through the same holes on the studs, but it appears that some of the wires are overlapping.
Typically, they can overlap. Just shouldn’t run in parallel. If they do run in parallel, they are should be at least a foot apart.
take the pedestal conduit direct connect with the MDF conduit using a right angle conduit body with cover.. it will look cleaner and professional without havting any exposed wiring out side
Good tip. I didn't install this one... the builders electricians did. Good tip for the listeners though...
I'm a contractor with Cox Communications, they would literally cut the conduit in order to place a house box on the side of the house which is protocol so I wouldn't bother with that.
Hey Tim, can I ask what you typically charge a client to do their network, a/v, and cable design?
It really depends on the space. I try to be very fair. If you'd like to email me at tim@ethernetblueprint.com, I'd be happy to talk through it with you. I don't charge anything for that part. lol
$75 - $100 per drop give or take.. this covers cabling, connectors, wall plates, keystones, low voltage mounting plates, smurf tubing and misc items plus labor
Also, I would use POE to run my mesh AP's
Agreed, hard wired POE APs are the way to go.
Btw, if you have floor to ceiling tile like in a bathroom, wifi doesn’t even like that! I have a laundry with 4' tile against a bathroom with ceiling tile, and the laundry room gets bad connection even though there is an access point directly on the other side of the bathroom.
So true... The materials in the home, thickness of the drywall, metal beams, insulation... all play a factor in your signal.
Home wifi that is all I've ever needed to stream video/TV and access internet. I've occasionally used wifi cameras like google Nest or Wyze, though this is more a novelty than necessary.
I plan to run a single coaxial cable to a central point in the home to connect a wifi router.
I've never used hard-wired networking in a home and don't see a need for it today. Why run Cat6 or any other cable when wifi is adequate for home needs? Why run Coaxial to TVs when streaming has taken over? Is it for gaming (which I don't do)?
Well I would argue that if Wi-Fi is important to you then it may be a good idea to wire in a nice system however, everyone’s needs are different. Your home may not require a mesh and a single unit works well for you. Or, you don’t think you’ll ever need Wi-Fi outdoors away from the house.
I’m basing my content off my experience in people’s homes attempting to make standard Wi-Fi or Mesh systems work where there is no cabling. The options are extremely limited. And a home owners need change over time. Having wired infrastructure in place can make a huge difference in cost when that unknown thing that you didn’t know you needed comes along. I do, however, respect your opinion on this manner and appreciate you commenting.
@@ethernetblueprint Thanks for the reply.
My contractor had initially specified a couple of access points, but agreed that a centrally placed wifi router may be adequate. He said we could at Mesh later if needed. The current home build is 4000 sq ft open floor plan all on a single level, and the router will be in the center of the home. However, my last home as a little larger at 5000 sq ft on 2 levels, and the single wireless router located on the second level supplied good wifi in all areas of the home, even the back patio.
But as far as cat6 cable, I just don't understand why that would be needed with good wifi.
I am having low voltage wire run for motorized shades and distributed audio as well as home theater speakers (though wireless sonos is a good option as well, just not as clean a look as wall or ceiling installed speakers.
I'm also running conduit from the rack to the crawl space and figure I can run wire in the crawl space if something ever comes up.
I certainly wish you the best. I hope it works well for you.
What kind of waps do you use?
For this job, we are using U6 Pros for the ceiling waps and U6 InWall for the wall mounted ones. For the Outdoor AP, I think I am going to use a U6 Mesh Unit. All Unifi APs.
You need to wire for PoE presence sensors now. Why do coax at all anymore instead of HDMI over CAT6???
You bring up a good point on coax, but there are many people out there who use it for OTA TV... Also, I think when you get into more complicated builds that require HDMI over Etherent, or other special AV needs, then a home owner should consult a professional to make sure all the cables are getting pulled to the correct locations.
@@ethernetblueprint I haven't used OTA TV since 2008, so I guess that's why I didn't even consider that. 😂 You can just pull from the rack to all the TV locations, same as coax (assuming the networking closet is where that is located). If they go HDMI over CAT6, it's pretty simple from the rack. All the switching also happens there if they want to get fancy later on!
You could save some money by ditching the coax all together unless you plan to run MoCa thru them later...everything is going wireless so would just not even bother with it since you know your running fiber.
Replied to other comment...
I personally wouldn’t rely so heavily on wifi especially where network security is concerned. WiFi has it’s place but nothing surpasses hardwired connections both for reliability and security
100% agree. 👍🏼
9:44 - there is no reason to run coax to a TV in 2024. Just HDMI and ethernet. I would run two of each. Coax is useful to were the setup box is but they aren't mounting a set top box above the fireplace.
I hear what you’re saying and agree when it comes to my personal setup but many of my homes like to have an OTA antenna in the attic and run to the TVs… especially with cable and streaming costs rising all the time. While I would never run coax in my home, many still have a need for it.
Technology that uses wires is evolving so rapidly that I question how much we can future-proof anything involving wires. The only thing that seems likely to be useful long term is roomy conduit so we can easily take out the outdated tech and put the new ones in.
Yes, the only way to 100% future proof a home is to run conduit everywhere. Not sure how practical that is... depends on your home's layout for sure. I typically recommend choosing a couple locations in your home to pull conduit to... WAPs, Cameras and possibly your main entertaining areas just in case. Those areas would be most likely where you may need to upgrade down the road. And make sure you have one to the attic for any future pulling...
1 gig has been the standard for the past 20 years. Run Cat 6a, 10 gig will be the standard for a while. Most devices are 1 gig, some new cameras went back to 100 meg
@@paulweaver7426 I’m 53, old enough to remember when only Ma Bell could run a phone wire and an extension was a luxury. Coax came and basically went. Now Cat 5 and 6 are essentially useless because wireless is so cheap and good. Hard to know what’s next.
@@twestgard2CAT6 useless?🤔
@@fasteddievh2072 Knob and tube isn’t useless either, but we don’t install much of it anymore.