A Wire Runs Through It
Most of the electrical has been run throughout the house, although we’re not quite finished yet. The city is coming this week to connect the meter, and the panel hasn’t been installed yet… but everything else is looking pretty good.
While we had outlined an electrical plan very early on, you really need to walk around the site to get a good sense of where the lights and switches should be placed. I’d say we followed the plan relatively closely, although we definitely made a few changes.
For the most part, we’ve used low-voltage MR16 recessed lights throughout the house. While we haven’t purchased them yet, the goal is to use LED lights wherever possible… although I continue to read mixed reviews of the technology (which has me a little wary of purchasing them for the entire house). Are LED lights really ready for general consumption? I certainly like the benefits of LED technology, I just don’t want to invest in a bunch if they don’t really work.
I’ve watched enough Holmes on Homes to know that moisture is a bad thing, so we also invested in high-quality Panasonic Whisper Green vents for the laundry and bathrooms. These things weren’t exactly cheap, but I think they were a solid investment. God help me if I discover mould in the future.
From a networking standpoint, we’ve run cat-6 (internet), coaxial (cable) and cat-3 (phone) throughout the house, all of which terminates in the mechanical room. The cat-6 will be connected to a gigabit switch, along with a modem/router to create a fully networked house. Of course, I’ll also connect a few Airport Express extenders to ensure we’ve got wireless coverage as well.
As I mentioned in my previous post, we have a few electronically-operated windows in the clerestory. While the control unit is still incredibly ugly, I discovered that you can actually control both windows with a single unit… which means we have 50% less ugly to deal with. I also picked up a remote control for the system, which happens to have an integrated thermometer in it. This means we can automatically open the windows and vent the heat should the clerestory reach a certain temperature. Coupled with the integrated rain sensor, hopefully the system will take care of itself in the summer (if only technology was actually this intelligent). I’m sure I’ll tinkering with it after 2 months.
Post Tags: electrical, networking, windows, wiring
Did you make sure they didn’t run the networking cable next to to the electrical wiring? :)
— posted on February 17, 2009Oh yeah, everything was kept separated… I don’t anticipate we’ll have any interference issues. Or so I hope ;)
— posted on February 17, 2009I recently saw LED lighting in use at The Huntington Library. I wasn’t aware there were drawbacks to it.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/s.....254956960/
— posted on February 18, 2009Speaking as one who works with lighting on a day-to-day basis: – be wary of LED. While some (or rather, very few) light sources, which plug right in to existing sockets (Edison, GU10 etc.) have come near useable light emission in both color and quantity, most of the ones you can get are terrible.
If you really want to go LED I suggest you get fixtures built for it, even though they’ll prove expensive – these days, peeps like us get three email a week (minimum) from LED agents and manufacturers, and most by far are, well, not up to the task.
Basically, the market is being flooded with LED but still far from all the people or companies actually know what they’re doing…
(you might wanna read thought some of the articles on Wikipedia on LED – as far as I know theyre pretty much right, factually speaking, so you can get some idea of the pros and cons)
— posted on February 18, 2009The one thing compelling I’ve heard about LED lights is that they don’t attract insects, because they don’t put off any UV light. For this reason, I’m thinking about maybe using them for outdoor lighting and that’s it.
— posted on February 18, 2009Is there a particular reason why you chose Cat-6 over Cat-5e? Is the incremental cost nominal?
— posted on February 18, 2009We looked into LED-specific solutions, but they were incredibly expensive and we simply couldn’t justify them. That said, I’ve read that the brightness and colour is poor (as mentioned above), plus I’ve heard that they have a tendency to break. While an actual LED might (theoretically) last for 50,000 hours, it appears the bulbs don’t last quite that long.
As for running cat-6 over cat-5, I wanted to be as future-proof as possible… and the speed increase (with the correct hardware in place) are quite dramatic with cat-6. From a cost standpoint, it was pretty trivial… I think it was $150-$200 more.
— posted on February 18, 2009Jeremy: I’m interested in your ventilation plan. Will your Panasonic Whisper Green fans run 24/7 (mostly at low volume, I presume), or do you have the option of setting normal operation on a timer? If this model doesn’t give that option, did you consider fans that do not run continuously? Also, will you include one or two vents to bring in outside air or are you relying on leakage?
I enjoy your blog—lot’s of good information.
Mario
— posted on February 19, 2009According to the Panasonic website,
“The fan runs continuously at a pre-set lower level of 30-70 CFMs that can then be elevated to a maximum of 80 CFMs when the switch is turned on. A High/Low delay timer(adjustable from 30 seconds – 60 minutes), will then return the fan to the minimum CFM level after a period of time set by the user.”
As for circulating fresh air, our HVAC system will include a heat recovery ventilator, which is described by the Wiki as:
“A ventilation system that employs a counter-flow heat exchanger between the inbound and outbound air flow. HRV provide fresh air and improved climate control, while also saving energy by reducing the heating (or cooling) requirements.”
— posted on February 19, 2009Hi Jeremy,
— posted on February 24, 2009This past year the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago had a Smart Home exhibit. The model green home included LED lighting and I thought that the color and brightness were quite good. They used LED specific recessed fixtures by Progress Lighting and I have to say I was very impressed. I am not sure if you have heard about this exhibit before so just in case here is the website: http://www.msichicago.org/what.....mart-home/
If you look in the right hand column on the page there is a link to the Exhibit Resource Guide in PDF form which includes all the products used in the home as well as other interesting information on the exhibit.
Just a note with the Linksys SR2016, make sure it is well ventilated. I am currently onto my 3rd such device after one complete failure and my last one losing a port. Though obviously not a Linksys technician I think the culprit was heat due to very high temps in summer over here in Australia.
— posted on February 25, 2009I agree with going with cat6, given the incremental cost and higher speeds. Did you give any thought to distributing HD around the house using cat6 baluns? (instead of paying for an HD box beside every HDTV).
Also, who did your cat6 wiring?
— posted on March 2, 2009We’ve definitely considered distributing HD via Cat 6, however the hardware is still pretty expensive to do so… we may transition over at some point in the future (but I’m currently planning on using Apple TV to handle most of the video… beyond a cable box in a few rooms).
As for the wiring itself, it was handled by our electrician.
— posted on March 2, 2009It is not cheap – about $200 per cat5e/6 balun pair (which tranmits component video, L/R analog & digital audio and IR signals), $100 for the IR receiver and $1,400 (all USD) for a matrix switch to serve 8 rooms, but that means you can share one or more HD cable boxes. Also nice if you want to keep recorded video in one central place.
— posted on March 2, 2009Btw, I’ve extensively researched LED and it’s not ready for prime time as far as I can see. Also, the cost you have to pay for the lumens you get is very very high. However, for specific and specialized applications, such as areas where bulb-changing is very difficult, you can’t have heat generated, etc. it might be be a good solution.
As for the cat6, how many runs do you have to each room?
— posted on March 2, 2009I totally agree – LED just isn’t there. I’m aware of LED-specific fixtures that are better than retrofits, but still… I couldn’t imagine investing in the technology quite yet. One day perhaps, but just not now. Way too much risk in my opinion.
Re: Cat 6, we have 2 runs in most rooms… wherever there’s cable, we ran Cat 6. but we also ran another run to where a desk might be.
In the end, I’ll have everything blanketed with wireless network, so I’m not too worried about internet connectivity throughout the house.
— posted on March 2, 2009I did the same regarding wireless and have full coverage, but my question was more directed I guess to futureproofing for hardwired applications such as HD (wireless HD is a long way from primetime and when it arrives it will be expensive) or audio. As the cable is so cheap and I ran it myself, I pulled 1 RG6 for cable TV and/or CATV cams and 6 cats to each room (including bathrooms) for future proofing as follows (one can just terminate in a blank wallplate where not required):
– 2 for possible HD component audio/video or HDMI baluns; – 1 for IPTV capability, which many HDTV’s are now including on their sets; – 1 for gigabit ethernet if I want a wired connection; and – 2 in case I ever want to put in a whole house cat5 wired audio system, but I use Sonos wireless, which is awesome.
I also ran RG6 and cat5e to a front doorbell and front and side yard cams (but I only so far have used the front doorbell). And then a couple RG6’s to the roof in case I ever want to put up a satellite and/or antenna (the latter of which can give you free over-the-air HD in Toronto).
(You’re probably past the stage of adding more cable but maybe this info might be of interest to others.)
— posted on March 2, 2009Yeah, we’re definitely past it at this point… but your future-proofing sounds solid (and kinda’ sorta like someone I wish I had done myself.)
— posted on March 2, 2009I agree with Jesper as well. I work as an EE for an MEP and we deal with clients who want LED a lot and in the end it rarely works for large facilities which means it an even worse idea for home users. CFL and plain ol’ fluorescent have a longer life, better color and are not that difficult to maintain.
— posted on March 10, 2009There’s a 17,000 sq ft contemporary house designed by Shim Sutcliffe in Rosedale called Integral House on Roxborough on the Don Valley Ravine in Toronto that employs LED’s extensively. I think that in this case it’s more of an issue with respect to the accessibility of the fixtures (they are around the exterior of the house behind a double wall of sandblasted glass).
— posted on March 10, 2009Yeah, we’re definitely past it at this point… but your future-proofing sounds solid (and kinda’ sorta like someone I wish I had done myself.)
— posted on May 19, 2010