If you were building a new house, what are some awesome IT upgrades you recommend?

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dalearyous

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what are some awesome IT upgrades to look into if you could build a new house? obviously cat5 wiring everywhere all terminated in the basement would be nice. what else would you get into? like remote lighting control via mobile app or intercom system or whatever

thoughts?
 
Lighting and speakers would be cool. Security is always good too. coax for cctv?
 
dalearyous said:
lol, realistically though
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Panic room/escape routes. It's not unrealistic.

Cat6 everywhere.
lighting near the stairs and in hallways that automatically activates at night AND only turns on when people are nearby
nest thermostat (separate zones too)
automatic lighting and window shades
heated bathroom floors (with a nest thermostat)
heated/ac garage (nest thermostat)
 
are there any utilities available to control lights in the house? that have a mobile app? i will already have few servers constantly running

like i want my lights in my house to turn on as i walk around by detecting my phone in my pocket and knowing what lights to turn on and off based on my location
 
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Might want to look at home automation forums for that part of the setup.

As for wiring, as they always say it's a always way, way, way easier and cheaper to run as much wiring as you can before a house is drywalled then after. I'd run a few drops so areas like hallway ceilings and then cover it with a flat access plate so you can add a wireless access point or other device at later time. What I think is nice is nowadays more and more devices run over IP, over network cable, so you don't need to run a bunch of different types of cables.

As much as you can with automation try not to use something that may become obsolete, use something that's supported by different manufacturers for example.
 
Conduit.
Centralized Networking/server room.
Run cables for whole home automation support.
Three phase 30A receptacles.
Wifi endpoints in every room.
 
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Touch screens throughout the house for controlling and monitoring everything.
Central music and video
IP based security cameras.
A fuck ton of cabling to each room.
Dedicated server room with it's own cooling and a backup generator.
Mesh based wifi
 
Pull lots and lots of Cat6.
PVC conduit (basement to attic and along primary walls) for making upgrades/changes easy.
Junction boxes in closet walls works great.
Pre-wire for security (every door and window on the main floor at a minimum).
Don't forget Cat6 to possible IP security cam (ceiling) locations.
Plenty of automation options commercially available as well as DIY.
Take you time, do lots of research.
Finally don't forget in-wall/ceiling wiring for speakers.
 
Conduit for everything.
Cat6A everywhere for wifi and drops where PCs, NAS, Media Players will be
4x Cat5e to the same places and for other devices(speakers, voip, wifi, cctv, IR, RS232)
Speaker wires and Cat5e for whole home audio (cat5e for IP speakers) homerunned to network closet.
HDMI homerunned to networking closet.
Junction box for CAT6, HDMI, Speakers, etc.
Touchscreens
Heated floors
Multi-zone heat/ac
 
wow these are all really good ideas

anyone know of any really good home automation sources?
 
Unless you're a Crestron/AMX programmer, whole home automation isn't DIY friendly.
 
Keiichi said:
Unless you're a Crestron/AMX programmer, whole home automation isn't DIY friendly.
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Agreed, in the sense of "if you're doing it... either do it all yourself or let someone else do all of it." That entire space is retarded for lack of compatible standards / well-documented hardware. Not worth trying to interface with half the commercial stuff.

If you intend to roll your own, though, then I don't see anything stopping you. A nice way to get some real-world control theory experience if you're interested in that sort of thing.
 
control4 is pretty sweet from what i have just read. i found a platinum dealer nearby. going to head over there at some point and check it out.

it seems extremely expensive though.

*edit*
i wonder how flexible the scenarios and controls are
 
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well i couldn't find any prices anywhere ... other than ebay which is not credible

i am assuming its like $50 or so per switch, receivers are probably $500 or so, and the complicated add ons like AV, garage door etc ... tack on $200 each or so. so i guess it depends on your house. oh and the touch screen units in the wall are probably $300-$500. if you could get decent setup for $2000 that isn't bad

wonder how well the 802.15 network works? like will you pull up the interface and find that 1 or 2 switches randomly do not show up?
 
dalearyous said:
what are some awesome IT upgrades to look into if you could build a new house? obviously cat5 wiring everywhere all terminated in the basement would be nice.
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If it's a "new" house..and the date of this thread post isn't 10 years old....and you wanted "awesome"....I'd shoot for newer than CAT5...why not CAT6? Or at the very least, 5e?

Prepare for upgrades....put in conduit so you can easily upgrade your runs in the future. That's what I'd do.
 
If it's a 2 story house, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD put a tube from the attic to the crawl space.

that's the only thing i wish my house had, it would be 100% perfect if it had this in my house..

Its easy to conceal wiring DOWN from the attic into a room, and it's easy to conceal wire UP from the crawl space. but it's a major B!tch to get from crawl to attic.
 
I'd pretty much agree with all that has been said here - tons of CAT6 drops (10Gb switches/nics may not be affordable now, but they will be soon) and run conduit wherever you can as that will give you options to 40Gb and beyond by making new cable runs/repairs massively easier. Running CAT5 as well for low-bandwidth stuff such as any IP phones/cameras, audio equipment, etc is also a good idea. Even if you opt not to do any home automation/security stuff right off the bat, having the cable runs (or conduit) in place will make that a much more practical upgrade in the future. All of this should terminate to patch panels in a central location, preferably in a basement for cooling purposes. That location should also be serviced by a couple of 20A circuits to give you whatever flexibility you may need in the future for servers/switches/labs/etc.

At least, that's what I would do.
 
Oh and make your networking runs redundant at least. This is so that for whatever reason you're not immediately boned if one wire goes out for whatever reason.
 
McTurkey said:
I'd pretty much agree with all that has been said here - tons of CAT6 drops (10Gb switches/nics may not be affordable now, but they will be soon) and run conduit wherever you can as that will give you options to 40Gb and beyond by making new cable runs/repairs massively easier. Running CAT5 as well for low-bandwidth stuff such as any IP phones/cameras, audio equipment, etc is also a good idea. Even if you opt not to do any home automation/security stuff right off the bat, having the cable runs (or conduit) in place will make that a much more practical upgrade in the future. All of this should terminate to patch panels in a central location, preferably in a basement for cooling purposes. That location should also be serviced by a couple of 20A circuits to give you whatever flexibility you may need in the future for servers/switches/labs/etc.

At least, that's what I would do.
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30A circuits if you want to run some moderately larger UPS.
 
What I did when building my house almost 5 years ago was, I used Cat6 throughout the house. I had a "data" drop (each data drop consists of 2 cat6 cables and a coax) pulled to every wall in nearly every room (kitchen and laundry rooms included). Rooms where there are TVs, or long walls, I had two or more drops pulled to locations they could possibly be. Everything is pulled to my data room down stairs and finished off in a media cabinet I had an alarm system with a mini cell tower in my basement with wires pulled to all the sensors but now my new system is entirely wireless. I can control the entire house (cameras, sensors, zones, thermostats, lights, locks, etc) from either the main unit in my office or the touch panel in my master bedroom. I can also control and view everything remotely from my iPhone. When I was having the house built I had a 3" conduit ran from my basement to the attic (two story house). Like mentioned, going up or down a floor isn't a big deal, but trying to get up two floors through firebreaks, etc is a lot tougher. The only thing I'd run in the future would be fiber, but I'm able to do it because I have that conduit.

Not really IT related but I also had several 220V runs pulled for hot tub out back, welder in the garage, etc. It's no big deal when your house is nothing but sticks, when it's finished, those projects become much more involved and expensive.
 
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I think it's a little excessive (not to mention unsightly) to place a data drop every 6-10 linear feet in a a room. This is coming from a guy that casts a very suspicious eye on wireless. I would suggest a data drop on a wall without a door in each living area (bedroom, den, living room, etc.). Add others as appropriate, such as at breakfast bar, 1 undercabinet location in kitchen, etc. With a little forethought, drops can be added fairly easily from attic, basement, or crawlspace access. Add as necessary.
I've been in homes with outlets/drops every couple of feet on the wall. It makes the owner look like a mental case, makes their house fugly, and they are almost always empty. Even offices don't have the number of drops proposed by some.
 
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