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Building a House - Wiring Recommendations

3K views 14 replies 7 participants last post by  JamesK 
#1 ·
We're building a custom home and I'm very out of touch with current technology requirements. Nothing fancy, but I want to make sure I have the right stuff in the walls before they're full of spray foam.

We still have a land line for phone and would like to keep it for our young kids eventually having friends call the house, leave messages and so on. I don't want all of their friends calling my cell phone to get a hold of them.

Our service provider for phone, internet and TV is currently Bell (Fibe) and has been for a long time, but there's always the chance I'll switch to Cogeco. Those are essentially the only two available in our area....that I know of. No Shaw, Rogers, or whatever else there is.

So what do I need to run in the walls?

Previously there was always coax and "phone line." Are those even used anymore? Does Cogeco use coax still?

Do I just run CAT5 or CAT6 everywhere?

Should every outlet have a home run back to a central location?

What comes into the house and into what type of device/box do I need?

Can the land line phones run with CAT5/CAT6 or do I also need to install the old style phone line wherever I want a phone outlet?

I'm also planning on installing an Avigilon security camera system.

Thanks. I can appreciate that this is likely tediously basic for most of everyone on this site.
 
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#2 ·
This has been discussed in other threads so a search might yield some useful information. A lot of services and connections are moving to wireless. That makes wiring redundant in some cases but some types of wiring are still preferential to wireless. Even if they are wireless, many devices still require power. All cabling needs to be fire rated for in-wall installation.

Ethernet: Use CAT6a if possible. It's the latest standard and will have the longest lifespan. It supports 10Gbps. A good CAT6 cable will do if CAT6a is not available. It's rated for 1Gbps but a very good cable may go up to 10Gbps. Avoid CAT5e. It's close to being obsolete.

Phone: CAT6a or CAT6 can be used for phone. It's only necessary to have one or two DECT6.x base stations. The rest of the handsets can be wireless.

Coax: Use RG6. It's the standard cable used for satellite and CATV. It's not needed for IPTV (such as Fibe) but not installing it will make service changes difficult.

What and where to run cable: This can be debated but it's better to have one too many cables than one to few. A minimum of two each of RG6 and CAT6 from a central panel in the basement to each major data center is preferable. A major data center would be any room that may serve as an entertainment center, den, home office or home theater room. Home theater rooms deserve extra attention for things like projectors, wall mounted TVs, speakers and A/V equipment. Wall mounted TVs in any room require power at a minimum with consideration for HDMI, networking and coax cabling. Don't forget access points for wifi at outdoor areas such as garages, patios and pools.

If wifi is to be heavily used, make sure there is power and CAT6 available for wifi access points that may be placed in locations away from the central panel. Wifi access points can be used to provide higher speeds and prevent dead spots.

Security cameras: Even "wireless" cameras need power. My preference is to run CAT6 to cameras and use PoE to power them. This also lowers wifi traffic and prevents wifi jamming by thieves. Run a CAT6 from each possible camera location to the central panel. That should include all entrances for visitor monitoring and entry stations.

Common sense: Make a list of all known and possible needs and install the necessary wiring. Don't forget power requirements.
 
#3 ·
This was written a few years ago but it's still applicable. While I like wireless, there's no replacement for wires in the walls once you want to start streaming 4K video to multiple TV's, skyping, voip phones, etc. CAT5E or CAT6 is a good mix between budget friendly and speed.. you can get all you need out of it IMHO.

https://www.aartech.ca/smart-home-wiring-guide.html
 
#4 ·
There is no reason not to use CAT6 these days. The cost difference over CAT5e is negligible.

As mentioned in the article, CAT6 can be used for video. That's done by using a HDMI to ethernet adapter. Two CAT6 cables are required to carry one HDMI video signal. If video distribution is desired, run the extra cables. Not sure if these can handle 4k (yet) but it might be worth checking into the requirements if 4k HDMI to ethernet adapters exist.

Video is one area where wireless is quickly making wired connections obsolete. Bell Fibe TV uses RF receivers for their whole home PVR while Rogers still uses coax. The low cost of HD video devices such as media players and BD players means it's cheaper to put a media player at each TV than to prewire for video distribution. Most use wifi these days. That's why it's a good idea to plan on a good wifi network solution and prewire extra access points.
 
#6 ·
Thanks for the replies. Sorry for the delayed response; it's not due to a lack of appreciation but rather business with other aspects of the construction project.

The electrical wholesalers around here, the legitimate ones that electricians buy their materials, seem to have barely heard of CAT6a. They all stock CAT6e and "can order" CAT6a. The price difference is significant - for a 1000' box 'e' is ~$170 and 'a' is ~$870.

So for that reason alone I'm hopeful 'e' is sufficient. But since it was mentioned here, I'm still not totally comfortable NOT getting "the best" 'a' version because it's going to be buried in spray foamed walls and essentially impossible to replace/upgrade in the future.

Thoughts? Thanks again.
 
#7 ·
Generally, I think E should be more than enough.


As long as you are not going over distance limits, its a decent quality cable.. cat6e should support up to 1gbps across the cable.

I think in MOST cases, 1gbps is more than enough for most people, many people still having sub 100mbps internet plans.
 
#8 ·
^^^^
Cat 5e is good enough for Gb. Gigabit Ethernet was developed before CAT 6 and is designed to run over CAT 5 cable. Cat 6a is good for 100M at 10 Gb, but plain CAT 6 for a shorter distance at 10 Gb. So, if the total run is less than 50M or so, then plain CAT 6 is good enough.

Category 6 cable
 
#10 ·
I have friends who are future proofing their house by not only running coaxial and cat6 to each room, but they are also installing fiber optic cables to the rooms as well. My friend brought up a good point, he said Bell is running Fiber Optic right to the modem, which means many ISPs may indeed do the same in the future, so why not future proof your home. Of course I have no idea about fiber optic and what kinds or connectors they use, but my friend seems to know a lot and he says its worth the investment if you plan to live in the house long term.
 
#11 ·
How and where the cables are run is as important as the types of cables. Plan ahead for wifi access points, projectors, wall mounted TVs, surround speakers, etc. As I said, wireless can replace a lot of cables these days, especially for things like internet access, video and audio. One thing it will not replace in the near future is the need for A/C power. Even wireless speakers and cameras need power so it's probably best just to run speaker cables or CAT6. Most cables need to be run all the back to a central data panel near where the services enter the house. Do not let the company loop cables from box to box. It will not work well, if at all, for some services.

CAT6e is probably all that will be needed for ethernet. It will carry 10Gbps over typical residential distances. We are a few years from 10Gb being in common for use with home equipment, if ever.

Wiring for fibre is an interesting idea. Not sure if it will be used in the near future. Even audio over fibre is quickly being replaced with HDMI.
 
#12 ·
he said Bell is running Fiber Optic right to the modem, which means many ISPs may indeed do the same in the future, so why not future proof your home.
The main benefit of fibre is carrying large amounts of bandwidth over significant distance. It really beats out copper in that respect. However, in a home, the distances are not that great. As long as you keep cable lengths to less than 50M, you can support 10 Gb on plain CAT 6. However, 10 Gb gear for home use is rare and equipment that supports fibre even more so. Even in business environments, the carrier may deliver fibre, but then convert to copper before handing over to the customer. In all the years I've worked in the telecom industry, I've never seen fibre used beyond the demarc, except when necessary due to distance. There's just no real need for it.
 
#13 ·
Another big advantage to fibre in industrial environments is it's resistance to electrical noise as well as being able to cover large distances. I've seen fibre installed in industrial plants, though it was for control and not telecommunications. As stated, there is no need for fibre past the demarcation point for residential use.
 
#14 ·
We recently changed the layout at our work in the plant.. where the switches were all chained before (A to b to C, etc), all of them are coming back to the CORE now. Problem is that started to get into a distance issue.

So we ran fiber. There are so many different types, capabilities (max speeds, etc).. but took a middle of the road one, more than enough for now, but room for expand ability.

But inside a house, as ExDilbert said, not really necessary.. people arent going to shell out the $$ for the equipment. The SFPs to plug the fiber into on the switches we use, are $300+ each.

If anything, as someone mentioned above, would possibly be, to at least maybe a MAIN area where most things might be (living room entertainment center?)
run a conduit. This would then also leave somewhere for bell to run fiber direct if they ever did in that area.
 
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