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KNX wiring

Not necessarily related to home automation but outlets behind every toilet if you ever plan on installing bidets

Don’t skimp on ethernet. Even if not needed for data transmission, it can also be used to power low voltage devices via POE. (Example, wall mounted LCD panels for smart house).

Don’t forget the garage or attic.

Use CAT6 or even 6A. CAT8 is the latest standard, but it’s probably too expensive?

Also consider running fiber optic between floors as a backhaul since 10G fiber switches are cheaper than cooper ones.

Cameras are fine on 5E, but may as well CAT6.

Run multiple random ceiling drops for APs and other home automation devices / sensors.

My list:

• cat 6 to every room, preferably 2 per box, 4 per room
• conduit, I like the idea of a corner box and conduit to the attic
• wire contacts for every window and door for alarm. ( Do each contact homerun so they are sperate and can run as separate zones)
• speaker wire from either a wall patch or back to a central location.
• empty conduits to your.uility pads outside to a closet or garage for connectivity. I pulled fiber to minor for a bit of.lightening isolation.
• decide on wap locations and camera before build
• my favorite out outlets outside and in the soffits for Christmas/ holiday lights on their own GFCI breaker and run them to a switch in the garage. On ra 2 I have holiday mode that I turn on and bang Christmas lights are timed.

Couple suggestions

1. Skip the cat5e and use 6 min not enough price saving
2. For your windows just wire assuming motorized shades
3. Consider wiring for or installing a house wide generator during your build, I retrod mine and it wasn’t horrible but if your going to do it anyhow nail it while it’s open.
4. Don’t be afraid of dedicated power circuits. My panel is huge, my office has a separate circuit for one wall, vs the rest of the room vs the lights. All my lights are separate from the outlets in a room and all rooms are on their own. 20 amp outlets in the garage for tools. Anything pops it doesn’t take out half the house.

Oversize any in slab conduits for the future. Same if your feeder comes underground.

3/4 plywood under drywall where tv is going, media box with outlet, 2" Smurf tube from behind TV to couple locations where your AV gear might end up over the years to boxes with brush plates

Conduit or pipe between basement and attic for any future expansion.

Outlets in outside soffits for Christmas lights

Pre wire for smart doorbell

I’m about to start building and I listed out all 128 runs of cable – highlights:

• I’m not doing speaker runs. Maybe I’ll regret this, but voice assistants and whole-home audio just isn’t my family’s jam.
• Every place I put an outlet, pull two runs
• Just about every wall has a jack, minimum two per room
• Dual runs for security cameras to at least all four corners of the house; I also have several interior cameras as well
• Smurf tube
• Sensors for windows & doors, even interior doors
• Runs for access points
• Runs for hardwired sensors
• Runs to utilities (water shut off, power monitoring, water heater, even behind the washing machine)
• Runs for water leak detection
• A lot of the locations I’m pull cat to are NOT for ethernet, not at the outset anyway. My philosophy is that maybe someday down the line there would be some novel reason to have an ESP32 at the end of the run for a door sensor – until that time, though, wire is wire and I can just use the ethernet cord for a dumb reed switch loop, no big deal.

And here it is in a visual drops location format

I would also run a pvc pipe conduit from attic to basement.

Conduits with at least two pull wires all home run to a central, well ventilated and well powered battery backed up closet or equipment room.

If I had it to do over again, I’d get a nice equipment room at the end of those conduits. That’s my biggest gripe now. I have everything a rack that lives in the top of a small closet. No room to work on it if something gets an upgrade, and no room for non racked items. I had to run a line to another part of the house for that, and it’s a hassle.

Get a nice 19" rack system to bolt everything down that’s rack mounted. Double points if it’s on a swivel (so you can work on the back side) or has a swing door. You can get rack mount UPS, but they’re pricier that what you get for a stand alone UPS. I’d also put a mounting wall (usually a peg board) and some shelving in there, too.

Whatever you put in there will be obsolete before you finish hooking it up, so make room for upgrades.

As for what to do now, I like the idea of double ethernet + doable coax to location. Also, I like having built into the wall speakers, so I agree with your idea there, too. If you’re going to do a mesh system, then consider getting another line to terminate in each corner of the house, in the ceiling. You can POE a mesh unit on the ceilings, getting you some really good coverage.

Put a dual Ethernet at each end of a room. You might think you’ll not need them but you probably will.

price was not an object

With that condition, I would install 1/2 in. to 2 in. EMT conduits everywhere because no amount of planning is enough so it’s better to have readily available ways to run extra wires and cables. Cat6 is future proof unless you want to host a datacentre out of your home. I would start my cable schematic from the home server room and deck it out instead of whipping something up. The earlier you start planning your homelab (and think about all the different security scenarios), the earlier you can learn from your mistakes.

Run conduit. That way it standards change you can run new cabling through it with minimal effort. That’s the most valuable thing you can do.

Are there any solutions that are more like running a bus around every room, as opposed to wiring a ton of circuits? I certainly would love to have all the wiring people are suggesting. But at some point it seems like guessing what you’ll need and installing 2x and then covering it with drywall is backwards.

Removable wainscotting? NNN-conductor bands that run a loop around the floor and ceiling of every room? How can I make my walls into breadboards while also looking acceptable and meeting code?