Home network

[Aspman]

Anyone ever done a full home network?

 

It looks like (not set in stone all caveats and cautions apply) we've got a new build.

 

Developer is up on technology and the houses will be well wired. I'm a nerd at heart and was looking at taking it a bit further.

 

He's planned the houses to be cabled for Cat6, Sky and Sonos. The latter two I'm not all that fussed about. Sonos is too tied to Amazon. I like the idea of teh house being wired for speakers but not microphones to Amazon as well. I've not dug into it too much, we've got some really good quality seperate systems in the house so I'm not that bothered.

 

Anyhoo I was letting my inner nerd run free a little with possibilities for the house. Effectively I can do what I want and the sparky will wire it.

 

So I was thinking.

 

Cat6 to all 4 bedrooms, dining room (will be guest bed for us), 4 to living room behind TV, 1 each family room, kitchen, upstairs landing (wifi repeater), Dowstairs hall (wifi repeater). 3 Cat6 to garage, 3 at exterior corners of the house.

 

I want to get a patch panel for the understairs cupboard (probably with a temperature controlled extractor fan), a 19" rack (18U)  holding a 24 port gigabit switch with at least 8 POE ports.

 

Running POE to CCTV cameras (3 on outside of house, one outside the garage and one inside) and wireless access points inside the house.

CCTV system in rack or a rackmount atom server running CCTV software.

Couple of shelves in the rack for router (rackmount router maybe pushing it a bit).

 

Fiancee not so fussed on CCTV but I'm enjoying the thought experiment.

 

Anyone done anything similar? suggestions or pitfalls?

 

 

[jjc]

Hi,

 

once did this for my cousin over in the US on a new build and the only thing I would say is go overboard in your flood cabling as you cannot ad more later.

Over the years we did find we could have done with more and adding a switch off the existing port in a room sort of defeated part of the plan

 

John

[john999boy]

Maybe leave space for a rack UPS?

[Wardy]

I've done something similar, but to an existing house as part of a full electrical re-wire. CAT6 to each bedroom, suitable amount behind the lounge AV area, provision to hook upto CCTV and use PoE etc.

 

I'd definitely recommend it, when an opportunity presents itself. I terminated to a wall cabinet in my garage, for ease of running the cable if nothing else. Every house is different and a loft termination is often popular. Basically I'd recommend keeping the termination point out of communal areas as it's more popular with the other half! Also from a noise point-of-view. Re your mention of heat extraction, just watch the spec and noise output - I've known some extremely noisy extraction fan for comms cabinets.

 

Your aside about Sonos is interesting too - I use them and have nothing to do with Amazon services. They'll also connect upto Google Assistant if that's your thing instead - I've found them to be a pretty open design, from a platform point-of-view.

 

HTH.

[Aspman]

Cheers.

 

Heat management is my main concern. I'd rather have dark cable in the walls then too little. As advised above I don't want to have to add small hubs to cope with more access.

A double socket in each room might make more sense

I know I'll need more wifi so TP link POE WAPs look nice and not too obtrusive.

 

The current plan has everything going to a small cupboard near the front door. It's only about 9" deep and I don't think there will be room for everything in there. Cupboards downstairs are a bit limited which is why I'm thinking a half height rack (18 or 21U) under the stairs might be it. But everything will cook in there especially with a POE switch pulling 200W for the cameras.

 

Need to look into extractor options.

[MarkyG82]

A friend had a sort of heat exchanger with his setup to a water tank for warm water.  Essentially water cooling but passively via air handling unit.  Water was monitored for condition and plumbed to hand basins for washing.  Again it was a new build and had quite a few other energy recovery and ventilation systems.

[Wardy]

I ran 4 cables to each room, 2x double faceplate in suitable locations dependant on furniture/room layout. Plus the runs for CCTV. 

 

If you're terminated by front door, does that coincide with the termination point for incoming fibre to the house? Would be nice to get everything wrapped up in one place if so.

 

Re WiFi, have a look at Ubiquiti APs. Well built and nice to manage, and well priced in my opinion.

[Aspman]

9 minutes ago, Wardy said:

I ran 4 cables to each room, 2x double faceplate in suitable locations dependant on furniture/room layout. Plus the runs for CCTV. 

 

If you're terminated by front door, does that coincide with the termination point for incoming fibre to the house? Would be nice to get everything wrapped up in one place if so.

 

Re WiFi, have a look at Ubiquiti APs. Well built and nice to manage, and well priced in my opinion.

 

Fibre can probably be brought in whereever I want it.

 

Apparently it's full fibre in the area after a farmer cut the copper cable. It was restrung with fibre.

[mbames]

Never run a single cable to a location, unless it is a ceiling based AP.  Living room, bedroom, kitchen, etc always run in pairs.  Consider 4 for behind the TV in main living areas.

 

I use a Netgear 24port POE gigabit switch in a small cab in the loft (bought it off ebay), and have a 24 port patch panel that everything is terminated into.

 

[KenONeill]

For everyone else's info, mbames does network stuff as part of his day job. We work for the same company (or did), on different sites.

[Aspman]

Pretty much what I'm thinking.

 

I'd like to get a 24 or 48 port POE switch (might only be half POE).

 

Found out about the Ikea Lack Rack 😀 But I might just fork out for a proper used rack if I can. Rails are the expensive bit even second hand.

[mbames]

On 26/06/2019 at 09:51, Aspman said:

Pretty much what I'm thinking.

 

I'd like to get a 24 or 48 port POE switch (might only be half POE).

I only have 2 x POE APs and a single Axis POE camera.  The switch monitors/detects which ports require power so is quite cost effective.  It even tells me the current draw per port.

 

I started off with a keystone style patch panel, but changed that out at the start of the year for punchdown style one when I ran in a few more cables.

 

You can also pick up a 19inch PDU strip.  I power that from a UPS, which then supplies power my modem, router, switch (and thus APs) and cordless phone base-station.  if you have any RPIs they can be powered via a POE bridge too.

[Aspman]

I'm looking at a few cameras and APs but assuming the APs have similar power requirements to the cameras (14W) I'll only need a 100/150W POE switch not the 300W I had assumed.

 

I'd like a wall mounted punchdown patch panel (used to work with these) I can put in longer patches to to give me some movement with the rack without unplugging everything..

 

Was looking into a UPS which I hadn't thought about and some are not too expensive.

 

The stair doubles back on itself so any understair cabinet will not be fullheight. It'll neeed an extractor which will have to be at about 1.2m on the external wall. Need to look into temperature controlled silent/quet ones. The cupboard itself will be at the guest bedroom hopefully any guest will be elderly and deaf or I'll need to add soundproofing as well.

[VWD]

On 25/06/2019 at 17:11, mbames said:

Never run a single cable to a location, unless it is a ceiling based AP.  Living room, bedroom, kitchen, etc always run in pairs.  Consider 4 for behind the TV in main living areas.

 

I concur. I have lost track to the return visits to firms to install extra points to areas where they'd skimped on instal. And look at power provision, especially in the main living area. OK, I'm, possibly an exception, but just for the TV, I've got two set top boxes a DVD player , a Sat box and a TV all vying  for the two sockets on the wall.

[Aspman]

Yep. We saw the most complete house in the development on Monday. We need to consider what will be where. I think at least 4x power and 4x network to the tv areas and 2x network to every room with 4x double power sockets as well.

 

The understairs has plenty of room for a half height rack and will have the door in the hall. I'll get at least 4x power in there and likely a wall mounted quiet extractor on a thermistat. I could likely put in some sound proofing if necessary.

 

I saw the proposed cupboard for the cables and sat boxes and there is no way it's deep enough. Everything in there will overheat so I feel somewhat justified (man-logic) in putting in a rack.

[KenONeill]

11 minutes ago, Aspman said:

a half height rack and will have the door in the hall. I'll get at least 4x power

You could get a rack fed by its own way(s) off the distribution board.

[Aspman]

15 minutes ago, KenONeill said:

You could get a rack fed by its own way(s) off the distribution board.

 

I did wonder if I'd want a feed possibly 20A but I have to admit that data power distrobution is way off my knowledge.

If I have a meeting and they're in a good mood I'll try to run this past some of the networking guys in IT.

My BiL-to-be is a high up network specialist for television companies (he was involved in designing the BBC's HD setup) he's keen to help.

[KenONeill]

46 minutes ago, Aspman said:

 

I did wonder if I'd want a feed possibly 20A but I have to admit that data power distrobution is way off my knowledge.

If I have a meeting and they're in a good mood I'll try to run this past some of the networking guys in IT.

My BiL-to-be is a high up network specialist for television companies (he was involved in designing the BBC's HD setup) he's keen to help.

Ok, from the DB, you'd have, say a 20A feed to a multi-gang of 13A sockets in the rack, and plug your rack mount devices into that.

[MikeTheThinker]

On 05/09/2019 at 11:50, KenONeill said:

from the DB, you'd have, say a 20A feed to a multi-gang of 13A sockets

 

What's the word on running dual feed cables from separate MCBs in the consumer unit?  I know the CU would be a single point of failure but there's not a lot one can do about that in most domestic situations.

 

Update: my thinking here was based on controlled industrial environments and on earlier versions of the electrical codes.  It's clear from forum responses that this is NOT the best approach bearing in mind current standards and control gear. 

 

 

Edited 7 September, 2019 by StickyMicky
correction of advice

[SuperbTWM]

18 minutes ago, StickyMicky said:

 

What's the word on running dual feed cables from separate MCBs in the consumer unit?  I know the CU would be a single point of failure but there's not a lot one can do about that in most domestic situations.

 

 

what do you mean by 'dual feed cables'

[MikeTheThinker]

13 minutes ago, SuperbTWM said:

 

what do you mean by 'dual feed cables'

 

Instead of one mains feed from your Consumer Unit (fuse box) controlled by on MCB (fuse) you run two cables, one from each of two MCBs.  This provides a degree of redundancy on the mains supply so if one MCB trips for some reason or one cable fails for any reason you have another backing it up.  It removes one single point of failure element in the supply although - as I mentioned earlier - it is most unlikely you could arrange an addition CU on a separate phase from the street cable.  It can be done but it's expen$$$ive!

[J.R.]

My electrical head has been French for 15 years, I'm not qualified beyond the UK IEE 16th edition and have forgotten most of that but what you suggest Micky sounds warning bells in my head, it would certainly be a no-no here, one would reasonably expect that by isolating an MCB the circuit would be isolated and could be worked on but being fed  by 2 MCB's it would still be live.

 

apologies if I have misunderstood, its late!

[MikeTheThinker]

@J.R. you may well be right about the wiring regs.  I was thinking from setups in less publicly-accessible circumstances and I can see how in a domestic environment it could be  a risky route to follow.

[john999boy]

Wouldn’t having a UPS be a better idea?

[mbames]

8 hours ago, StickyMicky said:

 

What's the word on running dual feed cables from separate MCBs in the consumer unit?  I know the CU would be a single point of failure but there's not a lot one can do about that in most domestic situations.

 

If you effectively mean 2 x 16amp spurs, both terminating in different  PDUs, and all labeled up that would fine.  However you;d need equipment which supported dual feeds.  Most domestic kit doesn't.

Two options:
single spur from the CU rated 16 amps.
extended the neared ring (and hope it isn't the kitchen circuit)

and then whack a UPS in there.