Home Automation

Power delivery USB C that supports 100w minimum to every room. PoE cable to every room. Switches with energy monitoring.

Cat6 to every room, network closet on each floor, well planned wi-fi APs and the rack in the basement. Beyond that....low voltage (12 to 24) to each window and door, maybe even an extension of the Cat6 to keep things unified, POE has come a long way. Ultimately my goal is to hard-wire as much as possible to reduce the wireless load. Security cameras are all hardwired POE types etc.

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

Don't forget the garage or attic.

1. I added a wall outlet & network drop for a portrait mount 32” tv in the kitchen. We have that connected to a DAKBoard and it’s easily the most used/commented on item in the house. It holds Family calendar, weather and the like.

2. Ceiling mount Sonos speakers in the kitchen, dining, master bath and master closet connected to Sonos amps. Rock solid and sound great

3. Lutron switches and shades. It’s been over three years and not one problem

4. Cat 6 to every tv location, exterior camera and AP

Edit: have everything terminate in the basement with at least 12 outlets on its own breaker and have the cable coax or whatever your isp connection is terminate there as well.

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'd go nuts with conduit.

Conduit to every room if desired, and honestly, I would pull fiber if I did it again.

Run Ethernet to your doorbell

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

Make sure you have a conduit going from the entry point to your main IT closet, and from there to the attic and the crawl/basement, and a centrally located closet on each level.

KNX wiring

Why CAT5e? Go CAT6. You don't need CAT6 now, but you may in the future. The cost difference is not that bad.

You also may want outlets on the eaves of the roof for Christmas lights.

While you'll have speaker wire, might as well run wire for an Dobly Atmos setup. You might now use it, but you may in the future. Make sure to run good quality and proper gauge wire a well. Might as well run the wire for a dual subwoofer setup. Again, you'll probably won't use it, but maybe in the future.

Make sure to have an outlet where the CAT5 panel runs into a well. I had to hire an electrician to install one. That said, my house did not come with a panel and did all the work afterwards.

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?

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.

I would run Cat6A not cat 5E. At least 5 runs to each room. I would run the largest reasonable gauge cable and have each rooms receiver in a closet along with the networking gear. I’d future proof running 2 fiber runs to each room.

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

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).

Smurftube in each corner and center of the ceiling of each room. As well as next to at least one outlet box on each wall.

Cat6E on the roof peaks and edges of the roof for cameras.

Neutral wires in all the light switch boxes.

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.

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

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.

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.

Prepare for electric car changing station and heat pumps.

22/4 - I've found it useful at time to have spare wire pairs at sensor locations. Also be sure to get pure copper, my 12yo copper coated aluminum wire is corroding where its used near aluminum window frames. ( bad monoprice batch years ago? )
Specify exactly where you want the sensors to be; remember doors are framed w.pretty solid headers etc. in some cases I use Micron Ion plunge sensors and a wireless setup on our ElkM1

2 Cats so you don't have to deploy a switch. AC power near cats so you can deploy a switch.

Cat up high where you might want your security cameras. cost no object? overlap field of views. use Axis products. run extra Cat for POE IR floods.

Cat to crawlspaces for sensors.

Review your planned security systems keypad needs. may be Cat cable with a serial protocal, so more Cat5

Lots of power in your head end. ventilation in your head end. I have an exterior exhaust fan on a shelly for this.

If I had it all over to do again, I'd put multiple outlets for cat6 (shielded) in each room and each outlet would have a minimum of 2-4 jacks.

Cat6, especially shielded, can be used for more than ethernet.

These are great responses so I'll answer in a different way.

found I can do a lot with wifi. My biggest limiter in my few houses has all been power. I would put power in stupid places. Inside cabinets to charge things. Inside closets for things like steam wands. Next to toliets for heated seats/bidets. Under eaves of both stories for holiday lights or future jellyfish. Trenched power in the backyard for an amazing experience. On top of the fireplace mantel. Dedicated 20amp circuit for a home rack. In a dedicated kitchen appliance cubby for your blender/kitchenaid. On the wall where a TV will go. In the perfect spot for a robot vacuum.

don't forget about the outside:

• cat6 for cameras, doorbell(s), exterior WAPs, etc
• 16/4 for exterior speakers.

inside run cat6 to anywhere you might put a tv.

consider prewiring for projector / in wall speakers/ subwoofer etc if you have a home theater type area. or even just for living room tv, wire everthing to a nearby closet if you want a simple wire free tv setup

i also ran cat6 to a wall or two in almost every room for potential future use

You should talk to Cyberdyne Systems. I hear they have a great T unit.

Most comments are legit. I would do at least 16/2 for the speakers, just in case you wanna push some higher power.

Honestly, for a house, you will be fine with cat5e, gigabit+ all day even passing through interference. I can push 10gb through cat5e at 15 feet. Ethernet cable is, generally, incredible!

Cat5e is a bit cheaper but also easier to pull and handle than LEGIT cat6, don’t even bother with cat6A. Cat8 is mainly data center stuff so it would be plain retarded to run that in a house, same with fiber (unless any of your runs are going to be above 300+ ft). Cat7 doesn’t exist.

I would also pull a network cable for a Wi-Fi in every other bedroom, or even every bedroom, and definitely one or two for the TV. I would say at least two if you’re going to centralize video transmission. That way all you have on the wall is a TV and HDMI gets passed through an ethernet cable (cable length, type, and the technology used here is important) but then the TV can also get network for local smart apps.

If your house is ever going to be used as a workplace or a recording or production studio, then I would definitely look at cat6 or even cat6a. Cat6 can push 10gb about 200 feet or less, cat6a is rated for 10gb all the way through. Still I would do Cat6 for data and cat5e for cameras, intercom, and other low bandwidth controls.

18/2 for the shades is great, 22ga for alarm contacts is also great, 18ga for electronic door locks is great. Consider running control wires to wherever you’re planning on having automation, or at least ethernet wires, those can be fantastic control wires. Wherever you have an ethernet cable, you can pop in a switch and add some sort of ethernet relay for future use. Don’t forget ethernet for the pool!

If the Wi-Fi is properly designed, most of your smart stuff will have no problem functioning anywhere it is.

Just think ahead.

I have found that many homes wired to code fail to have outlets, etc. located where they are most useful. It used to be that you had to have an outlet within 3 feet of a door and every 10 feet after that. Too many outlets end up behind the middle of the couch or bed and not in the best place for access after furniture is in place. Do your best to envision furniture and countertops and their placement and use. Both ends of the couch, both sides of a bed, etc.. Also, don't put too many outlets on an single circuit in a kitchen or shop area.

I would run cables for contact to inside doors as well. I use sensors on closet doors, laundry room etc and get so tired of changing batteries! If they were wired I could just sense open close from something.

Agreed with others having one place all cables are run to (Ethernet, contact etc) makes management much easier. But label label label

Run power by the shower so you can get one of those fancy showers with the wall panel some day.

Cat6a is reasonably priced. But you can run 10Gb on cat5e if needed in future.

I’d probably run some internal fibre for networking servers etc.

Probably hardwire zigbee into all light switches and see if there is a way to have energy monitoring (normally WiFi) on ALL power sockets!

Cat6 if not 6a minimum instead of 5e.

There are lots of posts about this same question.

If money was no object I’d just have a company come install it all and leave an extra Smurf.

Ethernet at not so visible spots to place wifi access points.

Plan out a place for a robot mop with water line and drain line hook ups. Switchbot just released a robot mop earlier this year that will go to a water station to get clean water and drain waste water. The water station is placed near a sink. It would be good to design a place for both robot mop and robot vacuum. See link below. I’m modifying my remodeling project as I just found out about this idea. Not exactly pre wire but pre plumb.

https://www.youtube.com/live/TCtceJ7rfiI?si=B74yb0JFp8wnMAZg

Cat6AFTP everywhere. Dont 5e

I ran power for blinds and that’s been incredible. I also wired up all the doors (edit: with door sensors like these), inside and out (didn’t do all the interior doors, wish I did now).

Wish I had ran wiring to corners of rooms to put mmWave sensors in.

Did data everywhere, wish I had done more to my desk in the office and more to the outside soffit corners of the house to put multiple cameras in. Also wish I had ran one to the doorbell.

If I could have figured out window sensors that would have been sweet. I love that almost everything is hardwired, the smart locks are battery powered and it feels like I’m changing batteries all the time.

In addition to everything summed up elsewhere, run some low voltage wire to the ceilings above where you're going to put beds and couches, and to the bathroom/toilet closets for mmWave presence detectors.

If I had it to do over, I would put 2 Ethernet drops on every wall of living space but the bathrooms. And pull strings in every drop. (Conduit to hard ones) You will want a "computer room" for the network stuff, but also NAS, DVR, smart home hub, and more as the needs grow. Dedicated circuit an a place to mound a business class rack mount UPS. (2200 or better) And speaking of power, you should add more than you need. And leave room for monitoring it in the box. If your panel is in the garage, a shelf for another switch may be handy. I have a switch in my house, my detached garage, and my shed...

Build a dedicated "server room" with its own circuit (s).

Wire CAT6 to patch panels, not directly to the switch.

220 / 50 amp dedicated circuit to garage for electric vehicle. Solar if you get enough sun, or plan for back up generator. Solar panels may improve efficiency in future. And a big battery.

I ran HDMI and CAT for TVs. Don't forget access points.. Cat

I would not do cat 5. Do something faster. The tech will catch up.