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Pimping Out a New House
Jason Michael Perry writes "I just got pre-approved to buy some gutted property in New Orleans. A lot of the houses I'm looking at are blank canvases that need new wiring, new walls, new everything. I've always dreamed of a high-tech house that says my name when I walk in the door and now is my chance to get a close as I can with current technology. So I'm looking for ideas to pimp out a newly renovated house with all the best technology. If you had a blank canvas to start with, what would you do? Run CAT-5 or fiber optics? Build a closet for servers and A/V equipment? Build a 7.1 speaker system into the living room walls and ceilings? Install automated lights and intercom (with support for Apple equipment)? How about appliances, the kitchen, and other spots... what cool tech can I use there? My only rules and requirements are support for the four Macs I have in the house, and reasonable support for technology on the fringes."
Instead of ringing a bell, the bell-push could IM you...
Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
Start off with the basics. The data network and the home automation network should be separate. Data should be old school for any slashdotter, but home automation is where you can really do something impressive. And for that, I would recommend that you look into CAN or Controller Area Networks. This is the primary system used by the automotive industry to make cars "smarter".
The reason CAN is so special is that it drives decision making into the network level. It's like taking Sun's motto of "the Network is the Computer" and applying it to large scale automation tasks. Most people try and go the easy way by using the off the shelf crap that is out there but the truth is that home automation has hardly begun because the real power tools are being largely ignored by the less than technically courageous types that typically do home automation.
Hmm... I wonder what's cheaper... (really)
I recently had the opportunity to do so. What I did was, I ran cat5e throughout the house. Instead of using cat3 for the telephones, I just put the phones on the unused pair of the cat5. This allowed me to have ethernet at every phone outlet, just having to install an RJ45 Jack. I ran all of the wires to a large switch, and the phone to the phone box. I didn't get around to it, but essentially I could have set a computer up as a router/home control system. You could theoretically have ethernet-aware appliances, speakers, etc. You would control those from your home control system.
Since the house has been gutted, you can install an entire system of pneumatic tubes, one to each room. Send a sandwich from the kitchen to the garage; send your laundry directly to the laundry room.
Electric trains running from room to room along the crown moulding, and through tunnels in the walls.
Lift-off computer room floor in the living room.
Underfloor fishtanks.
I think this might be a waist of money. During a flood and hurricane, the boats are usually damaged by debree floating into them first. Then they are washed on shore and into other objects. Imagine 20 floating houses weighing in at around 20 ton each (or more) gently getting momentum from the wind and current and then crashing into another house. Now imagine that other house not being able to move because it is fixed to the foundation and strapped down. It is unbelievable how much energy something that large will have to dissipate in order to stop. Something will give and it will probably be both structures. Break away basement walls and maybe automatic jacks or stilts could work. Something like they have in Holland where the house is basically a boat anchored by huge poles that let ti raise up around 10-15 feet. I doubt you could do something like that with an existing house though.
Know what you mean about water damaged wood. I'm amazed houses and businesses with lots of wood composite chip board survive the rain until they are completed. I see construction sites with that stuff warping before its even installed.
Another thing that would worry me about buying a house in NO... Are the title deeds REALLY clear? They won't have any claims made on them in the future from former lost residents trying to come back? I see a movie in the making...
I have an apartment with (maybe) 600 square feet and most of that is the bedroom. I still manage to host a party for 30 and everybody has a good time. I took the biggest blank wall and, opposite, put a shelf right near the ceiling on which sits a $800 projector from costco. I also bought a $60 dvd player and a $850 5.1 stereo/receiver from Best buy. (found one that had been previously opened, discount=good). atop the receiver sits my Wii. The only trick is running the cable from the receiver on one side of the room to the projector on the other, and the cables for this I was able to get at the dollar store. Anyone else would sell me the same 25' for >$100. I'll take the signal degredation, thank you. If I suddenly come into some money then I'll get apple TV and hack it so i can run VLC and connect that to my receiver, because right now the only problem is that I have no way to get 5.1 out from my Mac (that I know of).
This set up has a number of advantages. It's almost invisible. I don't have to worry about a guest thowing the controllers at the wall. The projector makes a 93" picture, which would cost about $10,000 if it was a flat panel TV. I can't watch during the day which forcibly curtails my video addiction.
The kitchen is only remarkable in that my breakfast table is one of those flat arcade machines you can sit down and put your drink on. This way People can Wii Box, smoke on the balcony, hang out in the kitchen, or Galaga to their heart's content.
I have a single 802.1g Wifi connection which doesn't see much use, a decent number of fish and easy to take care of plants (like bamboo), and a few pieces of art. I used the Rastorbator to blow up my favorite photo from spain and it covers one wall. My place still provides me with all the high tech I need, requires no maintenance, is girl-friendly, and all I need to do for a party is roll up the carpet to prevent spill damage.
So I hope that gives you some ideas for your place.
Sorry I meant cat 6, i was thinking 5e originally but the price of 6 is so much cheaper compared to your typical house/labor costs etc and backwards compatible .. If money is an issue then 5e .. I forget what i paid for 2 reels of 6 but on the net its not really that much in the grand scheme of things..
I've also had serious issues w/ 5e and gigabit switches at work that all went away when we recabled to 6.. this happened to a slew of people that i know (this is for a beowulf cluster).. so i think i had a natural bias towards 6
Fiber is still pointless. What he really needs are Tubes!
No really, you want to install tubes in your walls (often called smurf tubes) and put your cat5 or whatever inside the tubes. If in the future you want fiber, or whatever the future finds you just push new cables down these tubes.
IDK why you got modded redundant, you are correct.
From a central closet *with good ventilation* you want to run one of these tubes (they are a corrugated plastic) to each room. Each tube can carry about 5-8 CAT5/6 cables or whatnot. Also remember to leave a pull string in the tube, and to pull a new pull string with any cable you pull with the old pull string. I would pre run 2 cat5e or cat6, one RG6 to each room from the central closet. If you are on a budget then don't pull cable to rooms you don't thing will need it, but *do* put the conduit in. Also, in each room the conduit should circle the room, you can always terminate a signal early, but what if you want to go to the other side of the room someday? having the conduit present will make that easy.
A PBX while cool, is overkill.
A central media server is awesome (that's what I have). Having video/music on demand to any room is really unexplainably nice. I use chip'd Xboxes as front-ends.
-nB
whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
If you really want to be smart about wire pulling, put a loop in each smurf tube with little toy pulleys at either end. Then you don't have to worry about getting a new pull string in when you pull new cable. It's overkill, but then this whole project sounds like overkill anyway.
"When does copper rust." As in rust, the verb not the noun.
def: corrode: cause to deteriorate due to the action of water, air, or an acid; "The acid corroded the metal"; "The steady dripping of water rusted the metal stopper in the sink"
Copper rusts. So does aluminum. So does iron.
Rust, the noun, has one definition as iron oxide. For more, look in Google "define: rust"
So, copper rusts but it is probably not correct to say that copper oxidation is rust (or copper rusts (OK) into rust (no)).
The article poster was mentioning about "rebuilding" a house in NOLA, so I thought I might offer a couple of things.
Depending on how much gutting you intend on doing, many housebuilders have started installing waterblocks in a main access point in the house, such that you can cut off any faucet just like it was a breaker. One is Manabloc. Here's a good site for some more info. http://www.mvsupply.biz/manabloc.htm
Another thing to think about installing is an in-wall pest killer/repellant distribution system, that can be filled/primed/whatever from outside the home. Since this is where insects build their homes, this can be a great idea.
Another good idea is that anywhere you have wiring or plumbing going through walls, close the holes off so that there is not a flame path if a fire should start. Kind of goes along with the concept of Plenum.
Now, for my thoughts, not things I have seen. I say install at least three seperate sets of patch panels in the house. You want cat5e/cat6 for RJ45/RJ11 etc style wiring. You can always custom crimp cables to fit from the wall to the phone, and many '45 jacks nowadays fit '11 connectors and hold them in place for short periods of time.
The second patch panel should be a set of coaxial patches going to each room, preferably two to each room as a minimum, since DVR sat connections require two. I would recommend picking up multicolored coax connector blocks to help differentiate in-room, for instance, telling your wife/husband/technophobe to check and make sure the two blue blocks have wires connected, because how many spouses know how to read a wiring schematic correctly the first time?
The third patch panel should be for speaker wiring, provided the distances aren't going to be too great, or attempting to drive too large of a signal. I would personally hide these third panels all over the house, one in each room where you have speakers. You can make the counter or shelf connections for these patch panels hidden on the wall, and with builtins you can put them to the side instead of the rear, for instance where the TV may connect.
The only problem you get into here is the multitude of cables on the rear of a good AV setup.
Another patch panel you may want to install is if you plan on putting in many security cameras around the house, you can install the coax or rca cables ahead of time for the cabling so that you only need to hook the cameras up after the fact. For instance, run a cable to each eave corner on your house, and install cameras later at your leisure. Just think it out ahead of time where you may want to put more than one camera for this to work. Also, install horizontally mounted-door protected GFCI outoor outlets next to each coax plug.
You also want to make sure that there are seperate AC returns from each room, instead of one huge sucking hole in the middle of your house.
Don't be afraid to run network drops all over the house, network cable is relatively cheap nowadays. Use cat6 when you know you'll want to put a computer their, and cat5 everywhere else, possibly even putting singlegangs for the cabling on the other side of or the next over stud from where you install any electrical outlet.
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