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Ask Slashdot: If You Were Building a New Home, What Cool New Tech Would You Put In?

Posted by Soulskill on from the delivery-drone-countermeasures dept.

An anonymous reader writes: I am starting the process of building a new home, and I would like to make the house as wired (or wireless) as possible. At this stage I can incorporate new tech in the design. What features do you have in your house that you just couldn't live without? What features are nice to have? What features do you want? In-home Fiber? Solar? Audio/Visual? Heating/Cooling?

4 of 557 comments (clear)

  1. Future proofing by Iamthecheese · · Score: 5, Insightful

    We just don't know what the future holds. You may want to run fiber or a new wireless standard may make that moot. You may want to swap out your heating unit without much expense, or install a battery. I wouldn't focus on individual new technologies, but give the house an electrical and mechanical infrastructure that makes it easy and cheap to make changes. I would also install extra, easily accessed conduits for new cables or pipes of whatever kind.

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    If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
  2. Geothermal Heat Pump by Elder+Entropist · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They aren't very cost effective for existing homes, but for new construction they can save you tons on money on heating and cooling, giving you up to a 5x multiplier for the energy you put in. All new construction should have them.

  3. Just GBE everywhere! by aglider · · Score: 5, Insightful

    WiFi is evil. Ethernet is good. GBE is far better.

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    Sent as ripples into the electromagnetic field. No single photon has been harmed in the process.
    1. Re:Just GBE everywhere! by decsnake · · Score: 5, Insightful

      abso-fing-lutely. Cat 6 everywhere. Drop at least one in every room, and put one in every wall in the room you plan to use as you main media room.

      The 2.4GHz band is totally congested and 5GHz doesn't go thru any kind of decent wall worth a shit. Leave wireless for mobile devices and wire everything that doesn't move. The idea that an 80" TV should be wireless is ridiculous.