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Ask Slashdot: If You Were Building a New Home, What Cool New Tech Would You Put In?
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?
Some sort of new device to keep people off my lawn. It couldn't be run IOS, Android, have a unified touch interface, or be in "the cloud" though.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
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.
If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
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.
WiFi is evil. Ethernet is good. GBE is far better.
Sent as ripples into the electromagnetic field. No single photon has been harmed in the process.
So you can run other stuff later.
Fiberglass windows, geothermal heat, a good in home battery like the new Tesla product, wind and solar power generation, and wicked good insulation. Ideally something like the blow cellulose or cotton fiber, but even just a thicker layer of fiberglass, so that my heating and cooling needs are few. LED lighting throughout. Tankless water heaters. Natural gas for heating, cooking, water heater and dryer.
Drought tolerant landscaping. Because even though I live in a water rich region, I hate having to pay to water my lawn (city water, no options) just for the priviledge of cutting it later. Nuts to that deal.
Easy Online Role Playing Campaign Management
Here is my quick list:
- 80' holographic TV with 360 channels 4D surround sound
- Two parking spots for the hovercars
- A quantum teleporter (ask for the free subscription to Andromeda Quantum Tours Weekly)
- A six terawatt home battery and thorium / fusion nuclear reactor (don't go for the cheap Tesla stuff, nuclear is what you need)
- A robosquid and a set of batteries
- Six packs of pills for instant beer
- An iPhone9 with the Apple Watch, Apple Pay, Apple ID, Apple Travel, iThink, assortment of overpriced cases, cables and chargers
- At least one DNA decoder / recoder per room
- A 65536-qbit game console for the kid
-- Did you try Tao3D? http://tao3d.sourceforge.net
I would try to get my heating and cooling costs as low as possible. Something similar to the Passivhaus standard. I might not be strict to the standard if the cost benefit becomes too extreme. I would probably also use some sort of geothermal system as well.
When the power goes out, it would be nice to have some sort of battery backup and/or renewable source of electricity on hand. I also like the EPA certified wood stoves that are now available, like those made by Quadra-fire. They're much more efficient than old fashioned stoves, and don't require electricity. However, their output is likely too high for a house that meets the Passivhaus standard.
What can I say, I work in the energy field. Saving energy is fun to me.
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
Wire runs. You can change cabling later or run new cabling if the runs are in place
"goodbye and hello, as always" ~Prince Corwin, from Zelazny's Amber series
How does this question relate to the legions of Slashdot readers who are living in their parents basement? Are you deliberately trying to demean them and their lifestyle? Have you no shame?
Why is Snark Required?
If the house has an open attic or basement I'd do all 3/4" EMT conduit stubs for all services, be they power, data, whatever, so that there's no in-wall problems later. I'd attempt to anticipate the locations of televisions, speakers, computers, wireless access points, and anything else that might use a cable and plumb the necessary number and size of conduit for the necessary power and data requirements.
I'd install a central vacuum system. It could be used for cleaning and for a tech bench to clean up dust when working on things, and with a proper filter might make for a good soldering station to get the fumes away. I would also run 1/2" or 3/4" soft copper in a giant loop above each room, probably "K" or maybe "L" rated, that could be hooked to an air compressor for things like cleaning, airbrush panting, etc.
I'd define an MDF and run several service-entrance conduits from the expected service-hookup locations on the outside of the house, so that whatever subscribed, hard-line services come, there won't be a need to drill more. Probably 1" conduit.
I'd use all 20A circuits for all electrical outlets. Circuits would not cross rooms. Some rooms would get more than one if they have more than ten outlets.
I would completely skip on consumer-grade faucets. Chicago Faucets or T&S Brass everywhere.
Behind the main panel I would define a room that could be a battery/inverter room. It would be climate controlled.
I would plan on running Ethernet everywhere. I would install conduit to later let me place cameras on the outside of the structure if I was at-all concerned that they'd be needed.
I would look into those windows that are effective large single-pixel LCDs, so that one can turn-off the view by applying power to the window.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Some thoughts:
Wired Networking: Wireless can never touch the bandwidth, latency, or collision handling of wired networking. Provide wired access for all stationary devices, and use wireless only for those devices that are mobile or wireless-only by design (laptops, tablets, phones, WiFi lightbulbs, etc.). As much as possible, avoid wireless for things like smart TVs, set-top boxes, game consoles, etc. The more devices you have on wireless, they less bandwidth is going to be available to any one device. Unless you're going to invest in some pretty expensive networking gear, I'd stick with Cat 5e or Cat 6 cabling for now (Cat 7 is budget isn't an issue), however, ensure you use some form of wiring duct behind the walls: should the day come when you can reasonably wire everything with fibre, it will be a whole lot easier to pull it through wiring duct than it is to remove all your walls.
Geothermal Heating/Cooling: Again, if you're not constrained by budget, invest in a Geothermal system for your heating and cooling. This often needs to be done rather early in the house design/build phase (due to the need to dig deep holes into the ground), but once in place you'll have nearly free heat in the winter and cooling in the summer (usually you just need to pay for enough electricity to run a heat pump and a fan, which is negligible). I'm fortunate enough to live in a home with community geothermal, and the system has been flawless for us (albeit not as cheap as a DIY system, as the community treats the turmoil energy as a utility. Still cheaper than the alternatives, however).
Solar: Even if you don't plan on installing a solar system (ha!) right away, I suppose you could at least get the basic wiring done, such that when it is time to install such a system you already have a suitable location for the banks of batteries (if you're building from scratch, this could be part of a custom utility room designed for this purpose), plus the necessary wiring between that location and your rooftop panels. That way you're future-proofed, and the rest would pretty much be plug-and-play.
Yaz
Beware of making your house too gadgety. In 10-15 years most of it will be outmoded and junk and you will spend a lot of time and hassle keeping it going (and if that is your schtick, why are you asking for ideas?!). Don't become a slave to your house if you can avoid it.
Nice to haves:
1) Extra outlets and breakers. Having fewer rooms per breaker is nice to avoid finding out that a hairdryer plus your gaming PC will pop the breaker even though one is upstairs and the other is downstairs.
2) Speakers and speaker wire in your living room is really nice, and hard to add later.
3) Pull Ethernet cable where you can do so. Most stuff will be on wireless, but it is nice to be able to put a wireless router where needed once you find out the hard way where the dead zones are.
4) Good insulation. A cheap house to heat/cool is golden. Consider a heat exchanger to keep fresh air in your house, which is a bigger issue once you make a well sealed up house.
5) Storage, storage, storage. No modern house seems to have enough good storage in it.
6) Good sound deadening in the interior walls, few houses have this, and it sucks to try and add after the fact. Solid core interior doors help too.
7) Glue and screw your base flooring in you minimize how many squeeks show up over time, which can slowly drive you insane.
8) Low maintenance yard. Mowing every week sucks. Paying for yard guys sucks. Allergies suck. Unless you want to be a gardener, put in slow growing low maintenance plants that don't trigger your allergies.
I built a custom home a few years ago.
A few tips:
- Cat6 everywhere. At least 4 near every TV/Receiver
- In wall/In ceiling speakers in all rooms These should be tied into setups for receivers in most rooms. For the dining room (if you have one), kitchen, patio, and other areas you wouldn't want a receiver, have them go to the basement. When you buy receivers, make sure they have a cat5 input so that you can control them remotely.
- Wire for central alarm system for fire alarms, burglar.
- Wire the front door for a video camera. You don't need to install it, but having the wiring done is a nice thing to have just in case.
- Run empty pipes to each room from the basement or attic so you can pull wire easier in the future.
- Have your basement ceiling be 1 foot higher than your first floor ceiling. It costs little to do in the planning stage, but makes the basement look humongous when you finish it.
- Just before they drywall everything, take pictures of every wall. This is your x-ray vision for the future.
- 240V/30A line to the garage. Who knows, you may get an electric car in the future.
- Have one closet on each floor which has a power outlet and cat6 cable.
- Central vacuum. Once you have it, you will never go back.
Help! I'm a slashdot refugee.
If you want to go full-on nerdy, a pneumatic tube system can't go awry... ;) Bonus points if it connects to your mailbox. Extra bonus points if there's an outlet on your roof that you can fire things from.
"Who the **** put an emergency exit in the interrogation room?!" -- Police chief, "Jesus Christ Supercop"
Cat 6, Cat 3 and Coax to every room. Cat 6 + power to a few closets for WiFi APs.
Structured wiring to a central ethernet/phone/TV distribution hub with media server, UPS, etc...
- The above can cost thousands of dollars if done professionally. My brother-in-law did it himself (before his house was drywalled) for a few hundred dollars.
Solotubes in the bathrooms (basically mini-skylights that collect enough light at night to act as a nightlight)
Hookup for solar - the tech isn't *quite* there yet.
Hookup for garage EV charger - see above.
Multiple passthroughs for wires going outside - for future expansion (ham radio antennas, sprinkler systems, whatever)
If you're really into gardening, a hookup for an outdoor sink (with warm water) is *really* nice.
A properly wired OTA TV/FM antenna - for cord cutting.
Depending on the size of the house - multiple thermostats.
IP thermostat with integrated humidistat to control the humidifier. I like the Nest.
An attic fan with a nice controller - won't live without one of these now - we can go for most of spring without A/C by just using the fan.
Metal roof - recommended by a roofer friend who has them on his house - if properly installed they will last practically forever.
If you don't want a security system, at least run some LV 2-wire to each window and door so you can add one later if you change your mind later.
Also run wiring for connected, powered fire alarms. At the very least - one in each bedroom, one in the kitchen, one in every stairwell and one in the furnace room.
Ideas from a local builder:
2x6 framing - allows for more insulation and is more durable.
16" poured reinforced concrete foundation - recommended by structural engineers as ideal for residential construction.
Remember this - building to code is like getting a C on a report card - you're doing the bare minimum to make sure the house won't fall apart, flood or catch fire.
My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
Because whatever idiot came up with the idea of having your toothbrush, comb, shaving gear exposed to the same air as your toilet had never heard of germs or fluid dynamics.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
Literally just put the entire house inside a green house. Have the green house extend as far away from the house in all sides as I can afford.
Then manage the internal temp and humidity of the green house to create a year round micro climate for my house.
First, you have to make use of as much geo thermal energy as possible. The ground stays stable at the same temperature all year round. If you're in an area that gets cold in the winter, then what you want to do is cycle all the air in the green house through the ground. The ground stays at about 55 degrees which is well above freezing. Just using some shafts and some fans, you should be able to keep the green house at 55 degrees.
You can push it higher by storing heat collected during the day. Even in the dead of winter, a green house will get warm in the middle of the day. Often so hot that you need to vent heat in the middle of a winter day. Instead of venting, store the heat in the ground. Just pump air from the top of the green house through pipes about six feet under the ground. You'll heat up the earth under the green house which will release that heat all night. You also don't have to lose humidity if you're in a dry area if you're cycling the air that way. If you vent, then you'll equalize the humidity inside with outside. If you don't need to vent then you can keep it trapped.
After that you can play with aquaponics... get yourself a fish pond and cycle the water through a hydroponic grow bed.
Inside the house, I really liked that idea about switching to low voltage DC. It makes going off grid more affordable because you're not wasting so much power converting things to and from AC all the time. You just go DC to the batteries, then DC from the batteries into the home grid, and then from the home grid right into the appliances etc which will use DC natively. All you'll have to do is watch voltage and amperage.
Beyond that, I'd smart house the whole house with arduinos.
So... all the boring stuff like lights, power management, water management, doors, security, etc. But go farther with a sprinkler system, etc.
Then for the entertainment system, I'd go with a black screen projector for my home theater. These are neat because they work in broad daylight. No wash out of the picture despite having a huge screen or the lights on.
I'd keep the house to one story and might even sink it into the ground a bit. Keep in mind that most windows don't touch the ground in the first place. So why have the window be that far above the ground on the outside? This is relevant to the green house concept because you want the house to be in the green house but to block as little light as possible.
The roof of the house could be flat and planted or have a deck on it or something. Remember, the roof doesn't get rained on. The rain falls on the roof of the green house. It never touches the actual house.
The garage for the car should either be a separate structure or be under the house. There's no reason for a car's garage to be on the first floor. That space is too precious. Have a ramp go down into the basement and have the car kept there.
An interesting idea is to CNC mill the bricks or stones that the house is made out of. A CNC machine capable of doing this isn't that expensive and you wouldn't need to mill literally every stone. Just enough to get the effect you were going for.
A few ideas that are interesting to me are perfectly fit stones. If you look at neolithic buildings they don't use mortar. They use perfectly fit stones that fit together like a jigsaw. Gravity holds the whole thing together. You can and probably should use mortar and steel reinforcement. BUT if the stones fit together like that, you don't have to do that. They click together like legos.
Another thing you could do with that is have the entire structure carved... or milled. Imagine some sort of pictogram or pattern in the stone.
Lighting in the green house would be a big deal. You'd want the green house to be able to
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Terminate half the wires to one jack and half to the other.
You shouldn't even need to do that. I set up a simple patch panel of female ethernet connectors in my wiring closet, each connected to the female ethernet connectors all over the house. My POTS line comes into that wiring closet (well, my DSL line does, and my box has an RJ11 POTS connector). Plug the phone's RJ11 into the RJ45 where you want the telephone (yes, male RJ11 plugs into female RJ45 by design), find a male-male RJ11 to connect the corresponding patch panel RJ45 to the RJ11 POTS line, and bingo you can have your POTS telephone wherever you thought to place an ethernet outlet.
You probably want to avoid messing up connections between ethernet and POTS though. I've done it without ill effects, but no one phoned me during the time it was misplugged.
Now that I've wasted the mod point I awarded here before posting, some other tips, not all cool new tech:
- some place with ethernet that you can have a noisy server. Servers aren't that noisy any more, but I've had to junk one supposedly silent server because the power unit emitted a very annoying high-pitched whine, and cheap hard disks still make noise. This could be the wiring closet, but not necessarily.
- there's a (maybe European) quality of cable called "grade 3" that is better than cat6 (cat6e?) in that you can wire a satellite (coax) signal directly to it.
- if you use contractors, watch them. Every day. Get them used to the idea that they can ask you things. I put double RJ45 outlets in a lot of places, but the only place I really wanted two was where I was putting the television. Guess where the cabling guy decided on his own to only put a single because the patch panel had one hole less than needed?
- if you use contractors, watch them even more than that. I have a friend who used to change out of business work clothes into worker's coveralls in order to walk around his future house every evening. One evening he sees something bad (ISTR isolation) and calls it to the attention of the guy working nearby. The reply was "Oh yeah I know I messed up but it's too much work to correct, it'll be covered by drywall, the owner will never know".
- why not run cable to the fridge? To somewhere you might want a (PoE) surveillance camera? Wifi repeater?
- battery-powered doorbells suck.
- easily accessible storage space for things like vacuum cleaner, mop, dry food, clothes
- BTW, central vacuum cleaning, but storage is good anyway.
- I put washing and drying machines on the bedroom floor instead of basement or kitchen. No more carrying dirty clothing up and down stairs, but YMMV if your sleep patterns might clash with the noise. BTW, drying machines are better and cheaper if they have a hole to the outside.
- depending on your local weather, DFV (double-flow ventilation) with heat exchange so you don't lose heat, and cheaper electricity and heating mentioned by others
- Kitchen: granite desktop. Draw-out trash can just underneath so you can just sweep peelings from the working area directly into the trash can. Dishwasher a foot or two above the usual level so you don't have to bend (you put your hand in the dishwasher a lot more often than in the oven, and kids can fall on the upwards-pointing knives in a dishwasher just like they can burn their hands on an oven). Power plugs for kitchen appliances of course, maybe ethernet?
- going to have animals? Where are you putting their food, will you shut up the dog during the night and if so where, do you need a cat door, etc.
Lots more of course, I have often heard that that the house you get perfect is the third one you build!