Question

I'm in the middle of a large remodel of an old home. While the walls are out, I want to get all appropriate wiring done. I want a video security system with cameras on 4 exterior doors, surround sound in living room, audio/video capabilities on the patio, and smart thermostat. What is the central device that could possibly control all of that? Alexa? Something else?  

Answer 1

Tip. When you are running low voltage wires, speaker or data cable, stay at least a foot away from power wire. If you have to cross, cross at 90 degrees. Helps avoid interference.  

Answer 2

For a controller look at Hubitat, Smart Things, or Home Seer. For video security just assure you pull Cat5 or Cat6 to each location of a camera and plane to get a POE camera system. Do not go with some off the shelf Ring camera from a big box store. For home audio - look at Monoprice for a whole home audio system or look at HTD. com Smart Thermostat - pretty endless, I've had Ecobee and am really happy with it's features as well as integration.  

Answer 3

3rd party devices =cheap but wont have 1 app to control all. Control4 =medium price range Crestron= high price range but best results

Comments

That's far from the truth. Hubitat, Smart Things, Home Seer all have a vast open community that allow integration into one location. If you have deep pockets and want to spend a ton of money on a system that is LOCKED down and requires you to call a local dealer anytime you want to make changes - sure, go with Control4 or Creston.  

Answer 4

Smart to do the wiring now. Run extra. Don't stress about central control now. U have plenty of time to figure that out. And I'm not sure we have enough information to answer that. I have Hubitat for my hub to control lights, motion and alerts. I ordered Ubiquiti UDM Pro for security cameras and firewall. My audio (Yamaha AVR) is by itself, just an app for remote.  

Answer 5

Right not wire is more important than devices. I would wire cat 6 to every place you think you might want a camera. Every tv location. 2-3 cat 6 and a rg6. anywhere you think you would ever want anything run cat6 wire.  

Answer 6

You list a few things, that's good, but there's so much more you could have. It's this seriously all you're interested in having? Or are there other things you might want? Need to think of it all now. You really haven't listed much at all.  

Comments

I'm not even sure what all is out there, so I don't know what I don't know. I was mainly wanting to know if there's something central that can control those things or will they all be separate apps. I'm not interested in colored lights or some of those type things I've seen.  

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Ok. That's kind of what I was wondering. Lots of suggestions. Do you want something that just works? Or do you want to tinker? Do you want to spend a lot and have someone else take care of it? Or would you like to spend less and manage it yourself?  

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Don't really want to tinker. Wouldn't mind managing it myself as long as you don't have to be a computer engineer to do it.  

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So many high end systems do not let you manage it yourself. But they do work awesome. If you don't want to do alot of tinkering but would like to manage it yourself i would recommend Smartthings. (I don't know enough about Hubitat so that might work too) As long as you check that what you want to use is supported by Smartthings you should be fine and can get it all into 1 app. You might have to use several apps to install at first though. But that's how these work. Unless you have the higher end system where they do it all for you (but you can't manage it). Lots of information is available and you can always ask here if you're having problems integrating.  

Answer 7

I would run new wire and plan on lutron switches. Having a neutral wire gives you a lot more options for lighting control.  

Answer 8

You’re going to get about 50 different conflicting answers on this  

Answer 9

Run some conduits to otherwise-inaccessible places to allow for changing wires to future formats.  

Comments

I would also recommend this, either heating and bending PVC, or getting some of the ENT "smurftube". When everything transitions to a new type of cable in fifteen years, you'll still be able to upgrade.  

Answer 10

Go to monoprice and buy a ton of catb6 23awg to run for poe cameras and AP. Everyone says con conduits to every room. That's hard and time consuming. Run a couple to the attic and media room if they are far from your central hub room.  

Comments

Cheap CAT6. is not necessarily a good plan. Especially if it's just copper coated aluminum. I'd rather have short runs of CAT5E using plain copper over questionable CCA.  

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@poulard70 I no way advocated cheap cat 6. Thanks for saying something I didn't say. The stuff on monoprice is not copper coated. Or at least I don't know if you can get it there, usually Amazon.  

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@balk how much Cat6 for a roughly 4000 square foot house, assuming 5 exterior cameras on the house and data lines in LR, master, upstairs TV/PS4, and office? I mean like 1000 ft, 2000 ft, etc.  

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@bifoliolate that's the hard question! I ran 3 cat 6 to every room in my house 6 to each floor's "media center", enough for 2 APs on every level (one active and a JiC spare, a control cable for future use in the wall in each room incase I wanted to install a HTD type system, and 6 poe cameras. I bought 8000 ft (1000 shielded) and had maybe 1500 left over? My house was 6500 Sq ft and I ran a lot. I remember trying to calculate it was hard. I made rough estimates like "ceilings are 10 feet, this room is upstairs and 80 feet from my home run drop zone. (80+10+10+10)x3 and so on. When you buy the cable, if you get from monoprice, get different colors like for my media center I had 6 runs, Xbox, fire tv, ps4, wiiu, and the TV 2 spare for future HD I over ethernet or whatever I would want. So each run is a different color and you don't have to guess.  

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@balk good tip on the colors

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@bifoliolate good luck!  

Answer 11

Single best thing you can do while the walls are open is TAKE PICTURES OF EVERYTHING. This way you'll know what's where if/when you need to do anything later.  

Answer 12

If you've got hollow walls there's no real need to run conduit. If it's going to be foam insulated though, that benefits from conduit. Hollow walls, or ones with just insulation batts in them are easy to run wire later. But if it gets spray foamed you're SOL for any later changes.  

Answer 13

Go with Fibaro and search, its affordable and compactible with many 3rd party affordable devices and multi room AV and surround sound systems