What technology for new home?

[OldShooter]

As a philosophy I want to enable future things but not install much. Technology is too unpredictable. For example, in the beginning Ethernet used RG-59 coax cable, but the ubiquity of telephone wiring in office buildings was the financial motivation that moved us to 4-pair telco wire and then to more sophisticated versions of the same. So, for example, our new house has the electrical service entry panel in the garage, so I have the easy potential to add conduit, cable, a box, and a connector for an EV. But I don't have to commit to a particular amperage or EV connector design right now. If the panel had been in the basement I would have run an empty conduit into the garage.

Other stuff I did for the new house:

The fiber enters the house underground, piercing the foundation down about a foot. This makes life difficult for a bad guy wanting to disable a security system by cutting the internet connection.

The house is prewired for alarm system sensors including installation of some door switches. All the wiring, maybe 30 pairs, home runs to a place in the basement where, if we ever install a system, we'll put the panel.

The network provider's box, fiber in, CAT-6 out, is in a repurposed steel office cube flipper-door cabinet in the basement. His CAT-6 runs to the kitchen wall behind the fridge then up though a plastic conduit and into a keystone-connector box on top of the cabinets above the fridge. The WAP/router is there, high and centrally located in the house. Signal is excellent everywhere with no boosters. There is CAT-6 from the router back to the basement box, where there is an Ethernet switch and the VoIP box. The ethernet switch connections are available for connecting various hard-wired devices. The POTS cable from the VoIP box goes back to the top of the fridge where the master unit for our wireless phone system sits, again high and central. There is a duplex 110v outlet up there too.

The VoIP "landline" is maybe a bit anachronistic but I had all the pieces so I decided to hook them up.

Various points like DW and my home office areas have gotten what I call "lollipops" consisting of a stub of plastic conduit and a plastic box where the conduit reaches the basement. CAT-6 with keystone connectors can be installed at leisure and run to the switch in the steel cabinet.

In two places for future TVs there is a lollipop opening low on the wall with a plastic conduit and a second box higher on the wall behind the future TV set. There is also a 110v outlet beside the upper plastic box. All four boxes just have blank plates for now. No wires in the conduits as we don't watch TV.

There is an OTA FM antenna high in the roof peak with RG-6 coax (run before the walls were rocked) to the lollipop in the back wall of the stereo cabinet. Anachronistic maybe but cheap.

14 gauge stereo speaker wires route to the basement through small holes drilled in the floor next to floor outlets, ending up in the lollipop behind the stereo equipment. The stereo also gets a hard-wired Ethernet connection.

Initial capability wiring was easy because of the lollipops and the open basement ceiling. It took me less than a day. This would work well even in a 2-story house but careful placement of 2nd floor lollipops would be important because they would be hard to retrofit.

@23window, I hope some of these ideas are useful for you. PM me with any questions.

 

[Out of Steam]

I'd do quad outlets almost everywhere but certainly near ethernet/coax connection points and where TVs/computers/electronics are expected.

A quad outlet would be useful at every place you'd expect to place a bedside table, or a living room chair/end of a sofa. I don't enjoy the power strips we have in all these locations.

 

[street]

Don't know if you have a basement or not, but I would put a piece of PVC pipe from basement to attic to be able to run any kind of cable in the future.

I built as much technology as was available when I built in 1993, but the ability to get from our basement to the attic and other parts of the house without cutting into walls gave us the ability to add technology today that wasn't thought about 30 years ago.

This is very solid advice for future use. Just to add to Ronstar post is if you have a cement driveway install some 2-inch PVC pipe across the driveway is another example of being able to get across cement with electrical line etc. after the fact. You would be able to run underground water line through it if you had too.

If you never use it the cost is so little, it's no big deal.

 

[EastWest Gal]

Make sure any multi-switch panels will fit LED switches in the box-the new ones are too big to fit 3 across, so we had to rearrange the switches when we changed to LEDs. Now they don't make sense in terms of location on the panel, but they do work. You'll need bigger boxes for LED switches, especially dimmer switches.

For new construction, think about solar panels and geothermal heat pumps. Geothermal is expensive to install, but much easier with new construction and saves money with heating costs long term.

 

[ERD50]

Sorry, I disagree on outlets. I use extensions on the floor. Wall warts and other things look crummy on the wall. I only add a quad at desk height when I know a desk will be there.

But there are really nice extension outlets with 90 degree plugs, soft cords, that put all these things under a couch or bed and not hanging from a wall. ...

What are you referring to, I don't understand. An extension on the floor? An extension cord (not to be used except for temporary)? Can you provide have a link?

-ERD50

 

[ERD50]

Don't know if you have a basement or not, but I would put a piece of PVC pipe from basement to attic to be able to run any kind of cable in the future.

I built as much technology as was available when I built in 1993, but the ability to get from our basement to the attic and other parts of the house without cutting into walls gave us the ability to add technology today that wasn't thought about 30 years ago.

Yes, but make sure it follows fire codes. I'm not sure, but an open PVC from floor to floor might be considered a path for fire? It might need a fire-break of some sort at each floor?

-ERD50

 

[FlaGator]

Don't know if you have a basement or not, but I would put a piece of PVC pipe from basement to attic to be able to run any kind of cable in the future.

I built as much technology as was available when I built in 1993, but the ability to get from our basement to the attic and other parts of the house without cutting into walls gave us the ability to add technology today that wasn't thought about 30 years ago.

^^^this.

I can't be the only one who has seen unused whole house intercom and vac systems in the last 15-20 years. It's almost a down to the studs to remove those, or a drywall cut/pull/patch/repaint to get rid of them when they fail or are no longer used. Neither of which suits my home improvement skills.

Tech for the home has a lifespan shorter than many of us will live there. Unused conduit across the house and outlet boxes everywhere give the most future flexibility. My house is only 8 years old and I would do it differently today.

 

[skyking1]

What I'm doing, and mentioned in several of the posts:
1) smart water shutoff. I don't want to come home to water damage.
2)backup power for the food. Don't want that cleanup either.
3) I will make smurf tubing runs from the equipment room in the basement up several walls. Each tubing run will have a pull string and two runs of CAT6 that I have left over from jobs. I will make a map but not cut in any low voltage boxes.
If I want to use any of it I can cut in a low voltage box at that time.

the smurf tubing is $50 per 100', and I'll use 200'
4) extra conduit into the house so I don't have to make a mess to change ISP, etc.
5) the car charger run in conduit to the carport.
6) solar panels are coming, but not before occupancy. I will have that conduit run and inspected.

 

[Ronstar]

This is very solid advice for future use. Just to add to Ronstar post is if you have a cement driveway install some 2-inch PVC pipe across the driveway is another example of being able to get across cement with electrical line etc. after the fact. You would be able to run underground water line through it if you had too.

If you never use it the cost is so little, it's no big deal.

The pvc sleeve (or sleeves) under the driveway is a must have. And I didn't put one in when I built.

Later running security cable, tv coax from the house to my workshop, I had to go around the house to avoid crossing the driveway- adding about 200' to the cable runs. It would have been an easy direct run if I would have had sleeves under the driveway.

And I used to spec out road crossing sleeve locations all the time on our subdivision plans, but didn't do it for myself. Dumb.

 

[finnski1]

As a philosophy I want to enable future things but not install much. Technology is too unpredictable. For example, in the beginning Ethernet used RG-59 coax cable, but the ubiquity of telephone wiring in office buildings was the financial motivation that moved us to 4-pair telco wire and then to more sophisticated versions of the same. So, for example, our new house has the electrical service entry panel in the garage, so I have the easy potential to add conduit, cable, a box, and a connector for an EV. But I don't have to commit to a particular amperage or EV connector design right now. If the panel had been in the basement I would have run an empty conduit into the garage.

Other stuff I did for the new house:

The fiber enters the house underground, piercing the foundation down about a foot. This makes life difficult for a bad guy wanting to disable a security system by cutting the internet connection.

The house is prewired for alarm system sensors including installation of some door switches. All the wiring, maybe 30 pairs, home runs to a place in the basement where, if we ever install a system, we'll put the panel.

The network provider's box, fiber in, CAT-6 out, is in a repurposed steel office cube flipper-door cabinet in the basement. His CAT-6 runs to the kitchen wall behind the fridge then up though a plastic conduit and into a keystone-connector box on top of the cabinets above the fridge. The WAP/router is there, high and centrally located in the house. Signal is excellent everywhere with no boosters. There is CAT-6 from the router back to the basement box, where there is an Ethernet switch and the VoIP box. The ethernet switch connections are available for connecting various hard-wired devices. The POTS cable from the VoIP box goes back to the top of the fridge where the master unit for our wireless phone system sits, again high and central. There is a duplex 110v outlet up there too.

The VoIP "landline" is maybe a bit anachronistic but I had all the pieces so I decided to hook them up.

Various points like DW and my home office areas have gotten what I call "lollipops" consisting of a stub of plastic conduit and a plastic box where the conduit reaches the basement. CAT-6 with keystone connectors can be installed at leisure and run to the switch in the steel cabinet.

In two places for future TVs there is a lollipop opening low on the wall with a plastic conduit and a second box higher on the wall behind the future TV set. There is also a 110v outlet beside the upper plastic box. All four boxes just have blank plates for now. No wires in the conduits as we don't watch TV.

There is an OTA FM antenna high in the roof peak with RG-6 coax (run before the walls were rocked) to the lollipop in the back wall of the stereo cabinet. Anachronistic maybe but cheap.

14 gauge stereo speaker wires route to the basement through small holes drilled in the floor next to floor outlets, ending up in the lollipop behind the stereo equipment. The stereo also gets a hard-wired Ethernet connection.

Initial capability wiring was easy because of the lollipops and the open basement ceiling. It took me less than a day. This would work well even in a 2-story house but careful placement of 2nd floor lollipops would be important because they would be hard to retrofit.

@23window, I hope some of these ideas are useful for you. PM me with any questions.

well done!. I'm an old school big speaker stereo enthusiast myself so appreciate that portion.

 

[OldShooter]

... I'm an old school big speaker stereo enthusiast myself so appreciate that portion.

Wife wouldn't let me move the La Scalas to the new house, so we have Heresys that don't block the lake view. Sound is still great.

 

[YB88]

I agree with others about wanting relatively large electrical boxes for light switches and plugs, but particularly for switches. 'Smart' switches take up a lot of space in those boxes, it can be a pain.


And I definitely agree with those who suggest running conduit to various parts of the house. Put something like Cat7 in it now, but be capable of pulling something new through it. Yes, mesh routers do wi-fi pretty well these days, but when you build a house you're making decisions that should last many decades and ... who knows? We've always needed wires for *something* to date, and as mentioned, if for no other reason a wired backhaul is a good idea between mesh nodes.


I would look into heat pump options. Who knows what restrictions or taxes or whatever will be in place in future to reduce national consumption of natural gas? Would a ground source heat pump be less expensive to install if done during house construction? Dunno, but perhaps don't assume natural gas will be a good primary heat source several decades hence. In that way, doing solar as part of roof installation, or --- who knows --- as the actual roofing material? This could impact landscaping decisions too (don't want tall trees to eventually block solar).


We built a shed just a few feet away from our house some years back and in retrospect I wish we had planned to have electric outlets and light in there, maybe even a dehumidifier (gets humid inside), but to get under concrete in between would be a PITA now. While I don't have a specific suggestion here, consider whether you might ultimately want electricity run to somewhere(s) in your back yard, for a shed, or maybe to power one of those waterfall type of ponds/birdbaths. You might also consider installing an underground sprinkler system at the time you might have the back and front yard torn up anyway. If you do, take photos of where the pipes run before it's covered over. And maybe think of an easy way to drain the whole system each Autumn; we have to have a guy out with an air compressor to blow ours out annually.


In terms of "take pictures", I suggest that you (or ask your contractors) to take photos when all of the plumbing and electrical is installed but the wallboard isn't up yet. There's many a time in my old house when I've wondered just what the #&*$% is behind the wallboard and I find that even modern stud finders aren't perfectly reliable at figuring things out.


You might also consider where a 15 amp circuit will really be enough vs. when you want to spring for 20 amp. If it's not a lot more expensive, I'd go for the latter.


Will you have an attic? Will you have to low-crawl in it to move around, high-crawl, or the luxury of standing upright? What kind of access will you have?


So very many things to think about, but what a fun opportunity to set things up the way you want to !

 

[pjigar]

Floor outlet for sofa, lamps, etc.
Motion lights for all closets and baths
Enough empty slots in the breaker box for future circuits
Water and electric stub outs in all 4 directions of the house for future expansions. Same for sewer plumbing for future guest addition, shop, etc. We live in the country and this has been by far our biggest regret.

 

[OldShooter]

... Motion lights for all closets and baths ...

Yes. In my post I was thinking technology and didn't mention our motion lights:

Garage has motion sensors arranged to trigger when someone enters via any of the doors. Wall switch switch "up" holds the lights on, switch "down" puts them under control of the motion detectors.

Mud room between garage and house. An error here was that the sensor "sees" the house hallway so the hallway door to the mud room must be kept closed, something we would probably do anyway. Better would be to have the sensor facing the garage entry door and not triggered by hallway traffic.

Laundry room/walk-in closet.

I would have had motion detectors for the kitchen and laundry under-counter lights but my wife vetoed the idea. Locating the sensors for these is a little tricky because you want to trigger when there are hands working above the counter not when someone walks by.

All outside walkway and door lights are motion-triggered. Entryway decorative light switch "up" holds the lights on, switch "down" puts them under control of a motion detector that looks down the walkway and sees folks approaching.

We have night lights in the bathrooms; I did not want motion lights there to announce late-night visits by open doorway illuminating the adjacent bedrooms. Bathroom vent fans are on spring-wound timers to eliminate forgetting to turn them off as they are pretty quiet.

There is a motion flood light over the garage door. I will probably replace that with one that also has a WiFi remote-controllable camera as we cannot see the driveway from inside the house.

 

[Retired2016]

Anything I could use Dell credits on (? benefit of Amex Plat Biz cards)

 

[gwill1010]

2-3" PVC pipe from behind the main tv to whatever is below, below-right, or below-left of the tv.

 

[Rustic23]

I would look into an induction range.

 

[gwill1010]

If you cook, gas or at least a propane stove. Or at least plumbing to the hvac and kitchen if you thikn gas will be coming to your neighborhood.

 

[finnski1]

Wife wouldn't let me move the La Scalas to the new house, so we have Heresys that don't block the lake view. Sound is still great.

Yes the WAF is important.

 

[OldShooter]

I would look into an induction range.

If you cook, gas or at least a propane stove. Or at least plumbing to the hvac and kitchen if you thikn gas will be coming to your neighborhood.

Induction. Yes. Amazing technology and far superior to even gas. Much better heat control and heating speed.

We put an induction cooktop into our new lake home and DW liked it so much that we just pulled our gas cooktop out of the city house and put in a 36" Electrolux induction cooktop. Ended up to be about $3K total with recutting the stone countertop for a slightly bigger hole and running a 220volt line for the cooktop. DW (and me) very happy.

 

[JohnnyBGoode]

Lots of great suggestions. I would check and double-check any tech-specific work you have the builders doing. We did a big remodel 20 years ago and I asked to pre-wire the new bedrooms with ethernet cabling for easier connectivity (this was before wifi was ubiquitous). I saw the outlets being put in, but I didn't check the outlets or wiring closely enough. They installed phone wire, not ethernet wire! So not nearly as useful as I would have liked.

I would also +1 all suggestions for more outdoor plugs and outdoor faucets. There are never enough and the ones there are never in the right place.

 

[indiajust]

I don't see mention of plugs with integrated USB chargers. I like a charger station, lots of USB-C. Pockets for all the visitors with chargers/cords.

I would also be tempted to consider wiring for all LED/low voltage DC. Slash the wiring cost and eliminate the possibility of using filament bulbs.

I like runner light strips too.

I would be tempted to push toward Passive House, energy saving stuff, as I was retrofitting antique house with new hardwoods... hiding PEX for heating loops and passive heat to get me through an ice storm.

 

[imnontrad]

I've always thought a good thing would be to have a switch that cuts off all power to outlets/lights in that room. Plus extra outlets on a different breaker in rooms where you may have office spaces.
But I think one thing that is essential is to orient the house to allow the installation of solar panels plus ensuring the wind patterns would provide natural cooling.
And I think having the infrastructure in place to add grab bars if needed plus wide hallways, doors and bathroom that can handle a walker or wheelchair. And stairs that can have a chair system if needed.
My personal choice for windows are known as European windows that open two ways and are wonderfully airtight. They are so much better than the typical US window. ("Where North American windows and doors are basically limited to 'open' or 'closed', European windows have been designed to allow filtered air into a home through the sides, while allowing warm air to escape out of the home through the top.")

 

[indiajust]

Kudos there for imnontrad. Using a chase to run cables is great. But orienting the house at 45 deg angle to south to open up lighting and even out the thermal gains and losses across the daily/seasonal variation is thousands of years old tech that can't be added later... and pay dividends for the life of the house.

Think 150 year product lifespan for the house. Being flexible to unknowns is good. Knowing that there will always be a need for a sunporch that allows parents to keep a watchful eye while doing lifes tasks in kitchens and offices... that's timeless wisdom.

 

[gwill1010]

Induction. Yes. Amazing technology and far superior to even gas. Much better heat control and heating speed.

We put an induction cooktop into our new lake home and DW liked it so much that we just pulled our gas cooktop out of the city house and put in a 36" Electrolux induction cooktop. Ended up to be about $3K total with recutting the stone countertop for a slightly bigger hole and running a 220volt line for the cooktop. DW (and me) very happy.

Wow, learn something new every day.