Our kitchen will be gutted and remodeled. I suggested to my husband that since the walls will be opened, we ought to install more outlets than usual, and extra wires for future projects.
“We can specify the number of electrical outlets up front,” he said, “but what extra wires would we ever need?”
“Not just electrical outlets. We might want to add an extra telephone or fax machine. And I’d like to add CAT-5 cabling for Internet access, since our WiFi doesn’t reach that part of the house.”
“But there’s no cabling from the router to the kitchen. We couldn’t use it without running wires through a lot of other walls.” This is true, but I don’t want to regret not having the option.
Okay, suppose you are an electrician–or that you think like one. How would you wire a room for the most flexibility? And what would you wire? Ten years ago I read that fiber-optic cables would be the standard in homes, but it hasn’t happened yet, and it was very expensive.
Could the decision be left open by putting empty conduit (the smooth type, not the spiral type) in the walls to make it easier to snake wires/cables/whatever in the future?
Janet
Replies
The solution to unknown future needs is conduit. Particularly for signal cablening for phone or computers.
A more powerful router
A more powerful router could save you from running CAT-5 through the house.
You are thinking along the right lines. (insert pun apology here)
Look up Structured Wiring on the Internet. There is a fair amount of information out there.
The retrofit will be a pain, but once in, you'll have quite a bit of flexibility for whatever you will want to do.
I put one into the west half of our house, and am expecting that I'll regret not having done the east half also. <g>
But the flip side is, computer networks have gone wireless so that becomes a moot point. As suggested get a better router or buy a repeater. Solves that problem. Hardwired phones are also a thing of the past. The trend now is to using cell phones and no land line or going to internet phone. Even TV is exploding as internet delivered content. If get a smart TV with wireless you can get a ton of content that way.
Just something to think about. If you just install conduit at a known height that you can access, it would cover any new developments.
Uhhh... no.
But the flip side is, computer networks have gone wireless so that becomes a moot point.
I could not disagree more.
I've tried putting fixed devices on the wireless, and I find that I just don't have the bandwidth I need. In every case where I COULD run a hard network line, I have. I've also moved from 100MB to 1GB switches and network adapters. Not everything uses it, but the ones that do see a real benifit.
So what is on my home network?
Desktop computer - Used for office paperwork, homework, main repository and editor for pictures, home movies, and music.
Kitchen Computer - Used as the backup server, it copies files new/changed from every computer when it boots up at 6AM every morning. It also is the family calender viewr reminder, also shows family photos randomly every 30 seconds... which keep us looking at the calender to see if there is a new reminder. This is also used as for streaming radio and receipe lookup.
Laptop Computer - This is my laptop that I take everywhere. It's one of the few devices that is never hard wired. Used for surfing, Work, and gaming.
Entertainment Computer - This is so my kids can watch You Tube videos, can play Flash based online games, look at educational websites we subscribe to. Also used for Skype with Grandparents and me when I'm out of town. The CPU is an old broken laptop I repaired and the screen is a 40" Samsung LED 1080i TV. Wireless rollerball and mini keyboard for input.
40" Samsung Smart TV (see above) - I find the application access is much slower on this, so we normally use other devices instead of the applications built into the TV itself. Still on the network though... handy to browse photos with on a different computer.
Wii Game Console - This is where the kids access Netflix to watch TV shows, and sometimes download trial games.
LG DVD/Blu Ray player - We will sometimes watch DVD's on this, but we maily use it to watch Netflix movies and TV shows.
AirRave - Sprint pico cell device that works like a mini cell tower, allows Sprint cell phones full bars in the house (Extended Data services too) and sends it out over IP. My wired phones are connected via a bluetooth connection to a cell phone, which connects through this device.
Konica Minolta 2550 Duplexing Laser Printer - Prints via network connection
Palm Pre cell phone
Blackberry Style cell phone
Netgear D900 Router
Trendnet 8 port GB Switch (3 of them, everything wired with Cat 6 Sheilded)
Cable company Modem
At any given point, when everyone is at home, there can be 5 different sources of IP traffic, these can include VOIP and Streaming video, along with file uploads and downloads... all at the same time! Wireless networks aren't up to the task of this amount of traffic, but they do have their place within a managed environment.
pro-active wiring
Hi Janet,
I’ve remodeled a few kitchens in my time, including my own a year ago. So here’s some advice I generally offer to people.
Electrical/outlets: make sure you are up to code, which should take care of most of your appliance and electrical needs. Make sure you give all the appliance specs to a good, qualified electrician. And what I mean by a “good, qualified electrician,” is an electrician who is going to read the specs. Make sure you have all the necessary circuits and be sure the breakers are all labeled. Typical code will call for outlets every six feet. However think about this, an electrician will rough in outlets every six feet. Great! But are the outlets where you want them in relationship to where your fixed appliances are and your workspace. For instance if there is going to be an outlet to the left and right of your cooktop make sure they are equidistant to the cook top. Don’t gang up too many light switches in one box. It will drive you nuts! Look at a well-designed kitchen and see how they handle outlets and switches. Also don’t be afraid to put an outlet in a broom closet where you can keep a dust buster charging or a pencil sharpener.
Cat 5 and cable for TV: yep, do it! No doubt more things are wireless but as my computer guy always tells me he can sit in my driveway and hack my wireless router a lot faster then he can a hard wired router. I have both types of routers in my home and they work independently and I recommend it to my clients. Use cat 5A not 5E. 5A carries more bandwidth. As many homeruns back to your router as possible. Same for your cable TV.
Planning for the future, open conduit in the walls is not a bad idea. My bet is you will never use it. Think about LED lighting, induction cooking, smart appliances and lighting, which can be programed via the Internet. Energy efficient appliances, sustainable/green building products.
Good luck,
JM
Add another circuit or two. In the places on the counter where appliances will cluster, put in quad outlets, served by 2 circuits.
If you think you might want more stuff later but not sure what, drop in conduit. It really does not have to be metal. Modern cables are very good about rejecting power line noise. Type ENT ("smurf tube" the blue flex)) is really not bad for this. I would use the blue, not the unrated orange. You can put low voltage or line voltage in blue but only low voltage in most of the orange you see at the home store (not listed as ENT).
Definitely run a couple of lengths of conduit between major areas of the house (eg, utility room to attic, attic to office area) if you get the chance. Best to have at least two, since you can't run power wiring and low-voltage wiring in the same conduit.