What could you use Cat5 for in the average house?

[isdoo]

Hi,

What could you use CAT5 for in the average house? Would these all need to be routed back to a switch?

Any advantage in installing this, or should I just stick with TV cable?

Anything else, that I am missing that I should cable in whilst I have a blank canvas on all the walls in the house?

Thanks.

 

[andyv8van]

Hi,

I have fitted 2 network sockets in all the rooms in my house and it has been worthwhile, lads x boxs , sky boxs, second wifi unit signal, a lot easier to sort out with the cable already layed around the house.

cost of a drum is minimal , only getting the hub to connect up to all the cables was quite easy, one cable from the original broadband box and off you go.

rewired the house so laying cables as well for the network was not that hard


Andy

 

[ericmark]

My son and I were talking about the same issue. He has all ceilings down so easy to route at the moment. But I ran all sorts with my house which are now not used. There are telephone points every where now all cordless phones so most not used.

The same goes for area networks he is considering cables to each radiator to control the TRV but some are wired and some are wireless and there has to be a limit to how many cables.

CAT5 and CAT7 cables are used for all sorts from central heating controls to computer networks and even TV and Blu-ray players and in all cases there is also a wireless option. As to future proof likely we will move to fibre optics so can't really see the point.

Not so long ago it was 90 ohm coax so you fit as and when required.

 

[ChrisFrost]

Personally I wouldn't recommend anyone rely on wireless-only solutions for any home.

I am a professional AV installer. I see people who are either planning a major refurb and considering a structured cable solution, or I see people who dismissed the idea and are now running in to problems because wireless doesn't meet their needs for one reason or another. In short, you can't beat a bit of copper.

Structured cabling is where we consider all the applications likely to require hard-wired connections and install cable networks for each. But unless you are planing to have or add centralised lighting control, telephony with gate access, advanced heating, ventillation & air con (HVAC), blinds control, door locks and room access, CCTV and a myriad of other applications then it's pointless flooding the house with all that copper.

In most cases the requirement for cabling falls in to a couple of distinct categories. These are 1) data networking 2) distributing AV over CAT cable.

Data networking is straightforward enough: Put network points where you are likely to need connection to equipment then wire back to a central point where you install an appropriately sized switch and connect in your broadband service. 100meg and gigabit networking will handle distributing HD movie data files to several locations at once.

Distributing AV over CAT cable should be done with a separate network of cables. 2xCAT6 to each watching/listening point is a reasonable plan. On each endyou would connect a device called a Balun. This converts and AV signal in to something that can be transmitted by a single- or by a pair-of CAT6 cables. This is nothing to do with data networking and these cables should not be connected to a data network switch.


Optical has been mentioned. If you are a lottery winner and money is no object then ask your contractor to install fibre. For the rest of us fibre is so ridiculously OTT for domestic networking that it's just not a serious consideration once the costs for doing it start to roll in.

If you want to read more about the pros and cons of copper vs fibre then have a look at this thread

Just to add in a point.... Someone in that thread suggested the best way to future proof any installation isn't to try to add all conceivable cables at install. Instead, simply make sure that one installs large enough service ducts that cable can be added or changed easily in the future. That's a great piece of thinking.

 

[isdoo]

Thanks Chris.

So for a house refurb that is being done purely for a resale and not to live in, running CAT6 (assuming that is the latest version) to a switch in a suitable location is probably enough.

For AV - one would have no idea how any future purchaser might want their TV & Audio set up and so it is almost impossible to run cables - or is it? I am not an AV sort of person and am quite happy with a freesat box connected to a single TV and maybe a radio in another room to listen to radio 2 - but I appreciate for others it might be different.

What I would like to do is to install the cables if required at this stage for anyone buying to give a boost over another similar property at little cost.

 

[TheVictorian]

I've got a minimum of 2 Cat5 outlets in every room in my house, with the exception of the bathroom although there is a cable above it just in case!

It will always be better than a wireless connection as it is more stable and capable of greater speeds over a further distance.

I have games consoles, smart tvs, PCs, CCTV, a server and probably more all connected up.

I'd personally have a run from by your master socket to somewhere out of the way like under the stairs, then from there take 2 cables to each room and have them end up roughly where someone may put a TV. Just have them looped up behind blanking plates if you want to save a few quick on the outlets themselves. It shows any prospective buyers that thought has gone into it, if they don't want to use it they won't but if they do then it is a simple job.

 

[ChrisFrost]

So for a house refurb that is being done purely for a resale and not to live in, running CAT6 (assuming that is the latest version) to a switch in a suitable location is probably enough.

That's an important bit of info. It would have been more useful to put that in your opening post.

You're right though about development properties. Depending on where you are pitching the property in the market it's odds on that most home buyers just aren't equipped to recognise the real value of a decent pre-wire. Questions such as "Will my furniture fit?" seem like much more pressing issues.

Keep the wiring level down to a scale that they can relate to. Most peoples basic needs can be met with

1) a centralised aerial distribution system that gives them terrestrial TV + the ability to piggyback the RF2 feed from a Sky box around the house too. Remember to wire to both high level and low level points for wall mounted TVs and local receivers/recorders.

2) a data network, again with high and low level wiring.

 

[isdoo]

So for a house refurb that is being done purely for a resale and not to live in, running CAT6 (assuming that is the latest version) to a switch in a suitable location is probably enough.

That's an important bit of info. It would have been more useful to put that in your opening post.

I was actually speaking more generally in this topic, hence why I didn't mention it, as I am curious as to what the benefits are these days, given home plugs and wireless systems etc.

However sure it gets one thinking when doing a refurb - as I would not have thought it useful - but them maybe it is....

 

[SimonH2]

I was actually speaking more generally in this topic, hence why I didn't mention it, as I am curious as to what the benefits are these days, given home plugs and wireless systems etc.

"Home Pugs", aka power line networking = spawn of the devil.
Illegal, but the UK authorities have put a lot of effort into finding ways to pretend it's none of their business. Built to standards that don't exist. "CE" marked on the basis of having passed tests while rigged - the equivalent to getting a car to pass noise tests by testing it without the engine running.

The key things is - they WILL crap all over the radio spectrum. It's inherent in the way they work and no amount of lipstick* will change that.
* Reference to the US expression - putting lipstick on a pig doesn't stop it being a pig.

This isn't just something of concern to a few beardies (referring to the popular image of radio amateurs) who have been the key people diagnosing the problem and highlighting it. It will often kill DAB or FM radio, the CAA have raised concerns, and it goes on. In radio terms it's akin to turning up the TV until you can hear it at the end of the garden and to hell with any neighbours trying to listen quietly to their own TV/radio/whatever.
More at http://www.ban-plt.co.uk


Wireless works - as long as you aren't in a populous area. Detached houses are generally OK, but once you get to dense living (blocks of flats etc) then there are so many wireless system fighting over the spectrum that all become "a bit iffy".


You really, really cannot beat a bit of copper. Used correctly it'll pass a high rate of data or your AV stuff, without crapping over everything else, without contention with other stuff using other bits of cable, and so on.

For HDMI you ideally want two cables - there are HDMI over a single Cat5e/6 cable baluns but they impose limits signals IIRC due to having to mux multiple signals down one pair. With two cables (8 pairs) there's no need for this muxing and I believe these will handle anything the end equipment supports.
Add in another cable for network (so many TVs are networked these days) and you ideally want to run 3 cables from your central point to each TV point.

 

[Sam Gangee]

In addition to the CAT5 I would run coaxial cables. Sky+HD or a Freesat PVR requires two cables from the dish so two would be the reasonable minimum to each room. It's also easy to fit a diplexer or triplexer at each end to include both SAT, Freeview TV and Radio down a single cable so one of the pair can be used for that if required.

The main room should have a third (Return) coaxial cable to permit distribution of signals from there to other rooms.

Rather than filling the walls with WF100, I would use twin "shotgun" WF65 cable. It takes up half the space of WF100, is more flexible and easier to run and, although it has twice the signal loss, this is rarely significant in a short run of, say, 10 metres.

Finally, I would run cables from the box in each room to another blanked off box in the opposite corner. That way, when spouse gets an attack of Feng Shui and decides that he/she is going to shift the room layout, the cables can be linked together in the primary box to feed the secondary instead.

But, whatever you do, get a draftsman to sketch the wiring layout onto a plan of the house so that the exact location of all cables is known. This is a good selling point. Also, if you use WF100 in 6 different colours, it's much easier to tell which ends correspond. Labels are good but tend to fall off. Alternatively, buy a pack of numbered rings that can be threaded over the cable ends.

Do a rough sketch before you begin, so that you can measure the total length of cable required.