My family will be building a house soon and I was wondering if anyone had any "tech" suggestions. I know that many of you around here are much more technologically minded than I, and thus might have some insights as to useful things to build into a house.

I already plan on running cat5 to pretty much every room, including the garage and patio, and running dual rg6 to any room that might ever have a tv. Any other ideas?

This kind of question is often brought up on Slasdot . One good suggestion I have seen is to run conduit to the rooms, so that as new technology comes along, you can blow new cable/fiber/whatever to wherever you need it. This may not be so necessary though, as wireless seems to have a pretty bright future. Also, having a dedicated wiring closet for all your CAT5 and RG6 to end up in would be a nice feature.

Depends what you mean by tech

In computers run huge conduits every where with pull throughs in them.

In house loads of things are possible Stressed skin construction, engineered beams, plumbed in hovers, undefloor heating, solar panals and much more depends what you mean by tech as i said.

I am also looking at building a house in fact off to look at a loan for the land this morning. Also have a friend who is an archtect who does green hi tech houses.

Greetings!

For electronics, prewire everything you can think of : coax, phones, extra phones, CAT5, stereo audio, etc. as home runs to a central distribution panel. Even if a room doesn't have or need it now, running the wire now will be easier than doing it later. Consider wireless LAN as a possibility as well.

I don't suppose you are into log homes...

If you go to Home Depot (assuming you live in the states) there is something there called "omnicable" I think. It is roughly an inch thick and has 20 pairs of conductors that are equivilent to five CAT5 runs, (you can use it for phones, faxes, low power speakers, ethernet, serial conx ect), as well as two pair for Fiber optics, and I think three RG6-U QuadSheild coax cable. RG6-U is gigabit rated so it is ideal for broadband (cable) and Satellite TV.

It is a little pricey per foot BUT it is well worth it in the long run. Unless you install conduit once the house is built it will be next to impossible to add cable of any type later. Even if you don't plan on using ANY of what it has, run it anyway. You have no idea what is around the corner technology wise. Run the wire and let it hang inside an outlet or something. Ideally invest in a good 16port SWITCH and do all the connectorizing yourself you can get the tools and the connectors for $40 tops. The switch is gonna be pricey but well worth it if you get any kind of broadband. Consider having a dedicated server too. There are loads of advantages. You don't need a keyboard or monitor there are loads of remote admin stuff. Depending on how much money you have to spend there are millions of things you could do in the area of home automation. When I build my house, I plan on going all out on this stuff. I am in an apartment now and I have wireless and it is convienent, but there are serious drawbacks. For now bandwidth is an issue, range and interferance is an issue. I hope that these things get resolved but I am still running Omnicable even if wireless realizes it's potential.

Stahi

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Depends what you mean by tech

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Whoa. Not that tech.

I just pretty much mean the wiring aspect, or things similar. I'm going to wire 2 phone lines to every room, and have them, the network cable, the rg6, and anything else I run lead into a small closet, so as to be able to change most things from there.

I plan on building the theater room into the basement myself after the fact, so as to avoid getting the basement tax-assessed as "livable space".

I'm going to make sure a small garage window faces the patio so as to be able to mount a one of those Rio Receivers just inside, which will be hooked up to outdoor speakers. That way it will be protected from the elements and we can still control it with a remote.

I'm just trying to make sure that I will be wired with anything I might want for years to come. There is no high-speed internet option of any kind around here, but I would like to be ready when (if) it comes.

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Omnicable...

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Now that sounds like just the trick. I am definitely looking into it.

Cool, sounds like you've got it covered, including the space for the Rio Receiver.

Remember in that wiring closet, you'll need a cat-5 patch panel. Might as well have the phone wiring and TV cable run into that location, too, so you can drop a DSL or cablemodem adapter in the closet. Make the closet big enough and it can be a genuine "server room".

And dont forget to put good ventillation / AC in that closet. They can get real hot with a couple servers and hubs.

My place at school is a little obscene for a college student (okay, very), and when it was being built we specified where all the wires went. Just make sure they GO THERE. The place was being built remotely (my dad and I in DC and the "house" in Williamsburg). My dad had walked around with the wiring guy when the frame was up because we were very concerned with the wiring (we're both pretty geeky). Now this is a duplex with plans for 3 people living in it, each with their own bedroom, one downstairs and 2 up. We wanted one phone jack and one network jack in each room. We also specified the locations for the rear speakers in the future home theater.

We then end up with no phone jacks in the upstairs rooms (none upstairs at all), no phone jack in the room with the HT (sucks for Tivo), and big holes were bashed in the walls for the future speakers on the completely wrong side of the room. Add to that the fact that the guy wired every one of the 6 or 7 ethernet jacks incorrectly, and he didn't do a very good job.

That's why I advise making sure it's done right, or you have a pretty competant guy doing the install.


Oh, and I have one of those server closet dealies. It's called a wash closet in my bathroom

We've got a hub, router, backup battery, cable modem, and P120 web server and about 50 wires in there. You can feel the heat when you open the door, and that's very little stuff comparitavely

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That's why I advise making sure it's done right, or you have a pretty competent guy doing the install.

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I can't be sure it'll be done right, but I like to think of myself as a pretty competent guy.

A big plus is the fact that it's going to be built about 200 feet from my current residence. I can look out my window and see the land from here. I'm gonna be over there every day to make sure no screw ups happen.

As for the heat, I'm gonna have a duct go directly to the closet, so hopefully no problems there.

As for the heat, I'm gonna have a duct go directly to the closet, so hopefully no problems there.

Just make sure to close the duct in the spring you switch to the heater, and open it again in the fall when you switch to the A/C.

So basically he'd only get use of the duct half the year?

As for the guy you have doing this stuff, I think you should check him out first. He might be kinda sketchy. He does appear to have beef for a head

He does appear to have beef for a head

Team him up with Meatball Man and Captain Beefheart, and you've got a genuine bovine Hall of Justice.

I just can't get a scene from PCU where they're hurling meatballs and steaks onto defenseless vegans out of my mind.

Fighting for Truth, Justice, and the Carnivorous way!

As for the heat, I'm gonna have a duct go directly to the closet, so hopefully no problems there.

Duct to the central heating/AC or duct to the outside of the house? I am not sure a standard duct to your furnace/AC would work. There is quite a bit of heat produced, and like Tony said, you dont want to be adding heat when the furnace is on. A couple bathroom-style exhaust fans are cheap and easy to install.

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A couple bathroom-style exhaust fans are cheap and easy to install.

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Yup, back in the dot com days, places would spend serious money on installing "passive cooling" in case the power went out and they couldn't run the air conditioner. Whoever came up with calling vents "passive cooling" deserves an award.

Matthew

Whoever came up with calling vents "passive cooling" deserves an award.

...preferably a Darwin award...

Just make sure to close the duct in the spring you switch to the heater, and open it again in the fall when you switch to the A/C.


I'm confused. Surely you mean the other way around?

You wouldn't want the heater blowing warm air in, but you would want the AC blowing in cool air.

Which is why I would think it would still be kind of warm in the winter.

Yep, and don't forget to get a relay rack (wall mount might be enough), or even a 4-post server enclosure. A fairly good relay rack can be had for around $100. I got mine from Fry's for $95 and it serves me well. Guess it depends on how "tech" you want to go.

I'm confused. Surely you mean the other way around?

.sdrawkcab ti tog I yrroS .seY

Hmm. Then please explain it to me!

If you are building have you considered this????
www.monolithicdome.com
It is basically a stressed concrete, tornado proof residence.
All the ductwork is usually hidden in the walls and the thermal efficiency is so high that many of these things are cooled with RV AC units.

Not exactly the best building if you are in the middle of a standard box subdivision though.

Food for thought.

btw, is your sig the Vogon?

Yeah, it really gives me confidence to read that web site. It has a story about how one of their customers was unable to get a construction loan for the house because it was nonstandard. They had to finance the thing on a bunch of credit cards. Ouch...

but how about the folks who got a cheaper mortgage by using the dome efficiency.
I guess that is the difference between the credit card dome in 1997/8 and the cheaper one in 2001.
Still, most neighborhood schemes would go mental if a dome was presented!!!

Mybe you could build a dome house and put up a plyboard facsade looking like a normal house.
[evil voice]and then when a hurricane hits and strips the plybord off the house revealing your safe dome. mwa ha ha ha [/evil voice]

[homer voice]mmmm dome-huts... is there anything they cant do?[/homer voice]

Just curious, have any of you new home owners ever heard of the American Land Title Association, or ALTA?

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If you are building have you considered this????

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Heh. Interesting, but we have a dome home in the vicinity, and apparently the owners don't like it much...it might be the fact that they are doomed to be known as "the Domers" until the end of time. They've lived there for 12 years and I still am not sure of their real surname. Plus, here in Illinois, we don't really have to worry about hurricanes...

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btw, is your sig the Vogon?

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What now? My sig is from Caddyshack.

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Just curious, have any of you new home owners ever heard of the American Land Title Association, or ALTA?

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No. Why, can they do something for me?

Oh wait, I forgot that I changed my sig. "So I've got that going for me. Which is nice" is from Caddyshack. "You smell like a genius" is from Sifl & Olly.