NEC 110.26 mandates sufficient working clearance around electrical equipment, including breaker boxes, with a minimum of 3 feet clearance in front of the panel and a height of 6 feet. The center of the main breaker handle cannot be higher than 6 feet 7″. The clearance around the electric panel must be at least 30 inches wide on either or both sides, with a front workspace clearance of 3 feet.
The 2021 International Residential Code (IRC) requires electrical panels to have a clear working space to ensure safe operation and maintenance. There must be 3 feet of clearance in front of the panels, and the door must be able to open at least 90 degrees. Move any boxes or objects that obstruct the panel. The maximum height of an operating handle from the floor is 7 feet 6 inches.
The highest point to any switch handle is 6 feet 6 inches for a panel. The 2021 IRC requires a minimum height of 2 meters or 6 feet 7 inches to the center of the operating handle. Breaker panels must be at least 4 feet off the ground, but no higher than 6 feet. The panel door must be able to open at least 90 degrees. The electrical box height should be 4-feet tall (off the ground) at a minimum, with an average height.
NEC section 550.32(F) requires services disconnect to be mounted a minimum of 2 feet above the finished grade and a maximum of 6 feet 7″ from the floor to the main breaker.
📹 How High Should I Hang my Electrical Panel?
In this video I am preparing to hang a new electrical panel, so that inspired me to talk about the height requirements for your …
What is the 6 12 rule?
The user intends to install outlets at a distance of two feet from the corner and one in the center, thereby ensuring a minimum of eight feet of wall space before the door is covered.
What is the ideal height of a panel in a residential home?
Electrical panels in Quebec and Canada must meet strict installation and safety standards to ensure compliance. They are the heart of a building’s electrical structure and protect occupants from potential electrical problems. The panel should be inserted in a technical housing duct and located at a height that allows easy access to circuit breaker levers, but not so high that children can reach them. The recommended height is between 0. 9 and 1. 8 meters from the floor.
What is the minimum clearance for an electrical panel?
The NEC mandates that electrical panels must have a minimum clearance of 30 inches horizontally and 36 inches in front, and a minimum headroom clearance of 6 feet 6 inches. Emedco blocks obsolete browsers for security reasons, so users can either update their browser directly or contact their IT department for assistance. Alternatively, users can try refreshing the page using Ctrl + F5 on Windows or Cmd + Shift + R on MacOS. If issues persist, customers can contact the Sales Team for assistance.
How high does an electrical box have to be from the floor?
The standard height for wall outlet boxes is 12 inches from the floor covering to the bottom of the receptacle box or 16 inches to the top of the box. Setting electrical outlets and wall switches for standard, uniform heights is crucial for ease of installation and user convenience. Variations in height can make it difficult to fish cable through walls, and irregular heights can be disorienting and unsafe for users. This guide provides information on standard heights, measuring methods, and codes to follow for electrical outlets and switches.
What is the standard height of panel from floor?
It is recommended that the electrical box be a minimum of four feet in height, with an average height of five to six feet. It is imperative to ensure that the meter is situated in close proximity to the panel. Furthermore, it is advisable to have emergency lighting readily available in the event of a power outage.
How much clearance is needed for electrical panels UK?
Electrical equipment in commercial facilities must have a minimum of 3 feet of front clearance, with panelboards, switches, breakers, starters, and transformers opening at a minimum of 90 degrees. Side clearance should be 30 inches, with no less than the width of the equipment. Height clearance should be 6½ feet or the equipment’s height, whichever is greater. These rules are established to allow electricians to jump clear or fall away from equipment in case of a mishap.
In electrical rooms with rows of equipment operating at over 150 volts to the ground, the aisles between pieces must be at least 4 feet wide. If the voltage exceeds 600, clearance must be increased even further.
How high should panels be?
The text delineates three distinct wall types. The three wall types are as follows: a 3/4 wall, which is 1. 5 to 1. 8 meters in height; a half wall, which is 1. 2 meters in height; and a quarter wall, which is 0. 9 meters in height. Each type offers a balanced appearance, character, proportion, and subtle detail, rendering them optimal for imparting character without overwhelming the space or disrupting the sense of proportion.
How low can an electrical panel be?
Electrical panels must be unobstructed and free from obstructions to ensure safe operation, especially in emergencies. Egress paths should be kept clear to allow workers to quickly reach and exit the area safely. OSHA requires a clear working area around electrical panels, with a minimum distance of 3 feet (0. 9 meters) in front of the panel. The width of the working space should be at least 30 inches (76 centimeters) or the width of the panel, whichever is greater.
Panel height should be between 4 feet (1. 2 meters) and 6 feet 7 inches (2 meters) above the floor, allowing easy access for most workers without the need for ladders or stools. Reach requirements should be met to minimize falls and accidents associated with using ladders or stools to access high-mounted panels.
Proper guarding is essential to prevent accidental contact with live parts, with panels enclosed in secure, locked cabinets or rooms. Clear labeling helps workers quickly identify the correct panel and circuit during maintenance or emergency operations. Adequate lighting is crucial to ensure workers can see what they are doing during maintenance or emergency operations, reducing the risk of mistakes that can lead to accidents or equipment damage.
Visibility of signage around the electrical panel is essential, including warning signs, operating instructions, and emergency contact information. The National Electrical Code (NEC) or NFPA 70e is a set of standards and regulations that outline the safe installation and use of electrical wiring and equipment in buildings. The NEC sets specific requirements for electrical panel clearance, including clearances above, below, in front of, and around electrical panels, to provide adequate workspace for electricians to access electrical panels safely and prevent accidental contact with live wires.
Where are electrical panels not allowed?
The panel door must open up to 90 degrees, and residential electrical panels should not be placed in tight spaces. Furniture should not be placed near the panel, and working space provisions depend on installation conditions and voltage rating. The minimum clearance for nominal voltage 0-150V to the ground is 36″. Electrical panels should not be placed near easily ignited materials, such as clothes closets.
The best location for an electrical panel is a large space that meets NEC working space guidelines and is easily accessible. Common areas that meet these requirements include staircases, although this is less popular. It is essential to ensure easy access to electrical panels when placed under staircases.
What is the minimum height for an electrical room?
The height of the electrical equipment should be 6 ft 6 in. from the floor or the equipment’s height, if greater than 6 ft 6 in. The necessity of front access, as well as the potential requirement for rear and/or side access, is contingent upon the specific type of equipment in question.
What is the height code for electrical panels?
Circuit breaker panel boxes must be installed at a minimum height of 4 feet and a maximum height of 6 feet, not in bathrooms, and accessible without obstructions. They should have 3 feet of clearance and doors open 90 degrees without obstacles. The electrical code for outlets does not limit the number per circuit, but no cord-and-plug-connected piece can exceed 80 of the breaker. Receptacles and lights can be on the same circuit.
📹 Low ⚡Voltage at the Real ReBuild
Links to low voltage products (or similar) that I’m using: Cat 6 cable: https://amzn.to/3y5wSg9 14ga Speaker Wire: …
Where I live, NE side of Houston, all the homes in our neighborhood have the panels outside on a rear wall of the house or detached garage. They are water resistant as far as the door being flanged but not watertight with an O-ring or gasket, any conduits on the outside are the watertight kind. We get our power feed from the utility easement underground at the back of the property and it is inside grey plastic conduit, the wiring for the house all feeds through the rear of the panel into the wall. Most of our homes have a 18″-30″ roof overhang so the box rarely gets rain unless there is a strong wind. Our meters are usually within a few inches of the side of the box.
I installed a mini split that overhangs the top of the panel by a few inches. Even though the space guidelines are respected, I didn’t know about the rule for “no equipment installed directly above the panel all the way to the ceiling”. Also I didn’t think about at the time that if the condensate tray overflowed, it could drip on the panel. That will be an expensive mistake to fix – having the refrigerant reclaimed and then moving the unit over a few inches, then running new line set.
Quick question for you. I am trying to avoid paying several hundred dollars for the electric cable needed to run a line from my power box (on the power pole), to a secondary location. (The solid core cables for the 6 awg in my area are about 3.5$ a foot, but I can get stranded 3 awg for a little over 2$ a foot.) But I wasn’t sure if it would be possible to do the connection between the 2 panels with that wire, or if it was only possible to use the solid core wires, due to having the neutral and ground separate. (None of the local electricians want to actually answer questions, and after perusal your articles you seem like you know a good bit about this stuff.). I want to buy the equipment and then see if I can find someone to install the stuff for me. (It will be running from my power pole, about 70 feet to a storage room that will eventually be the power room for my homestead I am building up, I will eventually be migrating off the grid using solar, and wind power.).
Ben, one thing to think about is if you are wiring a house for the elderly, make sure that the top breaker is reachable by someone in a wheelchair. That is the reason for the 30″ & the 36″ clearances. When we had a house redone in 92, because mom was having double knee replacement surgery. Leroy the carpenter recommended that the electric breakers be moved to the porch off the kitchen at a height reachable by a person in a wheelchair. We never regretted that! Since 92 to now 3 people have been in a wheelchair in this house, 1 for 2 months, other 2, 3 to 10 days. Another thing that we did was to install outside outlets on the street & the alley ends of the house. Each one is controlled by a GFI breaker. That way when we come home, we plug the outfit in, turn on the front or rear breaker when we need it. This year on New Years Eve it got down to -28°f. Nice to be prepared. Power went out at 4:30 pm at -22°f. Came back on at 8:00 pm at -26°f. Thank you for the helpful articles! Hello from north east Montana. 10 miles from the Canadian border.
You should do a article on how to feed a sub panel from a sun panel in series…. I’ve looked and can’t find anything.. Especially I had a 18 slot Sub panel installed in my shed using 150 feet of 6awg with a 50 amp breaker and have a remaining 30 feet of 6awg.. I want a 20amp receptacle 60 feet away and have 10awg however it’s not easy to wire receptacles with 10awg and I don’t want to pigtail 12awg nor do I want voltage drop with the full Run of 12awg I was thinking of installing an outside sub panel between 1 to 4 breakers using the Remaining 6awg then feeding the receptacle(s) from there Just wondering what advice, suggestions and or ideas you’d have about that.. Thanks
A little off topic, but I’m about to do a panel swap and a few of the wires are going to be too short. Rather than splicing a pigtail with wire nuts, which I think look trashy, I’m wanting to go with Wago 221-2411 inline splices because they’ll look a lot neater. They’re UL approved. What do you think? Thanks.
I’m planning on installing a sub panel in a shed in my back yard. The walls are unfinished and the roof rafters are exposed as well. The bottom of the wall where the rafters meet is 6’4 inches tall. The Code book says I need a minimum of 6’6 inches of height for a main panel to be installed. The rafters reach 6’6″ after a few inches in front of where I was planning to install the sub panel, but are only 6’4 directly above the location itself. Will i need ro relocate the panel to be within code, or is this a code specific for MAIN panels only?
How is the 30 in rule applied when there are multiple enclosures. I have an outdoor 320 amp meter socket,, with a 200 amp disconnect on the left and a 200 amp main breaker panel on the right, with 2in x 5 in nipples connecting them (raceways) so basically 4 in between enclosures. Any restrictions to consider?
I see you are holding to wire cables squeezed together with a u tack. I don’t think that’s to code in Toronto because they can over heat at that point. Where are you living that this is to code? I also seen a article where you talk about the distance of a switch that has to be more than 36 ” from a sink. But I don’t see that any more. Where is that switch placement article please? Thank you.
Good article – got to the point quickly. I’m thinking low panels are generally a bad idea over time. For example in a garage a low panel could be subject to water spray damage if someone were hosing the panel. Same possibility for a flooded basement. Also, an owner may later bury it completely with a desk or junk pile.
I just found your website and find it very informative. I have a simple question and I would appreciate if you or anyone could answer it. Question? What’s recommended for attaching the panel box to plywood or backer board? Can I use 2″ hex/washer screws? What I’m doing is wanting to attach a breaker box for my water heater, the box is 12″ tall x 6″ 3/4 wide. So I want to attach the box to a piece of 2×10 between 2 studs with 2″ hex/washer screws.
Ben, Questions: I installed my subpanel in the garage and want to wire my 3 prong 220 outlets. To the best of my knowledge a natural wire isn’t required for this industrial equipment. can’t seem to find accurate information about if I need a 8/2 or 8/3 wire for my 220 outlets and I’m uncertain if I can use the uncovered copper wire for ground with 220. I’d also like to have a welder outlet at the front and rear of the garage. Is it safe to use wire nuts in the outlet box to run wires to the second plug or do I need a junction box? Do I need metal boxes for the outlets or is plastic ok? Thank you in advance. I enjoy all your articles. They are very informative. You’re a very talented young man. Kind regards Paul H Cassidy
Near the end of the article for the sub panel in the garage where is the best place to bring in the wire into the sub panel. Top, bottom or from the back of the panel ? Say if your main connectors are on the top of the panel is it better to bring the wire from the top ? Or does it not matter where it’s brought into the panel ??
With the understanding that the NEC says the service panel can’t be higher that 6’-7″ High, unless your that tall it should never be a problem if installing the panel at the home owners eye level. I’m 5’-8″ so the sub-panels at my home and garage are installed with the main breaker lever at my height, which is close enough for both my wife and I to reset breakers or for me to do electrical work. This is also how the service electrical meter, generac auto transfer switch and main disconnect panel are installed at my height.
Ben….I’ve been doing this close to 51 years and always ask a homeowner simple questions…like any handicappec in Wheel Chairs, etc…then hang a panel middle at eye level which puts it aboutbtop of 6 ft, but again you have to size the job site on the length of existing wiring. I’ve actually hung a panel side by side and bonded the two together using the old panel as a junction box bonding the neutrals and new panel with upgraded breakers. Stripped out all the hot conductors leaving neutrals. Then grounded the new panel by code. Worked very well and saved many hours of labor. Passed inspection! Note: old panel was a Cleveland and weighed a ton. Very well built panel….all copper bus bars and breakers!
WHAT IS THE MINIMUM HEIGHT FOR A OUTDOOR COMBO METER AND BREAKER BOX? Homeline 200Amp 30-Space 42-Circuit Outdoor Ring-Type Semi-Flush Mount Solar-Ready Main Breaker Plug-On Neutral CSED DOING A REMODELLING JOB WITH A MASSIVE AMOUNT OF THINGS TO TAKE INTO CONSIDERATION. WANT TO PLACE IT BETWEEN A TRIMMED WINDOW AND THE CORNER BOARD APPROXIMATELY 30 INCHES WIDE. WANT TO ENCLOSE THIS UNIT IN A “CABINET” WITH A DOOR THAT ALLOWS THE PANEL’S DOOR TO OPEN 90 DEGREES. WANT THE TOP OF THE CABINET TO BE BELOW THE BOTTOM OF THE PICTURE-FRAMED WINDOWS TRIM . WHICH IS NO MORE THAN 46 INCHES HIGH. ANY INFORMATION WOULD BE HELPFUL THANKS. CHARLOTTE NC.
Wireless systems can easily saturate in large families and have coverage problems in large or unusual homes. Having a wired backbone for offices, stable media locations and possible repeaters/hot spots is a great idea. I am an IT professional and have six kids, the oldest 4 are voracious high def media consumers. I actually run two separate wireless networks in my home now to keep it under control.
Hi Matt. FYI: The Frame from Samsung comes with the one connect box and one connect wire, in the box. But it’s only 5m/15feet. For the long 15 meter or 30 meter, you do need to buy the longer cable separately. Also, make sure you get the “The Frame 2021”. Big upgrades from 2020 models. Regards, a Samsung engineer.
CAT6 If you used CCA (Copper Clad Aluminum) wire which is in the link you provided. Also looks likely to be the same type of box you showed at the beginning. Many people use CCA cable for POE devices both access points and cameras. You should run only coper wire not CCA for POE devices. The voltage drop and interference caused by CCA will create nothing but intermittent connection issues for many devices and packet drops at the bare minimum.
Matt, I built my own 3000ft sq house and wired it in about 2008. I wired for those ipod ports all over the house. I wired it for intercoms too. Moved in and that technology was obsolete. I also ran coax everywhere and lots of runs to the attic too for satellite dishes. Never connected any of them either. Well one to the main TV for a couple years. I just drywall patched over 2 of the ipod port boxes and one of the intercom boxes. With many more to go as i repaint. LoL. Right now they have blank plates over them.
This was the most surprising article yet! Great to see, finally, a discussion on technology. I’m a certified Microsoft Engineer, own my own IT company and my own building company. My IT company does all of the work for my new builds and we have fine tuned much of our thinking over the years. Matt did more than most builders in his house which is great but most builders’ achilles heels is technology. They don’t understand it. Complain about the costs, etc. etc. But my thinking is 180 from Matt’s. I’ve only got one shot to prepare a house while it’s open to get it ready and keep it ready for what technology brings and that is at least as important as air sealing to me. What I’ve learned over these past 20 years is that one can NEVER know what technology is coming. Never. So, you need to do what many suggested here: run raceway (not the crappy electrical flex conduit) to every location that you can think of. For sure, runs from the outside to the rack, from the rack to the attic and basement, from the rack to all critical areas in the house like tv locations but ceilings and floors, and anything else you can think of. And I would never run just 3 wires from the outside. I run Cat 6a, RG6 and naked fiber and 1 terminated. That should cover most of what we need for the foreseeable future. Oh, and take a article of everything you did before insulation. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve had to refer to a article after a build. If I was a betting man, I’d say fiber will make dramatic strides in residential work in the next decade.
I really liked this one, a few thoughts: As others have mentioned, running extra CAT lines to places you might want future wifi makes sense. Both for data and/or just POE. Think decks, outside entertaining, relocating an office to a bedroom, any place you might want better coverage in the future and be prepared for the next couple releases of technology (WIFI-7 or -8 maybe). Think about mechanical controls and where you might want to run ethernet to them. Thinking water heater, solar controller, battery management system, additional security cameras or motion sensors (if not for data, for power), etc. Always make sure you leave a good service loop on your cables. Keystones can break, as you mentioned interfaces can evolve, something else might happen, its always better to be able to open up a jack and find a nice loop to give you some working length rather than only a couple of inches which often gets shorter when you cut out the bad and try to finesse the new in. Running conduit to the attic is smart. You might not “need” it now, but as thing evolve you might really want to connect two locations and being able to do it in the attic without cutting into a wall is good planning. Might cost a little bit now, you might never use it, but if you do it will save you lot in time/energy/money.
Matt 1 thing to be very mindful about I’m a certified electrician been doing the work for 33 years now. Anyway the thing to be relentless about is how close to your low voltage and cat5 and cat 6 wire that regular, 14,12,10, and 8 gauge wire runs next to I always make mine run at least 1 foot apart from the low voltage, but also 2 or 3 feet if possible. Because of electromagnetic induction (let call it in kids terms, like a force field, that runs around the wire, as electricity travels through it.). You can have heat bleed, from the higher voltage, (pressure of electricity), or amperage (the higher amount of electricity). But more importantly you can have line leak from the electromagnetic induction. This can cause the smaller wire to get hotter but also run at double the voltage or amperage being carried by the smaller cables. You would have experience with this when someone ran an old doorbell, low voltage wire through a hole in the floor joist with a 12-2 or something. And at that point the area where they touched the low voltage wire is hard and flaking apart. This also caused premature life of the old products. But great article as always.
Having lived through all the copper conductor / connector plug changes in the last 20 years I thought it obvious that my house plans specified Smurf tube (flex conduit) to be installed throughout the house so new tech cables could be fished through the walls. The Six P’s : Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance
Matt, I’m happy for you in the chance to build your own house after all these years. The router system you when with is nice. Definitely one that you would want a tech guy to hook up for you. I use Eero pro6. It’s a nice system made for the diy guy. I like that you still went with an antenna. Check out the HDHOMERUN system. I have the quatro. Get the “channels” app for your tv if you get the HDHOMERUN. It’s around $25 but well worth it. Hope you and family enjoy the house.
I did a lot of the same in my new home build for low voltage. Sonos, Samsung Frame, Ubiquiti UDMP/UACs/Protect, Antenna in attic, etc. Lots of Cat6, RG6, flexible conduit, etc. the main difference I think would be security system and lighting. I have a mix of zwave and Lutron, as well as Hue. Once you are moved in, you could cover integrations with lighting, security, automation, voice assistants, etc.
First off, I would say you haven’t run enough CAT6. Wherever you have a computer or a TV, I’d run at least two CAT6. You may have a “smart TV”, which would need one CAT6, but if you get a Fire Stick or something similar, those run better when cabled. Any device that isn’t going to move should be wired, in my experience. Sonos is fine, but if you’re doing in-ceiling speakers, the architectural speakers are way over priced for what they are. Couple that with the cost of the amplifiers, and it gets insane for a house. Maybe they’re donating them all to you? You may not be into the tinkering, but you can get much more cost-effective Sonos results with Symfonisk and modifying those to run less expensive ceiling and in-wall speakers. Lastly, I’d suggest you revisit your decision to use Ubiquiti security cameras. That is a closed system – you can only use their cameras with it. Much better to get e.g. a Lorex / FLIR system where you can use any camera that is ONVIF compatible. It will give you much more flexibility in the long run.
Matt, remember, a connection to your TV antenna. A lot of free websites that are not available over the Internet without a subscription. Like the local PBS stations which are great in Austin. I use Cat 6 only on my backbone. The rest is a wifi mesh network. I also have the mesh extended to my back yard for my weather station, sprinklers, greenhouse and other stuff. I also have a Netgear RAID cloud server running Plex providing media services and storage for internet access (16 tera). I retired from a network and cyber security career after 30 years. I’m just a few miles south of you.
I ran cat 6 throughout my house. I ran 2 drops to each location. This was originally done because of a matrix switch that I was going to use so I could have 2-3 cable boxes in the basement and have them be able to run to 6 locations. Cable box rental (since you can’t buy them) is ridiculous. Since then most everything has gone streaming. To have 2 drops at each location allows failover first of all but also that a tv and game system could both be wired. Never underestimate how much your teen “needs” hardwire for a game system. I use unifi as well and having 2 POE access points covers the whole house and well into the yard without problem. Realize that these access points are different than having “repeaters”. A repeater talks back to an access point, thus using the one access point’s bandwidth. This is fine with a couple of adults, but can saturate very quickly when kids are all perusal 4k streams and you are trying to have a zoom meeting. One last thing: run coax to every tv location. It is cheap. Once you see internet providers like comcast set data limits (which they already have and only delayed doing nationally) you will go back to perusal cable. 1.2TB data cap is nothing, especially when there are game downloads now up at 200GB and a 4k stream uses around 5G per hour.
That antenna looks like a dipole or smething similar to me – if you will point it to the tower, that is the only orientation it will get completely NULL signal – please check the manual before doing so. Most likely the antenna is to be mounted vertically not horizontally, and most certainly NOT with pointy end pointing to the broadcast station.
Matt you mentioned wired connections to each room. I did just that in my old house as it was being built, what I forgot to do was spider it out.Definitely put the wire to each room, but trust me you want to run 3 wires from the “room” box to the other walls. No matter how you think your teens may arrange there room its better to have a wall plug close to where its needed. I laughed every time I went into my teens room and saw the cat5 wire runing along the base board so the table he was using (and kept moving) had a wired connection. Nice articles on the built, I love the new materials your using it helps me with my upcoming post frame build.
There are lots of potential changes in the works re: voltages. -Data centers moving to 12v or 24v DC local grids to eliminate the heavy, expensive transformer-brick-per-server. -Autos and trucks moving to 24v or 48v DC to reduce wire gauges. -Maybe homes moving to 24v or 48v local grids for LED lighting.
That’s a LOT of cables run into that 16×16 box! I’ve got half of those cables and a 24in tall low voltage box next to the 220v main service panel. Plus a secondary hidden location for my network storage drive and security camera footage recording server. Any burglary would assume the footage is on my desktop or inside my locked low voltage box, but it’s not. All my personal data is stored on my personal Synology cloud drives along with the security camera footage server, along with their own UPS battery backup. With UPS battery backup the internet, WiFi, security cameras, and my network storage cloud will still run for over an hour without power from the grid or generator running. You might want to think about keeping those storage devices in a gun closet if you’re going to build one of those security closets again, like you did in a article ~2 years ago.
As a an IT Pro, Matt, you’re doing it right. Unifi is awsome for SOHO and SMB. Running cable is smart, so many people just default to wifi even when they are able to use wired, its awful. Also, if you run into any issues setting up your Unifi gear I recommend reaching out to Chris from Crosstalk Solutions or Tom from Lawrence Systems. I’m sure both would be happy to connect up with a fellow YouTuber.
Glad to see you using over the air television. If that were any more exposed or any bigger of an antenna, lightning protection is a serious consideration. As far as the rest of the network goes, looks like you did well with consideration for cameras, doorbells, thermostats, etc, as more an more devices being sold want to a way to ‘phone home’
@Matt Risinger the Sonos ARC connects via HDMI to the TV, if you place the Samsung control box in the Media Hub you’d need to run an HDMI back to the TV, which is not ideal, Frame TV in your setup might not be the best choice. Hopefully your friend John has suggested running Cat6 to UniFi APs as you should have a wired backhaul in preference to relying on MESH
Matt, you seem to show the antenna oriented such as you pointed it down the ‘tube’ towards where the broadcast antenna’s are. You better check out how you’re getting reception, because it should be oriented 90deg from that, because the antenna is along the tube, you and want that across (90deg to) the signal. I’d recommend going and setting it up at your current home and trying it out to verify the orientation before mounting it.
You should reconsider running the 50ft Samsung One Connect Cable to the equipment rack. Strong makes an In-wall box that can house the One Connect box behind the TV and won’t require the 50 foot One Connect Cable that will eventually become obsolete. Best to run conduit with Cat6, use HDBaseT baluns from the rack to the TV, and if need be upgrade to fiber in the future via the conduit.
Loved perusal this – when worlds collide I guess as this is largely what I do for a living! That Voltek thing is very cool. A few thoughts, as I love seeing fine buildings that include Home Automation things of this nature. First off, skip CAT6, go straight to 6A. Minimal if any cost difference but tons of future proofing. Second, two CAT6A and one solid copper RG6 Coax per room. Either all to the same plate or split one of the CAT runs to an opposing wall. Same three cables + SM fiber to any location where you expect a TV (fiber is useful for HDMI and other things like you said). At a minimum, 1 CAT6A in the ceiling for every room, if you’re feeling fancy do two though. (If you think this is excessive: WiFi has been trending towards higher frequencies in every iteration. Having an AP per room may become a reality in the very near future especially as WiFi6E becomes more common. Higher end APs use multiple Ethernet uplinks to support the increased speeds, or at a minimum you can use the second ceiling run for IoT and home automation sensors). And if you’re doing speakers, some stranded 14 or 12GA CL2 speaker wire up there too. Then Homerun everything to a central location as close to the center of the house as possible, and ideally in the basement (for noise and heat) – make sure HVAC plan includes the tech closet, very important one that I see overlooked even in commercial all the time. Label every cable as you go so you’re not toning things out later. Skip the OnQ stuff, go straight to a regular 19″ wall mount rack & patch panels, cheaper and easier to manage.
Matt, not completely sure but with 12ga. on a 20 amp breaker and having lights and plug outlets rated for 15amp if you had a short in one of your sockets it could short and catch on fire before the 20 amp breaker even trips. 12Ga. is the best way to go but you should use 20 amp outlets with the 20 amp breakers and 15 amp breakers for 15 amp outlets.
Even if you’re planning on using wifi with a mesh network, run cat6 to various points in your house to install access points. That allows the network backhaul to run on the wire rather than a wireless frequency and will give better performance. As far as the Voltek system goes, why spend $1000 for a glorified centralized power brick as opposed to installing separate supplies at a fraction of the cost?
Matt I’m an A/V professional And I am bewildered that you wouldn’t enlist a professional for the low-voltage part of your home and feature that profession as you do with so many other skill set. Certainly is a professional homebuilder you’ve seen the countless mistakes done by homeowners when they don’t have a plan and a list of professional for this part of their home. As one of the other commenters pointed out the Samsung fiber optic cable is not in wall rated and you should be putting their terminal box behind the TV .there are boxes made for this and you will also want it there so that you can hook up the HDMI to your Sonos ARC . I would love to see how many other mistakes you’re about to make. I’m a fan but I got a ding you on this one.I would also put in a larger low-voltage panel and I would do a four rack on wheels so it’s easier Service. You will hate the wall-mounted rack in that little closet.
Any area (closet, room, space, rack, etc) that contains active components (Voltec, UPS, Ubiquiti, etc) that consume power will generate heat and that heat needs to be dissipated or you will get heat buildup that will cause electronic components to run at temperatures over design parameters. This will cause premature component failure and thermal runaway. Cooling can be done with HVAC ducts sized for the heat generation plus spare capacity, fans to help circulate the air, and return ducts. For much smaller systems a louvered door to the space (room or cabinet). You may even want to place a smoke detector in the space. This room need to be cooled year round, as when the rest of the house is being heated, this room needs to be cooled.
I am a certified technician via BISCI and see some issues, love your builds but see some of the same wrongness again and again from “electricians” doing low voltage. MAKE sure that low voltage is not run parallel or at least not int he same stud bay as your high voltage or you will possibly get EMF crossover. You will really see it if you test the wires with a celebrated tester. Media box far too small. No “smuf” tube in the walls in case technology changes. Sorry did see the one at the DMARC but any place you can get top is a good place to at least install and do a photo red line. For sure one from media box to attic as well. Spend the money on the coax go RG6 solid copper center quad shield, normal coax is a copper clad steel center conductor. small upgrade but far better bandwidth. I STRONGLY suggest you land all your CAT 6 cables on 110 blocks so they become structured cabling. Keystones are meant for jumper cables and not background cables. I would run at least one RG-59 from your media center/amp to attic in case you want to run XM RG6 is not the correct cable. Just thinking with an open mind and lessons I have learned. I land all cables on panels and test all with a calibrated tester and print the results. I love the show and will use a lot of your material on my next build. I am looking forward to my forever home, a BARNdo/ with RV sized garage/shop roof access hacienda style. My current home a 25 year old has cat 5e running in all rooms (2cat 5e and one RG-6 x 2 each rood so avoid patch cable issues) plus a fiber in at least on box.
Don’t ever install Cat8 or “Cat7” – which, is not a standard that is in use, if anybody says otherwise, they’re lying – in a residential or even an office setting. Cat8 is real; it has its purpose: For high bandwidth applications in the data center. It was designed for 40gigabit/s runs over very short distances. Sure, it’ll do gigabit and 10gigabit all day long just fine, but the price is not worth it for what you’re getting. You can yell “Future proofing” until your face is blue, but the hard truth is that if you want to future proof, you need to run fiber either alongside Ethernet or in a conduit. Cat6 and Cat6A are the ONLY two standards you should be looking at for Ethernet installations, period. You don’t need to worry about shielded Ethernet, either. Unless you have a nuclear reactor in your basement, there’s absolutely no added benefit to it; and you’re doubling your work you have to do because you have to ground shielded Ethernet at both ends for it to even be effective.
You have some good taste in electronics. Been using Ubiquity and Sonos products for a while. You won’t be disappointed. (Ubiquity’s wireless is very reliable also, btw, and you can just run a home run from the AP’s to the dream machine and put the AP’s anywhere if you don’t think there will be enough coverage).
FWIW: Power over Ethernet might be a better long term option for power. You can get PoE to USB C adapters. Issue is that USB c likely will change, but ethernet will likely be around for a long time and you could use the ethernet for both power & data for laptops, or other low power compute devices, or VoIP phones. My recommendation would be Cat 6a since you likely be able to run 10 Gbps Ethernet reliably As well as run up 100W since it 23 awg is standard for Cat 6A cables. I would also recommend running two cabled to some jacks so if you need to connect multiple devices. For the TV have at least two ethernet cables so if you want to connect a digital media in addition to what ever your TV provides (ie a Roku, apple TV, etc) which could be mounted on the side, top, or bottom of your TV. Issue with Smart TVs is that at some point the Manufacture stops supporting updates (they want to you to buy a new TV about every 2 years). What you find that after a couple of years the built in apps stop working. For ceiling mounted audio, I recommend putting the speakers in a sound damping enclosure so the sound does blast into the rooms above. Also recommend running low voltage cabling for smoke detectors because no one likes changing smoke detector batteries when they start beeping at 3AM. As far as UPS systems, I have a whole house UPS that provides power for most of the low power circuits (ie lighting, bedroom outlets, etc). Power outages are more frequent at might location than your location.
Why do you not have an A/V custom guy helping you with this? Do you work with someone who does the low voltage in your other projects? It’s funny how builders or homeowners often want to do this themselves when it’s such a specialized field. You use an HVAC contractor, you use an electrician, you use a plumber, yet somehow when it comes to all these high-tech low voltage systems, “naaah, I don’t need a professional for that.” I noticed one thing you did that I would have done differently. Your TV is on that exterior wall. I would have put it on the wall facing the kitchen where the equipment closet would sit right behind it. There’s no better way to future-proof things (remember those iPod stations?) than to not have to rely upon whatever you have in the wall. If you’d done this house 15 years ago, there would have been no HDMI to run, but now you need it. Who’s to say those wires you snaked up that exterior wall today aren’t going to be obsolete 15 years from now? You”ll have to tear down sheetrock if you want some specialty cable for that new 16k TV. If the A/V closet was directly behind the wall where you have your TV/speaker location, no problem. Besides, you could have seen the TV from the kitchen if it was on that wall.
I am very interested in seeing the tech rack install, the Wifi Access Points, etc installed, and, why you chose certain locations for access points. This is very interesting stuff. I look forward to seeing how well your over-the-air antenna works. Thanks – this was an awesome article and gave some new things to think about for my upcoming remodel. Will you be adding a gaming console in the media closet?
In general I agree that keeping an option for cable vs all wireless is smart but I would go one step further. I would have suggested using more “smurf” tube as conduit runs through the walls and up to the attic. It might mean longer wire home runs but you would always have the option to pull and re-run new wire when cat 6 is the extinct technology.
For wiring wall-mounted TV’s to entertainment units, think of the total cost of ownership. Money can be wasted installing specific cabling types that in future have to be ripped out and replaced as the next generation of audio-video distribution comes along. It is not so much the cost of cables, it is the labor. Over the years we have seen so many cable types, many of which have gone or become very rare as they are far less useful: – 3 x RCA (RGB) Component article – Composite 1 x RCA article – 2 x RCA Stereo Audio – S-Video – SCART, – VGA & DVI(-D) – F-Connectors – Thunderbolt 1 & 2 – HDMI 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 2.0, 2.1, – DisplayPort & Mini DisplayPort – USB-C …and as they are replaced with their newer technology which becomes more costly when they’re hard-wired to wall-plates. It makes more sense to have a pathway in the wall that goes behind the rear of the TV where all the sockets are down to the entertainment rack or unit which the audio-video flyleads can pass through. I generally use a flexible conduit very similar to this: cableclear.net/ Now with TV’s that are mounted very close to the wall, one side can mounted so it is recessed. The type of wall mount matters as well. Those wall mounts where the TV hooks onto it don’t help when someone forgets to disconnect the HDMI cable (which in some cases can be up to 15 meters long) before removing the TV off the wall and the plug gets snapped off at the connectors. I much prefer the sort that allows you to pull the TV out away from the wall so the connectors on the back are clearly visible and much easier to access.
Not a fan of Sonos. Listen and compare them in a shop, and you will very quickly hear and understand that other brands sound much better. Also the communication thought out Sonos is very fragile. Synchronization, fallouts and other problems is where Sonos is known for. A cheaper solution (for example) is Arylic. I am testing that system, works like a charm. You are able to buy your own speakers and connecting them through that system. This makes it more flexible than Sonos which does NOT let you choose or select components other than what they sell. Not flexible at all and the quality isn’t that great. Don’t fall for that trap. Ubiquiti is alright (not the best), but an expensive system as well. There are lots of other better brands in this field. This marked is very much in development, very volatile. Do your research and go for the best product versus price that is available when you are going to buy. Much information here on YouTube about this. Not on this website :p Matt, you are so biased. Please promote the stuff (brands) you really know what you’re talking about. That is building materials and building styles for the upper marked. Not these products that you get thrown into your lap. Keep to what you really know Matt.
You know it does kill me were home builders do not build in a Back Bone … I used to work for a phone company in Canada .. Apt buildings .. office towers … you name it had them … Thus I do not understand why in homes a Backbone is not installed .. the cost is just a pvc pipe … thus easy to change rooms around .. Wire can not be hacked easy.. wireless can
Wire for burglar alarm while you can. Even if you won’t subscribe to a monitoring service. Drop wires for more cameras than you think you’ll need. Smurf tube from the TV box to the media cabinet; the Samsung One Connect box fiber line (for The Frame) needs to be in conduit anyways. Smurf tube at demarc like you did is excellent. Wire for several UniFi AP locations. Future WiFi will be lower and lower range, it may get to the point of having an AP in every room. Wire smoke detectors together. I’d wire 240V in a couple strategic locations (like kitchen, garage, etc). It’s more efficient and allows you to run many European kitchen appliances. Also EV charging. If you want to get serious about lighting controls and automated shades, look at Lutron. Caseta is their DIY platform, RA2 Select is a step up. HomeWorks is the premier system, and Ketra lamps and fixtures is the cherry on top. I have Ketra and HomeWorks QSX at home and love it. 12AWG/20A circuits for lighting is overkill, but it isn’t really a problem other than a waste of resources and harder to work with. DC lighting is kinda “a maybe” at this point. Sure PoE lighting exists and 24V LED tape light is common, but neither is being used on a wide scale for general lighting. 120V is generally more efficient. Maybe in the future we could see 5A circuit breakers and, say 18 or 20 AWG Romex. It’s inevitable with the rising price of copper. Not sure what a 5A receptacle would look like, but surely most/every room will need at least a couple 15A for larger appliances.
Doesn’t the voltec system then introduce the problem of voltage drop. I have a sailboat and when you are working in 12 volts over any distance voltage drop becomes a problem that is solved by increasing wire size. To get over the problem with my solar panels I connect them in series increasing the voltage to 80 or so which is then stepped down to chargning voltages closer to the batteries. To me it would make more sense to keep the voltages high with 120 AC and find receptacles with higher dc amp charging for the laptops.
Wired is great for fixed locations. Wireless can have interference, reflections, competition from other devices, line of sight issues, etc. If your TV, desktop, whatever can be plugged in, go with it. lol. A lot of stuff works wirelessly until it doesn’t – like when you turn on your microwave or put a mirror or metal filing cabinet on a wall the wifi used to go through. lol. Love the ideas you bring up in the build – I think low voltage DC lighting is probably the future. I’ve seen some implementations of it, but nothing standardized yet. The current wiring for lights is serious overkill for LEDs and has some inefficiencies with lowering the voltage and converting AC to DC at each socket… yet, we still need the AC high voltage for ceiling fans, so there’s likely always going to be a mix throughout the house – and for or due to conversions from fans to lights and/or plugs.
Hey Matt. I would not be running voltek systems as running DC power at any great lengths you will get tremendous voltage drop in the wire. You would be MUCH better running low voltage AC at high frequency and using small modules that will convert to proper DC level and very high current using very thin (22 guage) wire. This is one reason aircraft use 400hz AC power. They can use very light guage wire. Even the power grid uses extremely high voltage so they can use smaller guage wire for distribution. The same thing can be achieved with higher frequency. These power supplies that are constantly on steal power a d raise your elec bill w/o anything plugged in. In addition. I hardly use any wireless in my home. Most everything is wired. Its MUCH faster and more reliable. DONT rely on your router that your ISP provides. If you lose the router, you lose your DHCP functionality. I have two DHCP devices (raspberry PI) that provide that functionality. This way connectivity will be maintained between devices if I lose my router. Please do more research BEFORE running wires. You will thank me.
Hey Matt, the Cat6 that you recommended in you notes is really not something to recommend. There is a lot of different cables on the market and its hard to know what is good and what is garbage. Rule of thumb Stay away from CCA (copper clad aluminum) and go with a solid copper material (especially if you’re going all out on a build like you have). Also go with a reputable brand like true cable, monoprice or FastCat (which is what I use personally on installs for customers due to its really high quality). The cheap stuff may work but during install if you get a kink or you pull it on a hard object you can damage it. It can also be a fire hazard if used improperly. The higher quality stuff handles the wear and tear during installs a lot better as well and has better network stability due to better construction.
I did a remodel of my house, myself and it was a 1930 house. I did brand new AC wiring as well as DC wiring. House is about 2000sq ft. But with older houses you usually had one central light with AC. But since i did not wanted to rip out lath and plaster i decided to increase lighting with LED pucks. Since lath and plaster had cracks in the ceilings i decided to mesh and skim coat the ceiling and walls, but under that i grinded websites and berried 18 AWG wires for 2 inch led pucks (normally can by on amazon for under cabinet lighting) so in bedrooms i berried between 6 and 8 of those kitchen got about 18 and living room got about 12. Each of those pucks would consume 2w at full blast if dimmed can go as low as 0.5w. All the 18AWG runs to switch on the wall right besides the AC or main light switch. But the DC gets its own DC dimmer that costs from 2 to $12 of sleek ones (also amazon). Than i ran a 14 AWG dc cable to my little DC panels which are on each floor so 3 total, which runs to a AC to DC converter about the size 2*3*8 that plugs in AC 15 amp outlet in my attic. Also bought amazon for about $40 bucks. this can handle about 75W max output so meaning I can ran 40 of these pucks at maximum to light up my whole house. The whole system cost me about $200. and i have been running this paralel to my AC lighting, Last year we had a 4 day black out I plugged this in to my portable goal zero battery and had lights through out the house for the entire time and still had half battery left after 4 days.
Matt, there is a new company out there running LED lights like you were talking about. A remote driver and you just need to run low voltage cable to them. They even have wireless, kinetically driven switches (there are no wires to the switch and they dont use batteries). The company is called Lauren Illumination. They are out of Ohio. Super slick stuff.
WiFi IS improving, but for article at fixed locations, it is no substitution for a wired network. I use three Ubiquiti WiFi access points at my house (I actually need to add a fourth) and get great speed, but I run gigabit Ethernet to each TV location. For over-the-air TV, I use several SiliconDust HDHomeRun network tuners; two EXTEND units which can do two websites each and one HDHomeRun CONNECT 4K which can view up to four simultaneous programs with two of the tuners dedicated for ATSC 3.0. Instead of a TiVo, I use my Plex Media Server to function as my Live TV/DVR, allowing up to six simultaneous different websites being viewed/recorded.
Even though you have probably moved on from this stage before publishing this article, wired connections throughout the home are still super important for maintaining maximum performance and flexibility. Don’t skimp on the CAT5E/6/6A/7/whatever wiring. It is so much cheaper over time than upgrading WiFi every couple years while offering superior performance across every metric. Not just connecting a computer, but power-over-ethernet for WiFi access points, distributed A/V, security cameras, audio, powered window blinds… so many things can be connected, controlled, or powered over “network cables” it’s really fantastic. Also, assuming you’re dealing with runs of 30-100ft, you can easily get 10GbE without overpaying for 7A or fiber runs. Obviously, needing more than 1GbE is pretty niche, but just know that it’s possible as long as the cables are well managed with quality terminations.
The voltek stuff looks cool. but i think a company like leviton could easily do better by building a single outlet and a USBC-PD and USB-A all into a 1 gang unit. Plus they could have that tech in all the big box stores easily. I just tried to look into the voltek since i would use something like that for customers or even my own home, but they want me to inquire within. Plus i would have to have the controller unit setup somewhere central then have to run the DC wire. Where as a single gang unit from leviton or whomever could easily just be a drop in replacement. using 110 wire which is already installed. Also if i were you i would install cat6a or drops for Fiber to where you would have computers. It would allow you to easily upgrade to 10G in the future. Could be useful if you are doing any article editing or anything at home.
Voltec is a waste of money for a home. It makes sense for the airport changing stations, but not your home. It uses too much power for it’s benefits. Plus the USB standards will change A -> C -> N. You will have to change out the outlet every time there is a new version. The power outlet that is everywhere in your house is more efficient use of electricity and those power outlets will not change in your life time. Yeah, they gave you the unit. To pay $1,000.00 to put this in just so you can switch it out in 5 yrs is another waste of time and money. At the end of this article you talk about the old apple connector and how that was a mistake. Voltec is that kind of mistake. BUT, you got it or free, we don’t all have that option. Cat6E is good and you could have run fiber next to it if you wanted future proof your connections, but the fiber has never taken off. Mostly because the wireless bandwidth has increased every year.
Generally on our builds we never run a single cat5e/6 cable, I always prefer doubling what you think you or the client would use especially the way technology is these days as well as its just always good idea to have redundancies. I also like running a couple ethernet wires to mechanical rooms for possible various future sensors.
Now is a good time to install low voltage wire for Fire and Security alarm systems. A 64 zone (hard-wired) burglar alarm system should work for you. Also, a hard-wired Fire alarm system using red color wire going to the smoke detectors and sounding devices will work out well. (The less wireless, the better) Always keep the fire alarm separate from the Burglar alarm system. It’s best to hire a “STATE LICENSED ALARM INSTALLER” when it comes to life safety. (State Licensed Alarm Installers will know what to do). I put in 39 years as an NYS licensed alarm installer. (Now retired) The company that I used for alarm parts was Napco Security in Long Island New York. Great company. Good luck and keep safe.
While it sounds like a great idea, you probably will not be happy with the Voltek system because it uses old fast charging specs and so it won’t charge the new devices at full speed. It uses QC2.0 for instance, and the new phones are on QC4.0. Each generation develops its own charging spec, and when you plug the device in the charger and the device talk to each other, and the device tells the charger how much voltage and current to put out, but the older spec chargers like the Voltek don’t have the newer higher voltage capabilities, and so forever will charge slowly. This is why phones used to always come with a factory charger, because each phone needed a faster charger than the previous one. And this is why your charge ports should not require an electrician to upgrade! Lol Most people tend to think of USB ports all the same, but when it is used as a charger, it no longer is putting out the basic 5 volt USB standard, it’s now putting out up to over 20 volts for the newest devices. It’s also important the other way, because if you are trying to charge a tiny battery like a Bluetooth earpiece or a tiny RC plane battery on a high power charger it will shorten the life of the battery and possibly burn it out, so you want to keep an old 1 amp or 500 milliamp charger to charge them. Or if you have a Qc4.0, it will go down as low as 3.6 volts for charging the tiny stuff. But since the charging requirements for devices is constantly changing, hard wiring expensive and non upgradable chargers is not a great idea.
Good luck getting Sonos to work! My IT firm and our architectural consultant partners we work with have gone away from Sonos because of so many control issues with mixed wired and wireless deployments. I am not sure we ever got them working with Unifi networking, more enterprise routing and switching was required to manage mDNS and multicast traffic that Sonos requires to work. Look at HD Homerun and Plex media server to replace TiVO as an option.
Best thing I did in my remodel was to run flex conduit from my media/network closet to every TV location and also my office and a few other spots. Tech changes, and if needed, I can pull some new wire type to where it’s needed without drilling holes or patching sheet rock. I’ve already run one new cable this way. Matt, I’d encourage you to run a flex conduit to your TV location at least!! BTW, you’ll like the Ubiquiti gear. It’s really nice.
There are two important reasons to go with #12 AWG wire in lieu of #14 AWG: future capacity and voltage drop. Future capacity may not be as big of a deal for you, since I bet you segregated your circuits well, but if there’s a future owner they will likely connect new equipment wherever it’s most convenient. But depending on the local utility, panel and service size, and installed heavy equipment, you may have enough of a voltage sag to affect lighting. #12 AWG wire has a 59% larger cross-section area than #14 AWG wire, so #14 AWG wire will have a 59% higher voltage drop (all other things being equal). I’m with you, spend the money now to save the headache later. That said, I’m not a fan on POE lighting or low voltage USB, mostly because of future-proofing and sometimes misleading marketing. The UPS idea was good, but I prefer solving resiliency with larger solutions. What if you need to use a 120V device in a power outage?
@ Matt Risinger as a Service Tech for a communications company thank you. I was just about how I am completely baffled by how smartest of general contractors completely over look low voltage wiring and then we get called and start drilling into a brand new house for something that should have been preplanned. It’s like waiting for the electric company to install service before running Romeo.
Matt, now is a good time to double up on your runs of cat 6 ethernet cable. The reason is that there are already modems and routers that can double the normal 1 gig connection by using dual cables. So help to future proof your home and run that second Cat 6 cable alongside the first right now before you close up the walls.
I am a tech person! There is no such thing as too much CAT5 +. It is so easy to just not use a line in the future compared to not creating a CATx path now. Run them like crazy!!! How much cost would it to be to completely bury a line that you don’t use compared to running one in the future? I have been craving a building/builder just saying: “run conduit and let the lines change with time.” We want these houses to last 100+ years but over history the wiring is changing more rapidly than the structure. This is something build science can adopt. Love your show, but please run way more wires. CAT5 despite being over a decade expired is better than wireless. Run wires! @Matt Risinger, read the comments from the tech people These low voltage lines are cheap now, run at least one to every room in the house if not more. If you want camera’s on the house run them everywhere you could foreseeably want them. Back in the mid 2000’s cubicle life at a top 5 software company said: you had at least 3 CAT5 “+” drops and frequently more; sure WiFi is much better now but guess what, those wires worked day in and day out and we never were concerned about rebooting a wireless router, wireless frequency congestion, what’s the WiFi password, etc. They all just worked. WIRES ARE GOOD! Wire is cheap; redundancy is negligible in labor. Low voltage signal wires don’t like kinks and hard bends, a good installer know this, but added insurance double or triple up the run. If I could build a house from scratch this is right next to the nerdy details to air, vapor, and water seal important to me.
Hi Matt, I’ve been doing low voltage and surveillance systems for 15 years now. I wouldn’t recommend the unifi camera system. They are over priced and don’t integrate with other systems. You’ll have less cost, better article quality, and more options with Annke cameras or amcrest and one of their NVRs. Even better is a blueiris computer to record all the feeds. I’ve installed a couple unifi camera systems and regretted it. Their network gear is awesome though and highly recommend.
I’m really concerned about your cable there if I’m honest. Firstly, the amazon link is to CCA, copper clad aluminum. This stuff breaks easy, and if POE is ever needed, it has a high risk of melting, shorting, or catching fire. You’ll want to run Solid Copper cable, CMR (riser cable), along with shielded. The Ubiquiti products are commonly POE. Cameras are commonly POE. You want the shielded with drain line (because it gives the ability to safely fault to ground) but also protects your equipment in the event of low voltage surges, shields against EMI and RFI of course, making sure you don’t have packet loss, or risk of damage from static.
I would be interested in a article on Power-Over-Ethernet lighting if you ever encounter it. I know it’s not common in residential but it seems to be taking off in commercial. That’s a good way to do a low voltage wiring system for lighting. Check out companies like Versatek and Philips for these systems.
Hey, question here. I was perusal your article and I noticed that you said that the device (USB-A and USB-C device) would be wired DC from low voltage transformer (Voltek) to the actual device. Is that legal and upto NEC code being DC in USA? Or is it different because its only running at like 12 volts? Just food for thought. Love your article, keep up the good work.
Good article. But actually, voltages under 70 are called SELV {Safe Extra Low Voltage.) above 70 to 600V is “low voltage.” Above 1000 to 40,000 is “medium voltage.” Above 40,000 is “high voltage.” Take it from an old utility electrical engineer. Some systems today use 48 volts as power over Ethernet.. It has not been widely adopted for USB power or LED power, but has the potential (no pun) for these applications.
To this electronic tech, you’re absolutely right about gross overfeed for North Am residential lighting circuits. You might want to get back to some of your contacts in Switzerland and Germany on this. Europeans think even incandescent lighting circuits should be run low amperage. Make that LED and low voltage solid-state devices, and the point is even more abject. They’re way ahead of where we are! Note the date below: Time to Ditch 120V AC? How a Low-Voltage, DC-Powered Home Might Work Has the 240/120V AC residential infrastructure outlived its usefulness? Inspired by Tesla Powerwall, an industry veteran explains how we could get to the the old ‘Smart House’ vision of a low voltage, DC-powered home. CE Pro Editors • November 23, 2015 cepro.com/news/how_a_low-voltage_dc-powered_home_might_work_tesla_powerwall_energy_storage/
UBIQUITI!!!!!! Good move Matt, seriously! I am currently installing my Ubiquiti gear into my 1970’s home we purchased in Sept. I really do wish the roof were taller, dang is it hard to get into some places!! I did the UDM-Pro, the USW-Pro 24 POE, and a slew of Protect cameras and Access. I might even get their phones, but not 100% yet. Who needs land lines anymore? BUT the Ubiquiti phones with the door bell… good stuff, if you’re home.
Solar produces DC, “house batteries” and UPS devices store DC, damn-near everything in the house uses DC (e.g. every LED light, every computer, every TV, etc. etc.), and so on. There are only a half-dozen major loads that require AC power for major motors (e.g. HVAC, sump, most applicances) and that’s changing all the time. The housing industry is lagging. Time for AC to be kept in a few locations (like coax now!) and ditch the parasitic losses from all of those dozens and dozens AC/DC converters in every room. Can’t happen quickly enough.
I think you misunderstand the relation between voltage, power and cable gauge. The low-voltage circuit you are talking about, with thin wires. That can be used for communication just fine. Thin wires suffice, because the communication is also low current i.e. low power. But once you start drawing significant power (like up to 100 W through USB C), you’ll see a significant voltage drop thin wires. And worse still, if you use the thin wires for general low voltage supply for say, led lighting and usb power in a looped (not sure of this term in English) configuration, thin wire will become dangerously hot. E.g. say you want to power 110 W of leds. At 110 V, that’s 1 Amp. But at 12 V that’s 9 Amps. Meaning: to get the same cable resistance for the same power draw at 12V you need a cable with 9x the cross sectional area. In practice you are not drawing power (wattage) in the 100s not 1000s when on low power, so you probably don’t need to go that extreme. I don’t know how “gauge” correlates with cross sectional area. But here in Denmark, we measure wires gauge in square-mm (mm2). Typical home installations are 1.5 mm2. I am considering carrying a low-voltage (12 or 24 V) circuit to lamp outlets, so that common led strips can be powered directly. My electrician suggests that 2.5 mm2 wire be used in that case.
Run Cat6 network jacks everywhere. WiFi is garbage but you can use PoE for wireless access points, security cameras, etc. Sonos introduced AirPlay2 functionality right as we were building our house in 2018 so we saved us a ton of cash versus running a pre-wired system throughout the house. I swapped out a regular 15a outlet in my wife’s office space with a GE-brand outlet with dual USB ports (USB-C and USB-B) and it powers her Macbook over USB-C just fine. /shrug
I used to run a Low Voltage Audio/Video business for 15 years and wired many hundreds of new houses. Nobody cares now, so now I’m a normal residential electrician doing mostly standard high voltage. Your Low Voltage wiring was obviously wired by a non-pro, with LV cables not labelled as they were installed, with LV cables not secured every 4 feet minimum (like above the LV panel), and the LV cables were not separated from the high voltage 12-2 in the ceiling by the MINIMUM 2″ separation that the code requires. While this separation won’t matter much for the Voltek power supply cables, it would likely make a significant difference in your ethernet Cat6 and broadcast RG6 cabling. Also, there are NO grounding cables for either of the steel low voltage panels, no ground wire for the Demarcation point outside for the Service Suppliers to use, and no ground for the outdoor antenna cable as it enters your home. How did this pass inspection? Unfortunately many (most?) electrical inspectors don’t care much about LV since these are not SAFETY or FIRE issues, or maybe you just did it stealth-like after your electrical inspection? On the High Voltage side, 14 gauge Romex-type wire is also significantly easier and cheaper to run for most of your lighting circuits. If the electrical designer (often the electrician in residential) decides specifically how much current the lighting circuits use, then there are no variable outlets, and there is no chance of overloading the lighting circuit if this is done correctly.
Coming from a Low Voltage contractor that Voltek product is absolutely absurd for $1000 haha. You can retro in a USB QC 3.0 or PD outlet that outputs 30W which granted isn’t 60 (very few devices will even utilize this) but the idea that this is somehow a cost savings vs running “high voltage” wire which you are REQUIRED to do by code anyway (outlet spacing requirements) is off base. If you buy the right outlet it WILL charge a Macbook pro (currently posting from mine plugged into my PD outlet) and certainly fast charge any mobile device (charges my Samsung Note at maximum fast charge). Is it marginally slower than the brick for the laptop? Sure! But it’s worth not having to take up an entire gang for only two USB ports (current outlets now will allow two USB PD along with 2 full outlets, they even have 20a options) in a system you have to run EXTRA cables over what you’re already required to do (again, added cost, not cost savings) and then you’re committed to those locations vs a 110v retrofit that you have the flexibility to add anywhere in your house for $40 on average. I would never spec one of these for a customer.
You are wrong about there NOT being a central distro for LED lights. Check out Honeywell s commercial POE LED panels which has a mix of residential and commercial fixtures Also you ARE installing IPOD tech now if NOT planning on POE everywhere with Cat 6A. You are ALREADY obsolete with the the Cats 6 vs 6a you installed Unbqit requires high power poe for some of their gear and 10gig APs and layer 2/3 switches not a big deal today but you spoke about the apple connector and IPOD problem without realizing you did the same thing to a lesser degree Bottom line though your build is INCREDIBLE Congratulations on your success!!! Ps there are now TVs and monitors which run only on hi power POE no AC power required
Don’t do Cat6 – it’s the equivalent of the gold plated monster cables. Cat 5e is the spec for 1 and 2.5Gbps. Cat6 is the Spec for 5Gbps. Cat6A is the spec for 10Gbps. Ubiquiti works fine for a couple of APs, but they don’t roam, and they don’t do co-channel very well. Stay away from the home extension APs like Google home, eero, or Velop. Get a good enterprise system like Aruba that you own and will still work if you don’t pay the subscription :). I wouldn’t do proprietary wiring and outlets – wait a few months or maybe a year and I bet there’ll be a USB PD 3.0 60W or 90w outlet to run off a regular 110V circuit – or a PoE++ adapter that will draw power from an appropriate 802.3bt switch. There’s also some value to running coax as you can do Ethernet over MoCa for 1.6Gbps of bandwidth to set top boxes or MoCa adapters. Last thing – Sonos is super chatty on multicast and it can overload CPU on your switch if it’s not configured properly. Good luck with the build!
Nice article Boy just revived notification Wednesday 9 Am EST and there is some 791 comments Well 12/2 vs 14/2 it’s a different of 600 watts, well run wire my house 14/3 or 12/2 less of blink factor Now go low voltage DC 5volts think voltage drop even speaker wires go to 18 Gauge wire 5 Amps max 600 watts in most case it’s 5 volts x 5 Amps = 25 watts at plug – I used Legrand they rated at 5 volts at 3.1 Amp or 15 watts power My old Laptop is 24 volts at 70 watts or 3 Amps so need brick In school instructor said wire vs air to bounce just add wire only one Atmosphere but the space travel Sound over light waves It’s 80F at cape cod Ma today w/100% sun it’s great day
As a sparky 40 years ago called 13,200 voltsetvices high voltage. Now that is called meduim voltage. You could use #14 guage copper wire for just lightning circuits. Must use #12 in laundry bathroom & kitchen countertop receptacles. 35 yrars ago installed RG5 cable for my TV’S. Cable company told me should have ran RG6 but that was not out yet. Wish that I ran a conduit from basement to sevond floor TV’S. Not crazy anout the extra deep combination receptacle/USB port. Even with a deep box need a shoe horn to install especially with 2 #12 cables in box. Think expensive fiber optic cable will be used right up to TV & Computer towers in near future. You can use low voltage for all of your LED lights. PoE = power over internet. Saw a vid whete they wired all the normal & Exit luminares with low voltage cable. No such thing