Infrastructure
Integrating Smart Home Features into Existing Homes
How easy—and cost-effective—is it to add or update smart home features in an existing home? The answer depends to a significant degree on the structure—how the home is constructed. For wired coverage, a single-level home built with a crawl space or unfinished basement below and an accessible attic above generally provides easy access to wiring pathways—so installation costs to upgrade or re-wire for new smart home features are likely to be modest.
A multi-story home, on the other hand—with a finished basement and vaulted ceilings on the top floor—makes access from below or above more challenging. It may require running conduit or cables on the outside of the home, using closets or elevator shafts as wiring pathways, or even removing and replacing sheetrock to provide pathways to run the wire.
How easily and seamlessly wireless coverage can be achieved to support new features, also depends—to some extent—on the home’s structure. Steel beams, metal in-wall studs, and steel sheathing behind plaster can significantly limit the range of Wi-Fi signals—in some cases blocking them completely. Also, modern stucco exterior siding (with metal mesh underneath) can totally prevent a Wi-Fi network inside the home from reaching the laptop or tablet you’d like to use out on the patio—not to mention cell-phone signals reaching your phone inside.
So a home’s structure matters, and must be taken into account as you consider adding smart home features to an existing home. The basic issues are relatively straight-forward:
- Do I want a component or system in a location that is not already correctly wired for it (with up-to-date wiring); and, if so
- what is the most cost-effective means for getting the correct wiring— or a Wi-Fi signal—to that location?
Related issues include whether the cable now in place is in good condition, and will it support current technology (for example, RG/6 coax cable)—or is it now-obsolete (e.g. RG/5.9). This is called Infrastructure.
Establishing a Robust Smart Home Infrastructure
INFRASTRUCTURE. Infrastructure refers to the specific low-voltage wired and/or wireless (Wi-Fi) network support that is needed to deliver signals to such devices as computers, TVs, music systems, and other smart home devices—to provide entertainment, security, and energy management to the locations you want.
Wired infrastructure includes cabling within the home: from the point of entry (POE) where phone/internet, cable, and/or satellite signals enter the house, to devices inside that need specific signals—such as computers, modems, printers, TVs, video streaming devices (like Roku or Apple TV), etc.
Wired infrastructure can also refer to support devices—such as splice blocks, distribution panels, and signal splitters—that are used to connect, split, and/or terminate the wiring. In some cases, it may also refer to vendor-installed wiring inside the home—used to deliver the Cable TV signals, plus phone and internet service.
Addressing Critical Concerns in Smart Home Wiring
SPECIFIC CONCERNS. Is the wiring (and any associated connection devices) up-to-date; is it undamaged; and is it run from and to the exact locations where it’s needed. Here are some critical wired infrastructure issues:
Wiring Patterns. Until about two decades ago, low-voltage cables were often wired in a daisy-chain configuration: from the source (typically the Point of Entry) to the closest device in the system, then to the next closest one, and so on to the device furthest away. Telephones, especially, were wired in this fashion.
It was done this way because phones were then analog devices, and each phone shared equal access to the entry phone line—and because using more than one phone at a time (to listen in) would not disrupt the phone system itself (although it certainly could compromise privacy). In today’s digital world, wiring from each phone, TV, computer outlet, etc., is typically home run: that is, it is wired directly back to the home entry point (or a distribution panel located nearby). Daisy chain wiring is now obsolete!
Wiring Standards. Most modern digital equipment will not perform optimally—or at all—using the wiring types that were standard not so long ago:
- Cable/Satellite TVs and video receivers now require RG/6 coax wiring; they will not work reliably on the now-obsolete RG/5.9 or earlier cable types. Most cable and satellite providers will refuse to install their latest equipment if they discover RG/5.9 or earlier wiring types in place.
- “Standard phone wire” was replaced decades ago with CAT-5 cable—in part, because internet service devices began to share the phone wiring in the house, and they wouldn’t work on the old standard.
- To complicate things further, CAT-5 is now being replaced by higher speed CAT-6 or CAT-6A cabling—and even fiber optic CAT-8, which is designed to deliver the highest internet speeds over very long distances.
- Basic speaker wiring hasn’t changed much in recent years: 16 gauge/2 conductor (16/2) wiring is still typically run from the amplifier to each speaker—often for runs of up about 80 feet. But beyond 30-40 feet, improved low-frequency sound can be achieved with larger gauge (14/2 or even 12/2) wiring. Unfortunately, these cable sizes deteriorate high-frequency sound. Improved sound for both low and high frequencies can be achieved by running two 16/4 cables to each speaker, and then twisting together the conductor pairs. For high-performance audiophile speakers, more sophisticated wiring types are available, to provide the very best performance.
- Electronic devices called balun sets are now available to convert some cable types to alternate uses. For example, an unused RG/6 cable that’s already in the right place (for another use) can be converted to the CAT-5 configuration by installing one half of the correct balun set at each end of the RG/6 cable. Likewise, either of these cable types could be used to transport an HDMI TV signal over RG/6 or CAT-5 (or higher cable type) by using a specialized balun set.
Wiring Condition. Low-voltage conductors are relatively small—and fragile—when compared to the electrical wire types used to deliver regular 120 or 240 volt power throughout the home. They are thus more vulnerable to damage from water and weather, rodents, insects, and physical abuse.
In a retrofit situation, it is always wise to have a low-voltage expert inspect and document the type, location, wiring pattern, and condition of the infrastructure cabling already in place—before finalizing plans to upgrade or add smart home features. In the long run, it can save time, frustration, and money! See Home Tek TM Inspection (coming soon)