SmartHomeUSA.com Home Automation

allgood · Joined: 28 Oct 2008 Posts: 3 Location: Toronto, Ontario

I asked this question on a different DIY website and was directed here. This is great! Unfortunately, I am new to this and most of this info is over my head. I am looking for some basic information; please see below. I hope I am not posting this in the wrong forum section, but what do I know.

I am going to attempt to rewire the following:

Cable for video/high-speed cable internet
Phone lines (2)
cable for security cameras to connect them to computers and tv
ethernet cable for networking computers, printers, etc.

The walls already have holes in them so I might as well do it properly rather than have all these sloppy cables running outside the walls.

My question is, what kind of box do I need to run these cables out of? What I mean is, currently, there are at least 5 (that I know of) separate entry points for video cable into the house. There are at least 6 entry points for phone lines and there are unused phone lines running all over the place - I don't know which is which. Most of them don't work. Wouldn't it make sense to have one entry point - a cable comes into the house in only one place, goes to some kind of box, and then more cables would go out from this box into receptacle boxes in various rooms. I think this would be better in terms of efficiency, it would make troubleshooting more logical and quicker, and maybe there would be other benefits I haven't thought of in having all the cables emanating from the same place.

So what kind of box would I need to accomplish this? Is there a box which I could connect video, phone, ethernet, or would I have to buy a separate box for each type of cable?

allgood · Joined: 28 Oct 2008 Posts: 3 Location: Toronto, Ontario

How do you run the structured wiring for different apartments in a home? Are the wires all connected in one panel or do you need a separate panel for each apartment?

Anybody?

Ryan · Joined: 20 Feb 2006 Posts: 76 Location: Smithtown, NY

Hello,

As far as structured wiring goes, you are correct. Having one demarcation point is much more efficient then your current situation, not to mention much less of a headache to work on in the future.

If you do have seperate entry points for your various cablings, they should all be run as quickly as possible to the main structured wiring box. From here, all the distributing, splitting, amplifying, and modulating happens. Then there are home runs out of this box to each and every room. This allows you to easily modify wiring in the rooms in the future should you decide to.

As far as mutli-family dwellings, the installer can choose one box or multiple. We do carry very large sizes, up to 42". These boxes can usually accomdate all the hardware necessary for multiple families. But you can choose to split up the wiring from one main demarcation point to multiple sub-panels. There is no limitation and no "best" recommendation besides, "Try to keep it simple", and "Run more wire then you need to". The extra wire may not be used now.. but in the future, shuld you need it, it's ready.