Assistance required

[snivellingcreep]

Hello guys I am after a bit of advice.
I am completely new to home automation, I have a house that requires complete renovation so I have decided if i want to get some cables in, now is the ideal opportunity.
I have looked around the site but the amount of abbreviations makes it hard to understand.
I'm not asking to be spoon fed any information, i'm just after some advice on how to get started- any books guides or literature that is around.

I'm an industrial electrician by trade with experience of installing plc's and relay control etc so hopefully it won't take me long to pick things up.
Any information or advice on how you got started would be ideal.
cheers

[toscal]

Best thing to do is look at each room and decide what you want to do in each room, then we can help with the cabling
For example
Master Bedroom - internet /network, phone, TV(satellite, cable or terrestrial) and music
Lounge - Multimedia (including TV, watching films and music), network and phone.

Post your results here and then we can tell you what your cabling options could be. Also look at these links
http://www.automatedhome.co.uk/Conte...ing-Guide.html
http://www.swhowto.com/index.htm

Oh and remember its not just about what you want now but what you may want in the future.

[snivellingcreep]

excellent, thanks toscal. Some good info there and I have noticed you have advised a couple of others recently also which has helped.
I will take a couple of days to sift through the info a couple of times and i will get a list of my requirements for each room and see how we go from there.

Many thanks

[JonS]

Some more thoughts on cabling and design here http://neuralhome.wordpress.com/tag/design/
I am more swayed to separating automation and security wiring now and bringing them both back to nodes where you can work out how to bring the signals together at some point.

Totally agree about planning ahead and getting the wires planned and in first. But it does result is silly amounts (measured in Km) of cable.
HTH

[snivellingcreep]

Well after some serious setbacks and delays I am finally getting started on the electrical rewire of my house. I decided that in the 3 bedrooms I want to hopefully have data points and automate the lights.
I have the benefit of having a large attic so I am thinking of chasing out the walls and leaving the conduit with draw wires in so I can add the cables later.

I've been reading up on x10 but am still unsure on the full ins and outs of it with regards to connection.
I want to automate my storage heating system in the house, lights, security and underfloor heating.
I plan to put in all my chases/ conduit now then cable later.
Am I right in thinking that the x10 system will use the mains cabling to carry the signals? I have been told a data point with cat 5 would be needed by each socket I wanted to automate but this seems excessive?

I was thinking a conduit down into each room with cat 5 eventually running back to a central cupboard. I want to be sure I put enough chases/ sockets in the right place to start with.
Any advice would be great.

[toscal]

If you go the X10 route then there is no need for CAT5 cable by each socket. But if you want data points then the best place is to put them by the sockets as most things you will connect to the cat5 cable will require power.
X10 uses the mains wiring to communicate.

[snivellingcreep]

I had a bit of a read up last night about idratek systems, that seems to be an interesting route. I'm thinking I may put a double patress box in a few of the main rooms for a control panel in future. I'm thinking that maybe I should run a cat 5 next to each storage heater just in case.

Due to lack of experience really I'm not sure whether to go the x10 route or not. I want to make sure I put in enough chases now then I can decide on a system as I learn more about it. My main aim is to get the security and heating sorted, then the lighting. I'm not as concerned with switching on appliances but I expect as I get deeper into this I will be.
Would It be a safe bet to run a load of cat 5 in or am I likely to have fairly good results from using x10?
Sorry for all the questions.

[Wexfordman]

Hi snivelingcreep!

If you ate putting in x10, which is excellent generally but has some significant drawbacks, I would do it in a way that also allows you to migrate to a newer system later down the line! I put x10 into my entire house about 11 years ago and it's been great and the right decision at the time, but there are a fair number of viable improved alternatives now, reasonably
Priced, such as idratek (or in my case velbus, which I am swapping out my x10 to now)! The topology of these alyernatIves can be very aimiliar so a bit of planning and you would have some futureproofing beyond x10