Electronic Gadget Ideas for a New House?

pmadden asks: "I'll be building a house this summer (standard straw bale construction, earth plaster, the whole low-tech gig). Naturally, I'll be putting gobs of ethernet in the walls, with drops to the rooms, on the roof, and so on. I'll add wireless too, once it's secure enough to keep all of you out. What gadgets should I plan for, so that I don't have to do a major retrofit? I'll have cables for TPZ cameras, for when they get super-cheap. We'll leave niches for putting in routers and stuff like that. What else? What cool thing will be cheap in a couple of years, leading my wife to ask, 'why didn't you plan for that'? Any recommendations for good Christmas light control systems, and so on?"

Dilbert

[Nifrith]

Dilbert's Ultimate House [dilbert.com] might be a good place to start.

You mean PTZ cameras?

[HorsePunchKid]

You'll have a lot more luck searching for a good camera with pan, tilt, and zoom capabilities if you look for "PTZ camera [google.com]" (164,000 results) instead of TPZ camera [google.com]" (2,330 results).

Extra Cabling

[Delta911Turbo]

I would suggest putting lots of extra cabling in the walls. Even if you are not using the cabling it is much easier have it already in the wall instead of trying to run it again after the walls are already up. That means putting extra speaker/telephone/ethernet cabling everywhere, you never know what or where you might want to put something.

If you are worried about using wireless within the house and are not concered with using it outside you could look into using this paint as your base coat to protect the signal from leaking outside. Then you don't have to worrry about someone cracking into your network.

Defend Air Radio Shield [forcefieldwireless.com]

Control4 Linux-based home automation

[Anonymous Coward]

Check out Control4 [control4.com].

They came to our LUG this week to do a presentation. Really cool stuff they've got going. It all runs Linux, pretty hackable, etc. Control your lights, multiple audio feeds all over the house, and plenty more.

I was pretty impressed with it all.

Re:straw?

[Ferretman]

It's not quite like that. We almost used strawbale construction before going with a different product (Polysteel) instead. Straw construction is very strong, makes for very thick walls, provide excellent insulation, and is relatively cheap. The straw is bound together in their bales and the whole wall sealed in plaster/concrete/etc. This makes the area they're in dry with no moisture, and hence no mold.

Ferretman

Re:Motorola

[noblethrasher]

I think this is a relevent link [motorola.com] to the parent's post.

Surge Protection

[TheBillGates]

In your utility closet, have central surge protection for your phone and cable. It's far cheaper to buy industrial strength suppressors for your phone and cable modem than to have individual suppressors. If this will also house your server, put in a good UPS.

Re:Not really gadget-related, but:

[Capt'n Hector]

100% humidity is complete saturation. Above that, and you have visible mist.

Excellent Point

[eno2001]

I've lived in and completely rewired (electrical) and wire (network) two old homes (1905 and 1914 respectively) during the past five years. The one thing that is key to being able to account for future developments is having at least two hollow channels from top to bottom that can be accessed on every floor. Typically, your plumbing is already run like that. Electrical less so, but it should be. And phone/data also should be. So since you're building from the ground up, make sure to have one channel for electricity and another for phone/data or just data if you plan on using VoIP.

Re:straw?

[thogard]

I have a friend who is planning a straw bail house. The wall seal isn't going to last more than a few years and once the bail absorbs moisture, its going to get very moldy if its mostly sealed up. My friends house is going to be a car port type roof and then bails for the non load bearing walls which will be a foot above the ground. The result is there will be that the concrete footer for the bails will take far more concrete than for a normal stud wall and a steel stud wall will be cheaper than the extra concrete for the footer.

Some Pointers:

[RedLeg]

Out of order:

• First, Wireless (IEEE 802.11) IS at the state to keep HaX0rz out. I know, I was on the task group (IEEE 802.11i) that did the work. The keywords to look for in the marketplace are WPA or WPA2. Now, YOU have to turn the security on, and WEP is not the answer. At this point, I would only recommend equipment that is WPA2 (IEEE 802.11i) capable, and recommend using the AES or CCMP crypto option. TKIP works, but CCPM is the better option.
  
• For the home, Since you're talking about strawbale, I'd run at least a parallel set of conduit to each wall, in each room (some rooms will need more that one pull or pair per wall, think kitchen). One should be for power, the other for "media". Pull CAT6 to the wall where you THINK you want it, pull the pull string to ALL of the others so that you, or the person you sell to down the road has max flexibility.
  
• Include a wiring closet in the plans. Make sure there's enuf room for at least one full height 19" equipment rack in there. Tie ALL of the media runs to this room. Bring the cable TV, broadband network, telecom, etc into this room and distribute from there. Consider tieing some of the aforementioned "media" (CAT5-6) into blocks on the wall TELCO style. This affords flexibility later.
  
• Even if you ignore most of my other advice, NEVER allow a contractor to remove or not leave a pull string in a conduit run. With a conduit in place, and a pull string, you can retro-fit a,most anything cheaply.
  
• I personally would pull a ~2" PVC pipe from each room to the wireing closet, and outfit it with a pull string, just in case.....
  

If it's not already obvious, I'm advising you to build your house as if it were flex office space.

Re:Motorola

[Locutus]

I think THIS [zoneminder.com] would be a more flexible and cheaper choice.

LoB

Better yet...

[dsginter]

Before building the house, dig a large pit in the ground and sink some geothermal [google.com] radiators. Where I live (Michigan), we can dig down about 5 feet and reach an area that is about 53dF year-round. If I threw a radiator down there, I could effectively use the Earth to liquid cool pretty much anything, including a server or even the whole damn house.

It is all about surface area... Do the math...

Re:straw?

[Mr. Slippery]

Can't build more than one floor.

Incorrect [primus.ca].

Looks like shit.

Straw bale houses are usually finished with stucco, which has been a popular exterior for a long long time.

Will fall over upon application of very little lateral force -- no matter how strong you say it is... Dissolves in the rain.

How much lateral force does a typical home get exposed to? These [earthgarden.com.au] straw bale houses have survived for over 60 years, and some from the 1800s are still standing in Nebraska. They're strong enough, and obviously they don't dissolve in the rain.

One word: "Malaria".

WTF are you talking about?

Run conduit!

[OmniGeek]

Run conduit in the walls and ceilings, with a couple of pull strings in each pipe so you can run the newest kinds of cable (or replace older lines) after the fact.

I've run conduit for some wiring retrofits, and you simply cannot beat it for sturdiness and ability to pur new stuff in. Power wiring has to be heavier when run in conduit, but yopu'll NEVER kill a circuit nailing up a shelf again.

Re:Since the future is wireless...

[M. Silver]

Straw bale homes often have chicken wire laid over the straw as reinforcement for the facing, though.

(We just got _Serious Straw Bale_, since we're looking at putting together a cohousing project and straw bale seems ideal. You got your sweat equity potential, you got your *really* good sound insulation between units. And we're in Kansas, so there's plenty of wheat straw around.)

Wire mesh == RF screening

[EmbeddedJanitor]

Typically, straw buildings are plastered onto a base of wire mesh. If you're using this method, be aware of the RF screening effect of wire mesh. Depending on whether you're using this and where you're using it, you might end up with RF screening that screws up Wifi.

Re:Better yet...

[wiggles]

Like one of these [wikipedia.org]?
Or this [geoexchange.org]?
How about one of these [trane.com]?

Re:Conduit Was:What to do

[gremlin_591002]

I am a pro. Use 3/4 inch conduit to all data/phone jacks. I like to put one next to every electrical outlet. Electrical outlets are almost always 1/2 inch conduit. Three twelve gauge wires fit easily into a 1/2 pipe and 12 guage will carry twenty amps. It's pretty rare to find an outlet that feeds more than twenty amps. You 'utility room' will have your hot water heater, electric load center and a wall mount rack for networking/AV gear. I like wall mounted because it keeps it out of the water. If you home run all your conduit then you're going to have one heck of a junction box. I like to mount it right above the server rack. Usually at least 12"x12"x6". In a traditional built dwelling I like a 1.5 - 2 inch conduit into both the attic and the crawl space. In a straw bail construction the south wall is usually the corridor/window wall for passive solar heating. I would run the big conduit pipe to there so it's easy to pull in stuff that got forgotten earlier. Try to design a drop ceiling for that front corridor, you can hide quite the cabling nightmare in that. :)

Re:Wire for DC!

[rco3]

DC wiring? Voltage dividers at each location? Are you nuts?

This is poor advice.

1) Well-designed wall warts are not that inefficient. Some geek with an ammeter who doesn't know the difference between real power and complex power may suggest otherwise, but he's wrong.

2) Resistive voltage dividers are either a) mind-bogglingly poor regulators or b) mind-boggingly inefficient or c) both. Add in the fact that the resistors tend to get HOT, and you're got a recipe for unhappiness.

3) Linear regulators, such as the venerable 7805, provide good regulation but the efficiency drops as the input voltage rises. Delivering 1 watt of power from a 5-volt regulator connected to a 24-volt supply is only 21% efficient - it wastes 4 watts to deliver 1! It also uses about 1/4 watt at idle (no load).

4) AC transformers can easily be greater than 90% efficient. Choosing a secondary and rectifier to give you a 7.2 volt unregulated supply and then regulating it down to 5 V with a 7805 will deliver 5 watts with about 52% efficiency, and will draw around 65 mW with no load - far less than the 1-5 watts you've claimed. I'm curious to know exactly what sort of wall-wart is being described there.

5) That 65 mW I calculated will cost (around here) far less than $1 per year. There are 8,760 hours in a year, which is 8.76 kilohours. A constant drain of 1 watt will result in an annual energy use of 8.76 kWh. Electricity at $0.114/kWh would result in an annual cost of exactly $1 for a constant ** 1 watt ** drain. You'd have to have a LOT of really inefficient wall-warts to justify running a complete secondary DC supply system, even if its efficiency were as good as you think it would be.

6) Switching-supply wall warts can be much more efficient than linear regulators, and run cooler. 80%-90% under full load is common, although quiescent efficiency can be much less.

In summary, anyone who suggests using high voltage DC and dividers to increase efficiency clearly knows nothing about power conversion OR efficiency. If you REALLY want to save power used by wall warts, don't listen to parent. Use switching-based wall warts and disconnect them when not using them. If you are really worried about saving $1/year, running a (thousand dollar or more) auxiliary power system is penny wise and pound foolish.

LED Lighting

[temiqui]

Already becoming popular in the third world. Low energy consumption, high output, long life. It will get ridiculously cheap in the next few years. check out superbrightleds.com

Re:Since the future is wireless...

[Tux2000]

For a new construction, it is silly to install Cat5. Cat5 limits you to 100 MBit/s, the current standard. Unless you want to re-install all cables within the next five years, you should at least install Cat6, which allows using Gigabit Ethernet (10 and 100 MBit/s still work on that cable). You should install some spare cables, so you can add further wall sockets or replace broken cables without having to open walls. Just install two cables whereever you need one cable. And install cable pairs not only in one corner of each room, use two to four different places, depending on the size of the room. Unlike conventional Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet uses all four pairs in the cable, so there are no longer unused pairs in the cable that could be used for a second device or as a replacement pair. You should use tubes so you can replace the cables later. You should have a small room with a little 19 inch rack for servers, switches, and patch panels. Your initial plan should not fill more than 50% of the rack.

For a lot more of good tips, search for "structured cabling" [google.com].

By the way: It is no problem to use Cat5, Cat5e, Cat6 or even Cat7 for ISDN or analoge telephone lines, and you should do this. It gives you a lot more flexibility. There are even solutions to drive video and audio signals over Cat5 or better, and depending on the quality of the cable, it should be possible to drive antenna or cable tv signals over Cat6 or Cat7, using an impedance adapter on each end.

Tux2000

Re:Motorola

[cfelde]

..and I forgot this one: Whole House Entertainment [kaleidescape.com]