Rewiring a house...help?

[Harry Flashman]

Chaps, it looks as if my place may need a rewire. If it does, what sort of futureproof cable running should I be doing? I am a complete technologically useless person - but hear things like "get Cat 5 installed at the same time" etc.

What does this mean - what does Cat 5 do? Have Wifi which works throughout the house already. Have Sky+; would be nice to be able to run feeds to other rooms admittedly but have no idea how to do this. Phone sockets not a problem - we have them in each bedroom (albeit run externally along/under skirting boards)

Basically, what should I ask to be done along with a traditional rewire while all the disruption is going on anyway?

Shall duplicate this in teh AV forums as I'm sure some folks there will have a comment or two...

Any tips appreciated. Basically - what cools stuff can I do to my house while the wiring is being replaced?

[Plotloss]

Ahh hello Sir, come in, come in, make yourself comfortable.

Welcome to Plotter's World of Technological Fancy.

Let me take that for you. Tea, sir?

(Miss Blennahasset, tea and scones if you will, thank you)

Now Sir, what to put in your house sir, that is rather a large subject sir are there any areas sir in which you would like to discuss the options?

Lighting you've obviously considered to an extent.
Audio sir?
Video?

All from one convenient location tucked away so it wont clutter the very expensive inner London floorspace sir?

We've just what you're looking for sir, I'm sure.

Ahh, thank you Miss Blennahasset...

Sugar sir?

[headcase]

In short, cat5 is networking cable, it is mainly used in PC networking (much faster than wifi)and wired systems are normally alot more reliable and more secure, but if your not too bothered about that then dont bother, it is also used in AV distribution lighting control etc...
To run your sky+ to other rooms you have to run an RF cable from RF2 on your skybox to a distribution amp then more RF cables from the amp to the rooms you wish to supply (if your just extending to 1 room you dont need the amp). If you use the right dist amp then you can use the sky magic eye system to change sky channels from your other rooms, but you are limited to the same channel in all of the rooms, the picture quality in your other rooms wont be as good as your main room (as its RF derived rather than RGB) and the sound will also be mono but for a second room like a bedroom it isnt much of a problem. I put a similar system in my house and it does the job perfectly

[mk1fan]

Do you mean an electrical re-wire?

Cat5 is a data / comms cable not an electrical cable. Sky is run through coaxial cable, again not an electrical cable.

To run Sky+ to other rooms you'll need to run two coaxial cables and a phone line into each room. You'll also need a central splitter / combiner too.

If you're happy with Wifi for your internet connection then keep it. Don't worry about Cat5. Unless you run a heavily IT reliant business form home it's a pointles luxury like chocolate peacocks.

If you need to electrically rewire your house then that's a big job. If the wire needs replaceing then I'd also assume that your consumer unit(s) / Fuseboxe(s) will also need to be brought up to current standards - Edition 17 of the IEE - and Building Control will need to be informed either via a Notice or by Full Plans application.

[B17NNS]

I think what Harry means is that as he is facing the disruption of an electrical re-wire anyway, what other elements of can he add at the same time.

If you are using a qualified electrician then there is no need to contact Building Control. The electrician will test and certify his own work under Part P of the regs and provide all the relevant documentation.

If you are planning to have a nice AV set up get your spark to run a dedicated supply to those sockets - nice clean power not disrupted by other appliances.

Oh, and sockets, you can never have too many sockets. Go into each room and look where you would actually like to have a TV, lamp or whatever (not where you are forced to because of your current installation) and draw a socket on the wall with a marker.

This is a great opportunity, spend plenty of time planning it and get it spot on for your needs.

[pdV6]

B17NNS said:

Oh, and sockets, you can never have too many sockets. Go into each room and look where you would actually like to have a TV, lamp or whatever (not where you are forced to because of your current installation) and draw a socket on the wall with a marker.

And then double them all up.

[mk1fan]

And then make sure your consumer unit has enough ways to handle a ring main per room

[Engineer1]

pdV6 said:

B17NNS said:

Oh, and sockets, you can never have too many sockets. Go into each room and look where you would actually like to have a TV, lamp or whatever (not where you are forced to because of your current installation) and draw a socket on the wall with a marker.

And then double them all up.

to true, you can never have too many sockets available in a room. the house I'm in is extension cord city as it was built in the 50s and re wired in the 70s/80s meaning too few sockets in every room bar the kitchen.

[Harry Flashman]

Thanks for the help chaps - but apparently after the PIR, my electrics are in rude health and no rewire needed!

Half gutted, as was starting to look forward to a tech-fest...

[Plotloss]

A lot of the lighting stuff available doesnt need wire if you wanted to go down the mood/scened lighting route.

There are even powerline multiroom systems starting to emerge.