Even with extensive wiring experience, there may be a couple of tips that you may not be aware of. Electrical wiring needs to be done effectively so as to ease up future maintenance and prevent oncoming trouble. For a smart home, this is particularly important because any failure could be catastrophic and may harm the interconnected gadgets. If you're an electrician, then here are some few tricks that'll come in handy when doing your smart wiring.
Future proof the home
Have a larger enclosure. The enclosure is the cabinet like area that's used for mounting the knobs, switches and even displays so as to prevent electrical shocks and still protect its contents. When wiring a smart home, you need to ensure that the enclosure is left with enough space for future upgrades. Smart homes typically evolve very fast.
For new houses, you can place sub distribution boards in each floor and garage. These boards divide the electrical power feed and still provide protection via fuses and circuit breakers. You could also have these distributors for other parts that you think don't need the electrical feed now like pools and gardens. Who knows what electricity will be used for in 20 years' time?
Additionally, you could have electrical conduits in the walls of each floor level or a huge one that runs from the basement all the way to the attic. That way, you could pull extra wires whenever they are needed in future. You don't want to be searching the walls 6 months later looking for wires.
Use terminal blocks
These are insulated blocks that assist in connecting different circuits together. If you're not used to using these heaven sent beauties, then consider your life changed. Terminal blocks keep your wiring neat, and you'll be able to easily track down where each wire is going. Some label holders and separators would also do you a great favor making future maintenance an easier task. They also prevent you from trying to cram up cables into one place.
Use high performance cables
When doing your installation, don't go for any cable out there. An automated home will need much more powerful cables to interconnect everything up. CAT7 cables are the best to use. They are a lot better than the more common CAT5e or CAT6 cables. These CAT7 cables have more power and are individually shielded pairs, so the interference will only be slight. This is the most future proof of cables and with the explosion of technology, you might want to ensure the home seamlessly accepts upgrades.
Good luck performing your electrical services!
Share20 January 2016
Welcome to my blog. My name is Mia. A few years ago, my partner and I bought an old home. It needed to have all new wiring installed, and through that process of working closely with a fabulous electrician, I learned a lot. I learned everything, from which questions to ask, to how to do a bit of wiring on my own. If you are hiring an electrician, you need to explore my posts. I hope they help guide you in the right direction. Now, that our home is finally, for the first time, not in the midst of a repair or project, I decided to start this blog. In addition, I also like to fish and read.