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Building Smart Homes: Structured Wiring 101
Connected Home technology offers home buyers a wide range of lifestyle conveniences. Learn the basics of structured wiring and the technology possibilities of today and tomorrow. Read more...
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Building Smart Homes: Structured Wiring 101
Think a smart refrigerator that automatically updates your grocery list or integrated home systems controlled by voice command is the stuff of science fiction?
As more home buyers are integrating the technology infrastructure capable of supporting such innovations, called structured wiring, the future of connected home technology is closer than ever before.
Consider the numbers. Industry analysts predict the market for smart home products will grow to over $1.7 billion in 2005 from just $180 million in 2000 (Source: Cahners In-Stat research). Seeing the value of integrating connected home technology, land developers and builders like Carma and Jayman are including structured wiring in their current developments as a standard feature.
“[Structured wiring] is one of the fastest growing areas of technology,” says Jayman Master Built Director of Purchasing, David Bengert. “We were seeing more and more people adding additional phone outlets, additional cable outlets and we just felt that we were best to start [homeowners] with a basic [structured wiring] package.”
Structured Wiring 101
Although the truly smart home is still a number of years away for most of us, the technology infrastructure is here now. But just what is structured wiring anyway and what can it do for homeowners today?
Structured Wiring is an industry recognized standard for integrated home wiring systems capable of transmitting telephone, Internet, television and data signals throughout your home. The technology backbone behind connected home innovations, structured wiring connects homes from room to room and to the outside world.
“Structured wiring is a specific method by which homes are wired for technology, where each outlet is wired back to a central distribution panel,” says Carma Senior Vice President of Planning and Marketing, David Harvie. “The direct to panel configuration ensures that each [device] gets a very clean, high quality signal.”
Structured wiring consists of universal outlets connected to a central distribution panel with Cat 5e communication wiring and RG6 coaxial cable. Because each outlet is directly connected to the distribution panel, reconfiguring the system as your lifestyle needs change is a matter of switching the signal at the panel.
For example, a child’s room is easily converted to a home office simply by switching the signal type at the distribution panel. Switching a telephone line to a high speed Internet connection or adding additional lines for a fax machine can be done without hiring a technician.
“Structured wiring allows you to develop your own in home network,” says Bengert. An in home network that has all the resource sharing capabilities as a traditional computer network and then some. Share printers, data files, Internet connections as well as DVD, television and satellite signals over your home network.
Technology Upgrades
Even with many of the futuristic options out of reach for many homeowners, there are a number of system upgrades available today.
“The good news is that [a basic system] will accommodate probably 80 to 90 percent of what [homeowners] would use structured wiring for,” says Harvie. “[For example], the ability to watch television in any room or plug in a telephone in any room, or even if you had multiple telephone lines going into your house, [you could] change them from room to room.”
With the basic infrastructure in place at the build stage, homeowners have the option of adding functionality to their system at a later date.
“If you don’t have the road, it is hard to get to where you are going so if you think of the wiring as a roadway [for data] and all it does is carry signals through the house,” says Bengert. “We encourage people to put the infrastructure wiring into [their homes] so that later they can do things with it.”
Connected home technology upgrades such as intelligent lighting and video monitoring give a whole new meaning to ‘movie night’. Imagine switching the lighting system to the preprogrammed ‘movie-watching’ mode. With the touch of a button, the lighting control system switches off any overhead lights and dims pot lights. While watching your favourite flick on HDTV, you can keep an eye on the baby with the nursery camera using picture-in-picture on your TV.
Seem far fetched? While most homeowners still opt for the basic system or audio visual related upgrades, the home automation possibilities are endless. Upgrade options include anything from a motion activated front door camera displayed on any television to integrated home system control.
“Sound systems or home entertainment are the two most common upgrades,” says Bengert. “One of the things that the structured wiring system allows you to do as a homeowner, is to only have one DVD player, which can then be used to watch a movie on any TV in the house.”
If planning your connected home seems like a daunting task, talk to the experts. “[Home buyers] should think about how they want to live in their homes and what systems might make it more convenient for them,” says Harvie who encourages home buyers to talk to their installers to discuss their upgrade options.
For more information on structured wiring or for a list of connect home resources, visit: www.carma-connect.com.