Hello everyone,
In about three weeks, we are supposed to finalize our electrical planning on site. Unfortunately, our electrician is somewhat old-fashioned, which makes it difficult for me to collaboratively plan a future-proof electrical setup with him. Therefore, I am currently educating myself to ensure that the networking in our single-family home is fundamentally future-proof.
Basically, it’s about the LAN network... LAN wall outlets are relatively expensive, so proper planning is even more important.
About us:
- Mid to late 20s – couple without children. Planning for 2 children in the near future.
- Single-family house with a usable basement, 2 full floors, and fully equipped with concrete ceilings
- Utility room in the basement with air-to-water heat pump, ventilation system, photovoltaic system
- The router is planned to be located in the office on the ground floor
- The upper floor includes bathroom / bedroom / 2 children’s rooms
- No satellite dish or cable TV — we will use Internet TV exclusively!
Now, I am struggling to network our single-family home sensibly but as cost-effectively as possible.
I have the following questions:
1. Slightly off-topic: In the living room, I would like to have an in-wall conduit installed on the TV wall (the TV will be wall-mounted) so that no cables are visible. Is this sensible and affordable? I will get exact prices from my electrician if this makes sense at all. Would it also make sense to install power outlets at TV height? How do you plan the connections on your media wall reasonably? What should be considered?
Since we plan to use a Magenta TV box and thus IP-TV, a total of four LAN ports in the living room area would presumably be useful, right?
2. How many LAN outlets and especially where should LAN outlets be installed? Mainly: which cable? Is CAT6 sufficient?
→ Such a double LAN outlet certainly costs close to €200, so planning must be really sensible.
Is it really necessary to install 2 double LAN outlets in each children’s room? I always wonder: what is actually going to be plugged in there?
One port for the TV and one port for a multimedia device should be enough, right? So four connections would probably be overkill, correct?
The fact is: It will certainly take years or decades before our children actually use these outlets... Who knows what changes might happen by then? Therefore, could we not cost-effectively use empty conduits (empty pipes) instead?
Is it also possible to “branch off” from an existing double outlet afterward to add more ports for the room? What should be considered here? Or should we consider having an empty conduit prepared in another spot in the room so that a socket can be installed later?
3. How do you solve the “router problem”? Should the one router be placed in the office (ground floor) with LAN outlets in the existing bedrooms upstairs to ensure a stable LAN connection? Or is a router upstairs absolutely necessary?
4. How important are LAN outlets in the utility room? Should the router possibly even be located in the utility room? Because of the concrete ceiling between basement and ground floor, a second router would almost certainly be needed. How should this situation be handled with a basement?
5. What do you think about installing empty conduits for CAT cables in the kitchen / hallway etc. to enable later retrofitting? Is this relatively affordable in new builds?
I would appreciate any feedback so we can make the best possible plans 🙂
In about three weeks, we are supposed to finalize our electrical planning on site. Unfortunately, our electrician is somewhat old-fashioned, which makes it difficult for me to collaboratively plan a future-proof electrical setup with him. Therefore, I am currently educating myself to ensure that the networking in our single-family home is fundamentally future-proof.
Basically, it’s about the LAN network... LAN wall outlets are relatively expensive, so proper planning is even more important.
About us:
- Mid to late 20s – couple without children. Planning for 2 children in the near future.
- Single-family house with a usable basement, 2 full floors, and fully equipped with concrete ceilings
- Utility room in the basement with air-to-water heat pump, ventilation system, photovoltaic system
- The router is planned to be located in the office on the ground floor
- The upper floor includes bathroom / bedroom / 2 children’s rooms
- No satellite dish or cable TV — we will use Internet TV exclusively!
Now, I am struggling to network our single-family home sensibly but as cost-effectively as possible.
I have the following questions:
1. Slightly off-topic: In the living room, I would like to have an in-wall conduit installed on the TV wall (the TV will be wall-mounted) so that no cables are visible. Is this sensible and affordable? I will get exact prices from my electrician if this makes sense at all. Would it also make sense to install power outlets at TV height? How do you plan the connections on your media wall reasonably? What should be considered?
Since we plan to use a Magenta TV box and thus IP-TV, a total of four LAN ports in the living room area would presumably be useful, right?
2. How many LAN outlets and especially where should LAN outlets be installed? Mainly: which cable? Is CAT6 sufficient?
→ Such a double LAN outlet certainly costs close to €200, so planning must be really sensible.
Is it really necessary to install 2 double LAN outlets in each children’s room? I always wonder: what is actually going to be plugged in there?
One port for the TV and one port for a multimedia device should be enough, right? So four connections would probably be overkill, correct?
The fact is: It will certainly take years or decades before our children actually use these outlets... Who knows what changes might happen by then? Therefore, could we not cost-effectively use empty conduits (empty pipes) instead?
Is it also possible to “branch off” from an existing double outlet afterward to add more ports for the room? What should be considered here? Or should we consider having an empty conduit prepared in another spot in the room so that a socket can be installed later?
3. How do you solve the “router problem”? Should the one router be placed in the office (ground floor) with LAN outlets in the existing bedrooms upstairs to ensure a stable LAN connection? Or is a router upstairs absolutely necessary?
4. How important are LAN outlets in the utility room? Should the router possibly even be located in the utility room? Because of the concrete ceiling between basement and ground floor, a second router would almost certainly be needed. How should this situation be handled with a basement?
5. What do you think about installing empty conduits for CAT cables in the kitchen / hallway etc. to enable later retrofitting? Is this relatively affordable in new builds?
I would appreciate any feedback so we can make the best possible plans 🙂
RJ45 connectors cannot support the speeds possible with Cat7 cables, just as an info in case you want a cheaper option.
Whether he installs all your components is a good question... if yes, okay. Ours would probably have rejected the power strip and sold a single fused outlet instead, to which a power distributor can then be connected.
Whether he installs all your components is a good question... if yes, okay. Ours would probably have rejected the power strip and sold a single fused outlet instead, to which a power distributor can then be connected.
Reggert schrieb:
RJ45 connectors cannot support the speeds possible with Cat7 cables, just as a heads-up in case you’re looking for a cheaper option Oh, please tell me more… which speed are you referring to?
M
MBPassion12 Jun 2022 16:33fromthisplace schrieb:
1. Network cabinet:
Either the HMF 65709 (unassembled) with dimensions 51 x 40 x 45 cm (20 x 16 x 18 inches) and 9U for 70 euros, or the Digitus network cabinet “Dynamic Basic” with 45 x 60 x 50.5 cm (18 x 24 x 20 inches) and 9U for 100 euros I am not familiar with these two products. When I planned my network cabinet, I calculated how much space I would need and created a sketch. I wanted to have very tidy cable management (for which I included two brush strips, each 1U) and enough space for a Synology NAS (and the Fritz!Box), which I could place on a shelf. In the end, I chose 12U. Once the patch panel is installed with the structured cables, most people won’t want to change it again. Therefore, having a bit more space is more future-proof.
This is how it looks now for me:
fromthisplace schrieb:
2. Patch panel for keystone modules:
HB-Digital 24-port shielded patch panel for 24 euros
3. Power strip:
Brennenstuhl 8-outlet with surge protection for 32 euros Both sound good.
fromthisplace schrieb:
I ask the electrician to use Cat 7 cable or, as an alternative, to provide it myself (though he probably won’t want to). Then he should install the cabinet in the technical room near the telecom entry point, connect the keystones to the patch panel, and create a list showing which number corresponds to which structured cable. Yes, I think Cat 7 should be standard for any electrician nowadays. I even had Cat 8 and Cat 8 keystones installed myself, but for most people, the extra cost isn’t worth it.
Proper labeling on the patch panel is definitely recommended. It can still be done later or improved if needed.
fromthisplace schrieb:
Initially, it will be DSL. Although our municipality will complete fiber optic expansion for every household in the coming weeks, that will likely be too early. The DSL cable will then have to run from the house connection to the Fritz!Box in the network cabinet, right? There are different options; in principle, the DSL signal can also be transmitted over two Cat 7 cables, so the Fritz!Box could be installed at a completely different location. But if you have the choice, I would have the electrician run a dedicated cable from the house connection to your network cabinet.
Our electrician installed an RJ11 (TAE) socket on the rear side of the network cabinet for the incoming line. From there, I could plug in the Fritz!Box directly:
M
MBPassion12 Jun 2022 16:38Reggert schrieb:
RJ45 connectors cannot support the speeds possible with Cat7 cables, just as a heads-up if you want something a bit cheaper I don’t understand this. What do you mean by that? For example, I use Cat8.2 cables and Cat8.1 keystone modules. With standard Cat7 cables, Cat6a keystone jacks are commonly used and can easily handle 10 Gbit/s—provided the components on both ends are designed for that speed.
Exactly that, basically.
As far as I know, Cat7 can handle up to 40 Gbps, but RJ45 only supports up to 10 Gbps and realistically probably only 2.5 Gbps.
GG45 is backward compatible, but it will probably be a while before 10 Gbps is needed inside the house anyway, so you might as well install fiber optic cables right away...
I think empty conduit is more important than whether it’s Cat6, 7, or 8 (shielding aside).
As far as I know, Cat7 can handle up to 40 Gbps, but RJ45 only supports up to 10 Gbps and realistically probably only 2.5 Gbps.
GG45 is backward compatible, but it will probably be a while before 10 Gbps is needed inside the house anyway, so you might as well install fiber optic cables right away...
I think empty conduit is more important than whether it’s Cat6, 7, or 8 (shielding aside).
Reggert schrieb:
As far as I know, Cat7 can handle up to 40 Gbps, but RJ45 only supports 10 Gbps and realistically probably only 2.5 Gbps.
Although GG45 is backward compatible, it will likely take a while before 10 Gbps is needed inside homes. At that point, you might as well use fiber optic cable... Don’t confuse people with half-knowledge. At the level this thread is discussing, the "limitation" of RJ45 is never relevant. RJ45 is not a specific connector but a form factor. There are also RJ45 connectors for Cat 8.1.
10 Gbps over copper works perfectly fine with standard, good-quality RJ45 connectors inside a house. They easily support 10 Gbps. In practice, it usually depends more on whether the end devices can handle (or need) such data rates.
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