Whole House wiring, unshielded cat5

[markyf]

I am building my dream home and I am trying to wire it for surround sound, whole house audio, etc. Unfortunately, I am not sure of my future needs. I did some research and came up with a plan but I think I may have made some crucial errors.

• I ran quad cable (2-RG6, 2-cat5e) to each possible TV location.
• I ran 16-4 and Cat5e to each zone. I ran speaker cable from the remote zones to speaker locations in each zone.
• I ran cat5e for telephone.
• I ran conduit to some crucial locations.
• I ran 6 RG6 to the attic for satellite and antenna.
• Everything runs to my mechanical room in the basement where the main system will be located.

I want to have whole house audio and possible distribute HD video signals in the future.
My main mistake was to use standard CL2 unshielded cat5e and unshielded speaker wire. I tried to avoid high voltage electrical cables and tried to cross them at 90 degrees, but I know in some instances this wasn't possible.
I'm getting ready in the next day or so to have the sheet rock installed, so there is really no time or money to make any big changes.
Question: Did I waste all my efforts by using unshielded cables? Will I definitely have issues with noise or signal problems or is this a maybe? If I can get more than just conjecture, it would be very helpful.

 

[MDS]

My main mistake was to use standard CL2 unshielded cat5e and unshielded speaker wire.

Cat5e is by definition unshielded. It consists of 4 pairs of conductors and the configuration is known as UTP (Unshielded Twisted Pair). I don't know of any shielded speaker wire and it is not necessary anyway. It is best to cross speaker wires and electrical wires at 90 degrees or provide a good distance between them but I wouldn't lose much sleep over it - you may not notice any real signal degradation even if the result wasn't perfect.

From the prior description of all the wires installed it looks like you did a good job of thinking of current and future needs and I don't think you will have any real problems. The only thing is that Cat5 is cheap and much easier to run when the walls are open. My house originally had only one in the room where all my computer gear is located and I added one more so I could feed all the other rooms to that room and back to the switch in the wiring closet so every room has internet access but I really should haved added even one more in case I ever want/need an additional Cat5 for a hard wired phone. IMO, 2 is the absolute minimum per room, but extra wires that are currently unused don't hurt anything and may be useful in the future.

 

[markyf]

Thanks for the reply. I read on the audioholics site that shielded cable is necessary for HD signals on the following page in the 2nd from bottom paragraph:
audioholics.com/tweaks/home-wiring-construction/whole-house-wiring-basics-part-3/hdmi-dvi-d-over-cat5e
I appreciate your suggestions and any others. I do have more than one cat5e to each room.
Another question I have is for the wall plates/electrical boxes for the zone controllers, should I use 1-gang or 2-gang boxes? It'd be cool to have a small LCD with song and artist info for the whole house zones.

 

[Rickster71]

I wouldn't use boxes at all, just a low voltage ring. That will leave you more room for wires and your device.
(a box isn't a code requirement for low voltage)

 

[markyf]

I assume you mean a backless low voltage box type thing? Would that be a single or double low voltage ring?

 

[highfigh]

I wouldn't use boxes at all, just a low voltage ring. That will leave you more room for wires and your device.
(a box isn't a code requirement for low voltage)

Some locations do require a box on outside walls, though. The vapor barrier is hard to maintain with a rough-in ring but it is nice to have the stud bay to keep from bending or stressing the cables and connectors. On outside walls, I usually use a double box with a single mud ring unless it will have a lot of cables, and in that case, I use a triple box with a double mud ring.

 

[highfigh]

Thanks for the reply. I read on the audioholics site that shielded cable is necessary for HD signals on the following page in the 2nd from bottom paragraph:
audioholics.com/tweaks/home-wiring-construction/whole-house-wiring-basics-part-3/hdmi-dvi-d-over-cat5e
I appreciate your suggestions and any others. I do have more than one cat5e to each room.
Another question I have is for the wall plates/electrical boxes for the zone controllers, should I use 1-gang or 2-gang boxes? It'd be cool to have a small LCD with song and artist info for the whole house zones.

If you want space in the box, use one size larger than the wall plate needs with the correct size of mud ring.

Speaker cable is not usually shielded because it's not a low level signal. All low voltage cabling should cross high voltage at right angles and while it's not always a problem, you can beet that making that assumption in one place will bite you in the butt when you fire the system up.

 

[JDpuller]

I'm the same boat as Mark, the quad cable should be here any day. In our area (western Iowa) none seems to know about it, such as our local dish retailer and local electronics store. To me the quad cable is a no brainer to the option of running 4 single leads, or is it that new and not many are familier with it if they're not on the net.
thanks
BRad

 

[markyf]

I got the idea from seeing it installed by a local AV shop in another house under construction. It makes it easy to run several necessary cables at once. I'd say if they know about it here in Springfield MO, they should know about it in Iowa, but it would probably have to be a AV installer that does whole house systems. Good luck with your system.

 

[highfigh]

I'm the same boat as Mark, the quad cable should be here any day. In our area (western Iowa) none seems to know about it, such as our local dish retailer and local electronics store. To me the quad cable is a no brainer to the option of running 4 single leads, or is it that new and not many are familier with it if they're not on the net.
thanks
BRad

By "quad cable", do you mean 4 cables bundled, like 2 Coax and 2 Cat5e? Genesis makes it, Belden makes it and AAMP of America sells it as Stinger cable. Most retailers don't deal with it but larger integrators use it all the time. It saves a ton of time when you have 50+ drops to do in one day.

 

[JDpuller]

I'm sure in Omaha and Sioux City it's used in the larger houses, It should save some time just having to run one lead from each box instead of 4 back to the main panel. Do anyone here use a video modulator on a dvd or dish satellite system. We're going to upgrade to two dish receivers, one upstairs and one down, and thought about putting a modulator by each one so we can watch the dish on other tv in the house.

 

[highfigh]

I'm sure in Omaha and Sioux City it's used in the larger houses, It should save some time just having to run one lead from each box instead of 4 back to the main panel. Do anyone here use a video modulator on a dvd or dish satellite system. We're going to upgrade to two dish receivers, one upstairs and one down, and thought about putting a modulator by each one so we can watch the dish on other tv in the house.

There's no reason to not use a modulator, but you might want to look at "agile" modulators, which can be set to a range of channels, instead of just ch3 and ch4. This way, if you have a source of interference, you can get away from it.

If the "bundle" is on a big reel, use a scrap of conduit and some kind of support to act as a spooler if you're working alone. If it's in a box with a spooler, it should do the same thing. Also, remember that cable has a minimum bend radius, so don't try to make it do a crisp right angle when it goes up through the top plate of a wall into the ceiling space or attic. Consider one central "head end" for the cable distribution hub. It makes reconfiguring and routing much easier. You don't absolutely need a structured wiring panel but it makes for a much cleaner installation.