Newbie: Wiring for HA

I'm a relatively newbie in the field of home automation, but have looked at Lonworks (now LonTalk?), CEbus, and BACnet on and off. As someone who has pulled quite a bit of CAT-5 in his time, I am interested in what is required to wire up a house to support these home automation equipemnet and devices.

I have always planned a star topology home run to a wiring closet for my home networks. To my mind, this is the simplest and most flexible wirin configuration possible. A whole industry has built up around this wiring strategy. Even as people transition from CAT-5e to fiber, the star topology is still being employed.

Is there an equivalent form of structured wiring for HA? For maximum flexibility, I would imagine that it would be preferable to run a data and control line to each light switch, and to each power outlet so that it would be possible to control the particular device which is then connected. For example, if the light switch had a CAT-5 line attached, the mechanical toggle switch can be replaced with a more intelligent switch and sensor which can be programmed to turn on and off the light based up number of number of occupants and the current light-level. If an electrical outlet had a CAT-5 line attached, then it would be easy to install a web camera by simply plugging into both the power and ethernet jacks. Likewise, installing the controller for a sprinkler system can be as simple as plug and play (by plugging into 2 jacks).

Perhaps what I have described is overkill and simply too costly to implement. However, there must be more structured ways of wiring up a smarthouse, even if so many home runs are prohibitively expensive. There is already a degree of modularity in electrical wiring. An electrician can install a new light fixture by branching off a currently-installed one. Likewise, perhaps a home automation cabler can install another automation device adjacent to one currently in place by branching off the data line by using a hub or a switch, and relying on network protocols to address each device individually.

I've hunted around for good wiring strategies for HA applications, but have have found only articles on X-10, which I am not very interested in. Perhaps someone can fill be in though on HA wiring for higher-speed and higher-throughput devices.

TIA,

Arthur

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Arthur
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See

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for some good articles. There are several systems besides X10 for control both wired and wireless that you'll find presented there.

From:Arthur snipped-for-privacy@boardermail.com

Reply to
BruceR

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