Options in building your dream home that is also tech-ready

For many people, building a home or refurbishing an old one is a top priority.

Whether the home is yours to live in or for resale, it is important to build a home that is ready for information and communication technologies. Adjusting the house later to accommodate these technologies may be too expensive and disruptive.

There are several ways to go about this. One is to consider what you will want in the house when living in it.

Another approach is to consider resale value and install all possible wiring to make your home more attractive for future buyers. Tech-ready homes nowadays are more attractive to buyers and tenants than just basic homes.

The basic layout and the architecture of the wiring is dependent on the home and the type of services that you plan to install. Of course, if you are also planning for resale purposes, you will, hopefully, anticipate customers’ needs. In the vast majority of homes, the electrical cables, TV cable, and telephone cables all enter the home at the same place and this then becomes the natural location to become the hub for all of your connections.

Wiring for TV, alarms, CCTV cameras, and an in-house computer network can all be homed on this location and terminated on appropriate hardware for each service.

For example, if you have placed a DSTV connection in every family room, kitchen included, you can terminate all of the cables at this hub location and then use splitters to connect all or some of the cables to the main service when you require the connections.

Whether it is you or the next person that owns the home that needs need cable TV in one or another room, you will be able to easily access the connections from this central site.

Alarm panels, TV and alarm cables, telephone and intercom wiring, and connections to your internal music distribution, computer connection cables (LAN) can all be routed and terminated at this central location.

Also consider the pros and cons of having wireless connections. Many people are opting for wireless in home distribution systems for a number of reasons.

Wireless LANs are flexible and allow the family to locate their computers anywhere in the home and connect to their high-speed connection located in a central location. Whereas high-speed connection may not be available everywhere now, in not so distant future, this will be a reality.

Wireless alarm systems are also available. These can be plugged into any electrical outlet and a wireless signal and transmitted to the controller, indicating the state of the alarm at the location of the alarm trigger point. The same applies to CCTV camera for home surveillance.

There are also wireless music distribution systems that can be installed with a central antenna. The common denominator of all of these systems is electricity and if you have a power failure, nothing works.

Your alarm is off, your computers cannot connect to the Internet and your CCTV will be dysfunctional. In this case, you would have to have planned for power back-up.

Most people today rely heavily on their cellular service for communication. In some locations, the cellular signal is sufficiently strong outside the home, but too weak for wireless devices to work properly inside.

There is a solution to this situation as well, which requires wiring to be considered.

Essentially, a repeater can be provided that takes a signal received from outside on an outdoor antenna and connects to an indoor transmitter, or repeater antenna by coax cable which then re-broadcasts a stronger amplified signal that will then guarantee improved cellular service.

In all this wiring, however, techies will appreciate a nice neat installation. Label all cables with the location in the home were they are terminated.

Enjoy your tech-ready home.

Sam Wambugui is an Informatician

[email protected]