Electrical Wiring to Build and Protect your Smart Home
27 June 2021
As Debbie and I continue work on our new home, we’re shifting from the floor plan to the other aspects of the home in our planning — electrical, plumbing, HVAC, lighting, etc. Since Smart Home is on my “To Do” list I’m leaning a lot on my CIO/CTO days working in sports building arenas and stadiums. Just like the concrete foundation that supports the physical structure of the building, a solid electrical plant (wiring plan) will support and protect power needs in the future.
I’ve already posted on Smart Home Power and Sustainability and The Best Electric Vehicle Charger Options for Your Smart Home, but today I’m going to go over the actual wiring in our home — from the point power enters the home to the end points that use the power and protecting that circuit in between.
Starting with the basic stuff, I’d imagine we’ve all lived in places that have really difficult locations where the breaker boxes have been located. Our breaker box will be placed in a convenient location, most likely inside house, probably right inside the door into the garage. I’m considering a “smart” power panel by Span. This option is a little more expensive than your traditional electrical panel but offers so many more benefits short- and long-term. Span replaces the traditional electrical panel in your home with powerful smart technology that lets you manage your home energy and circuits from anywhere via their app. The Span Smart Panel is also purpose-built for clean energy upgrades like solar, batteries, and EV charging. So, whether we build our home with or without an alternative power source, like solar, we’re ready for it. Plus compatibility with home batteries and the eventuality of the need for charging an electric vehicle will already be in place. The downside is it will not pair with a generator if we decide to integrate one into our plan. My hopes are they will accommodate this in future versions.
Additionally I’ll stub out conduit to the attic from the electrical box for future electrical needs in order to prevent having a lot of expensive framing, drywall and finish work. The laundry list of other electrical related items on our list includes:
- 50amp 240v plugs in garage for EV charging — placed between the garage doors to eliminate working and reduce the length of feeder plug to attach to electrical vehicles. My research on EV charging solutions will determine the required width between the garage doors to accommodate the units. And the added benefit is more room between the vehicles for opening doors.
- Plugs in the soffits for holiday lighting or wifi cams — this is another convenience thing as avoid the messy extension cord look or eliminate cord trip hazards around entries. I’ll use smart rope lighting so I can control the colors and patterns of the lights. This will enable us to use the same lighting for any holiday (orange for Halloween, red/green for Christmas, etc. As for the wifi cameras, I’ll most likely deploy wired POE cameras, eliminating the need for electrical wiring.
- Electrical outlets with USB ports for charging phones and laptops. These will be placed above counter tops, kitchen island, office shelving unit, walls near where bedroom headboard/night stands will be placed, etc.
- In-floor plugs under locations for couches or desks like in the great room and office. This will prevent unsightly and dangerous electrical or extension cords crossing travel paths in the larger rooms.
- 110v plug in the attic for antenna amplifier for over the air HD broadcast. See my previous post on cutting the cord.
- Transfer switch for generator — this will be ported to an outer wall where we’ll have a concrete pad to support the generator.
- Wire the whole house with 12/2 for 20A circuits (Romex copper) — it’s slightly more expensive than 15A but the benefits are that circuits will trip less often with multiple devices running.
- Specialty wiring — we’ll build in future flexibility for power needs, especially low voltage for things like motorized/smart blinds and window shades (indoor and on the patio).
- #2 gauge copper between sub-panel from main panel (not aluminum) — the cost is $8–10 per foot but the run is generally short and worth the investment.
- The physical wiring/plumbing in the framing will have individual holes for each wire/pipe — we will have the contractor use Fentrim 430 tape instead of spray foam to seal holes in framing for wire. Outdoors we’ll have them use Prosoco Fast Flash (Red) to seal wires through zip sheathing. This will help better seal the home to prevent issues with water and mold in the walls and make the heating/air conditioning more efficient.
As far as protecting the electronics driving our smart home, the first thing that comes to mind for most IT people UPS’ (Uninterruptible Power Supplies) and surge suppressors. I’ve addressed whole home power backup previously in my post Power and Sustainability. So let’s talk about surge suppression.
Power surges in your home can happen so quickly that you may not even noticed one took place. A quick outage in the kitchen due to a toaster overheating or a microwave having too much power for an outlet can cause surges that only last for a second until the outlet reset is triggered. The majority of homes experience many small power surges throughout any given day. Most of these power surges are internally generated but even small surges sent through the wiring can cause damage to smart home devices.
A whole home surge protection system can help mitigate those surges that can cause damage to devices or worse, start fires. Internally generated power surges are considered transient or very short in nature and come from appliances in the home, such as air conditioners, electric ovens, microwaves, and toasters. A few small surges won’t cause any major damage to a home’s electrical system, but over time these surges can degrade the performance of appliances and electronics.
A whole-home surge protection system’s main purpose is to protect appliances, electronics and smart devices from harm. It is also protecting the home’s entire electrical system. When a small surge occurs from an appliance, it will send the surge back to the breaker panel where it is shunted. This protects all of the other existing electrical devices in the home. Having a power surge protection system protects every outlet in the house.
Homes today have more electronic devices and electrical equipment than ever before. Modern appliances have circuit boards that need to be protected from power surges. Even LED lights contain circuit boards that are sensitive to surges in power and can be easily damaged. Households also have an increased number of computers, tablets and other devices that hold personal information. These devices can be safeguarded and protected from losing information in the instance of a power surge by a whole-home protection system. The system will ensure that the outlets where devices are plugged in are protected from internal or external power surges.
Having a layered system directly connected to the electrical panel and at the point of use will provide the best protection for your home. The best option with surge suppression to handle shared circuits will be a power conditioner that acts as a buffer between the outlet and the system.
There are several whole-home power surge protection systems for various voltages on the market. The average home with 120-volt service can use an 80kA-rated surge protector because surges over 50kA are not typical. An average sized home should not be receiving surges over 10kA. Homes with subpanels need to seek protection of half the kA rating of the main electrical unit. However, if the home is located in an area prone to lightning storms, then a surge protector with an 80kA rating would be the best system.
Homeowners need to understand the different brands of whole-home surge protection systems as they are not all equal. Consulting a licensed electrician is recommended to give homeowners the best information before deciding on which system suits their home.
Hopefully this has helped shed some light on a valuable option for your home or new build. I was surprised to find through my research on this topic that there are so many options and what the benefits of having your entire home protected could be. Where our development is new, rural and susceptible to severe weather, including lightning and hail, it makes sense to build this into our plan. As electrical demands are only going to increase over time it aligns as well to be prepared — to avoid issues and costly upgrades.
There’s nothing new to report on the progress of our build since the site prep work last week. Debbie and I have been watching the price of lumber with a lot of anticipation lately as the inflated prices due to the pandemic continue to drop. Lumber prices are falling quickly from record highs, and that may be happening at the right time for our project.
Home builder sentiment has sunk to its lowest level since August 2020, with builders blaming increasing material supply challenges. Builders also blame declining availability for lumber and other building materials for pushing builder sentiment down this month, at a time when buyer demand is surging. If we find a happy place with the price of wood anytime soon, our other challenge will be timing our foundation pour. There are serious concerns when pouring concrete foundations during the hot, dry time of the year as the weather can cause the concrete to cure too fast, making it brittle. This only leads to future foundation cracking or concrete weaknesses. As the ground in Texas tends to be rather sandy foundation issues are always a concern even under ideal conditions.
As always, Debbie and I appreciate the support and interest you all have shared regarding our home build project. Please keep the comments, questions, DMs and emails coming as we love hearing from you. The correspondence has kept us grounded and considering all kinds of options as we continue our journey through this process. Until next week …
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