On a recent Internet of Things podcast episode, we took a voicemail question left on our podcast hotline. The caller is doing a home renovation and will have access inside the walls. He’s trying to plan ahead for his smart home and wants to know what he should do from a low-voltage and high-voltage wiring standpoint. From a future growth standpoint, he’s also interested in planning his network.
The latter part of that question has a shorter answer, so I’ll start with this one. If you have access to add wiring throughout a home, I’d definitely recommend running at least CAT-6 cables. And I’d aim for at least one ethernet port for bedroom or living area. This will allow wired transfer speeds at up to 1 Gb per second. A nice upgrade would be to use CAT-7 cables for a massive 10 GBps throughput boost.
And I’d supplement that network cabling with WiFi 6E mesh routers for wireless access. Make sure you realize that expected mesh Wi-Fi coverage areas are typically optimistic. Every home is designed and built with different materials that can adversely affect your wireless network coverage. Most mesh Wi-Fi routers don’t yet support wired speeds above 2.5 Gbps either, although that’s likely to change in the next few years.
Now on to the low-voltage wiring question. These days, there’s really less need to have low-voltage wires throughout the smart home. I’ve actually never used a low-voltage product in the decade-plus time of having a smart home. Stacey has for some very specific use cases, such as home audio speakers and large automated shades.
Aside from any professional audio/visual scenarios or very large shades, there’s little use for low-voltage systems in the smart home. Stacey notes that she spoke with some industry contacts at a recent IoT event and those who used to push for and support low-voltage solutions simply aren’t.
Part of this is because you need a very specific product type to use it. And part of it is because of the proprietary nature of most low-voltage smart home solutions. Given that the Matter standard is rolling out (maybe not as fast as I might like), the more universal approach of Matter is where the industry is headed. And there aren’t any low-voltage Matter devices available today. So unless you have a very specific product need that requires low-voltage wiring, we say skip it in your 2023 smart home.
To hear the voicemail question in full, as well as our discussion on the topic, tune in to the Internet of Things podcast below:
So I don’t actually agree with this. There are many devices, such as PIR and presence sensors, that actually require LV supply but they supply a plug adaptor with the device. But these devices could be LV supplied directly, rather than via a bulky plug/socket combination. And actually, I find – in the main – the LV wiring needs to be up high and I’d rather not have bulk up high. So for me the answer is depends what you’re needing it for!
Hardwired alarm is still a major LV application. PIR and presence sense could be part of the alarm wiring which the smart devices read the status using the alarm panel. You can do radio based alarms, but they are far less reliable. Plus you have to change the batteries all of the time.
Alarms, shades, new mm wave presence all work better with wires. For AV multiple CAT6 and a fiber run may be useful. For bleeding edge/high end lighting LV wires may be appropriate for controls.
I agree with Jon, Dan, and BillD: this article is just way off. There are many low-voltage home automation devices currently in use including, for example, some that already work with matter like thermostats.
A few days ago, I posted a list in the comment section on the podcast article where this question was first raised of what I think are the 12 most popular low-voltage home automation device classes. In addition to thermostats, security and window coverings, other classes include doorbells and video doorbells, irrigation systems, and outdoor lighting, which are all popular and all likely to have Matter versions pretty soon. Outdoor lighting probably any minute now as that’s already in the current version of the matter specification. I also expect both Shelly and Sonoff to release low-voltage relays with matter support by the end of the year. And Gledopto may come in via the hue bridge.
Here’s a link to that post:
https://staceyoniot.com/podcast-smarter-grocery-stores-are-coming/#comment-157283
(And the point raised here that some of the sensors are low-voltage but use a power brick as a converter is also true, although those are more typically 5 V, which is a whole separate question.)
Anyway, Even the best shooters miss a free throw occasionally, and I think this article is an example.
I also agree with most of your comments.
If Matter should be able to extend/replace, for example, KNX-based smart homes fully, there must be a good way to connect devices using USB (most likely 5V) and hide the cabling in ceiling or walls. A visible USB power plug for each device is not a good alternative. And iff you have 100+ sensors in your home, you don’t want to have most of them battery-powered.
Great advice that we’ve been giving people for over 25 years.
An idea for an article for you?
Write a guide to low-power wiring that is found in the home. Looking through some of the comments to this article I see many of the disconnects and misconceptions that people have about low powered wiring.
Low-power wiring is a class of wiring which is used for application specific uses, it is not “one specific wire for generic usage”.
If someone has their walls open, they should evaluate installing additional wire for specific applications.
For example, maybe they need to add wire in the wall in order to move their thermostat to a more central location.
Maybe they want to add “bell wire” in order to install power to have wired doorbell, or wire up additional chimes ( and yes, I would certainly pull CAT-6 to the ringer at the same time ).
Installing speaker wire while the walls are open is another way to declutter rooms.
If the person is planning on installing a wall mounted TV, you can run conduit to the wall mount that can later be used for HDMI.
As far CAT-6/networking cable? I would install network drops on as many walls as you can, as well as ceilings. I had conduit installed in my home and have upgraded the networking cabling to most drops at some point in the last 20 years.
Are they redoing their bathrooms? Get rid of the need for USB dongles!
https://www.amazon.com/Leviton-GUAC2-W-SmartlockPro-Self-Test-Combination/dp/B09XYWCZ8Y?keywords=gfci+outlet+with+usb+ports&qid=1687308549&sprefix=GFCI+outlet+%2Caps%2C158&sr=8-6
Good point! Two more categories are sprinkler wire (always rated for direct burial, and typically five strand) and landscaping wire (rated for outdoors, not always rated for direct burial, commonly two or three strand).
I think it does still come back to the point that there are many different use cases for low-voltage, so as you say it depends on the specifics for each placement as far as what you need there.