Electrical planning - Is something missing?

Hi everyone,

things are starting to get serious for us. It’s time to think about the basic positions and quantities of sockets, lamps, network connections, satellite connections, and empty conduits.

I have roughly sketched and attached my current planning status. Maybe someone has a helpful comment for me? Does anyone see a spot where I absolutely need a network connection, empty conduit, or similar?

For explanation:

· We are also installing a controlled residential ventilation system, which will be installed in the screed of the basement ceiling and the ground floor ceiling. Therefore, we cannot lay empty conduits in the screed insulation, because we would then interfere with the oval pipes of the ventilation. But I am not really a fan of empty conduits with bends and curves anyway. Therefore, my plan is to simply let the empty conduits run vertically down the wall into the basement whenever possible and collect the cables there in cable ducts.

· The plan now shows the full installation of satellite connections and network. All of this should be laid in empty conduits that will be “filled only if needed.” Child 1 is currently 16 months old, child 2 is still in planning. So it will be at least 10 years before satellite and network connections are needed in the children’s rooms. And by then there will probably be completely different technologies.

· The recessed ceiling spots will be cast into the precast concrete ceiling, so there will be no suspended ceiling.

· The various empty conduits on the ground floor should simply go straight down into the basement. There I can then, if necessary, run the cables openly under the ceiling to the switch / satellite system or 5.1 receiver (which is located under the TV in the living room).

· Likewise, the cables for network and satellite in the guest room, living room, and bedroom should simply be laid in empty conduits running exactly straight down. The endpoint is then again at the outlet of the basement ceiling. Further routing is open or in cable ducts.

· In the office on the upper floor, there is anyway a small technical shaft that runs down through the pantry on the ground floor into the technical/laundry basement. The cables for the office on the upper floor and child 1 run through there.

· Child 2, or rather the room for child 2, is still somewhat of a worry. This room floats completely freely above the living room, so there is no wall beneath through which I could lead an empty conduit down. I would have to somehow work through the dressing room. In the worst case, I would run the cables openly in the dressing room and then together with the cables from the bedroom down into the basement.

· I generally only prepare the empty conduits and empty boxes in the wall, installation of the network and satellite system I will do myself.

Thanks and best regards,

Andreas

Without having looked at the plan now, a tip: Forget the idea of filling empty conduits later, you will go crazy. Fill them right away and pull the cables in. In addition, you would have to put blank covers in the children's rooms and then replace them again, which is rather sloppy. The complete installation should already be done. The same problem will then occur with the collector pipes, you won't be able to get a single cable through afterwards.

Hi Uwe82,
thanks for the reply. I was actually thinking of 25mm empty conduits (smooth inside, not those corrugated ones) and they should run exactly vertically down, without bends or curves. And max 2 cables should go in there. Do you think that would be too tight? *oups*

For the empty conduits in the living room, it’s also not clear yet if and what will ever go in there. Whether speaker cables for a 5.1 system or SAT cables because the TV might be placed completely differently, I still don’t know today. Hence the idea to just put empty conduits in the wall and be done with it.

For the kids’ rooms, the thought process was similar: the cables won’t be needed for at least 10 years. And then a Cat6 wiring will definitely no longer be sufficient because they will probably distribute the SAT signal over IP or want to stream various 4k content. So I would just like to lay the empty conduits for now.

But I will definitely think about laying a steel cable or something similar in there right away, so you have something to pull through!

Thanks and best regards,

Andreas

If you do it with empty conduits, you could also consider installing the power cables as single conductors instead of as NYM cables. This also saves space in the empty conduits because the cable sheath is eliminated.

The Welldinger pipes are definitely much more robust, you can still walk over them during the shell construction. There are also significant quality differences; some have a membrane inside that makes installation easier. However, with 25mm pipes, it’s very difficult to retrofit two CAT and two coax cables, and I doubt your installation will be bend-free.

We wired everything completely with CAT7, which will easily suffice for applications 10 or 20 years from now. And if not, we’ll pull a fiber optic cable through the empty conduit when we remove the cables, which will be difficult enough.

I also had the illusion about empty conduits, but by now we have installed 600m of NYM5, 300m of NYM3, 300m of CAT7, 100m of coax, and 200m of EIB in them, and that really brought me back to reality. The most important thing during these operations was the plumber’s lubricant.

What struck me now on the plan:

1. I find the position of network and satellite outlets impractical in the children’s rooms and in some other places, assuming the furniture layout is correct.

2. So many ceiling spotlights? I also find that impractical in some places,

... a tip: forget the idea of filling empty conduits later, you will go crazy.

I always thought that the problem was the replacement of cables in empty conduits, not the filling itself ... new cables are flexible after all .... ? Rhineland greetings