Network outlets, power sockets, and network cables – where should they be placed for optimal availability in each room of our future home? As the next step is electrical planning, we have already considered the ideal positions in advance.
Power sockets: the more, the better
The planning of power sockets is probably the simplest part. For us, the rule is: the more, the better. To stay flexible, each room should have at least two power sockets per wall. In rooms with a lot of electrical devices, such as the kitchen, living room, and office, we have planned for even more sockets to ensure there are always enough connections available.
Network sockets
It gets more complex with the network infrastructure: Since we have 1Gbit+ fiber optic available, we want to ensure that the full internet speed can be used throughout the house. Devices connected via cable are no problem, but Wi-Fi must also be reliably available in every room.
With the exception of the bedroom, fitness room, and bathrooms, we plan to install network outlets in every room. The garage will also have a network outlet to potentially integrate a wall box and an indoor camera into the network.
- Dream Machine Pro SE: all Wi-Fi access points and cameras that require PoE.
- Aggregation switch for all connections requiring 10Gbit (Unraid server, workstations in the office).
- USW Switch Pro for all other devices that neither require PoE nor speeds above 1Gbit.
Signal strength and simulation with Unifi Designer
When calculating the range of a Wi-Fi network, the data rate and frequency are the key factors: the higher the data rate, the shorter the range. The simplest calculation can be done in open terrain without obstacles, as only free-space path loss— the natural signal loss over open space—needs to be considered. The so-called link budget is determined by subtracting the receiver sensitivity from the transmission power. To account for fluctuations, an additional power margin of about 10 dB is subtracted.
In practice, this method is only partially useful, as obstacles like walls or ceilings within buildings can significantly affect the signal. Different building materials have varying attenuation values, which must be considered when calculating.
Material | 2.4 GHz Attenuation | 5 GHz Attenuation |
---|---|---|
Hollow brick 11.5 cm | ≈ 7 dB | ≈ 10 dB |
Lightweight concrete 11.5 cm | ≈ 12 dB | ≈ 19 dB |
Clay brick 11.5 cm | ≈ 22 dB | ≈ 36 dB |
Sand-lime brick 24 cm | ≈ 9.5 dB | ≈ 23 dB |
Lightweight concrete 30 cm | ≈ 26 dB | ≈ 35 dB |
Reinforced concrete 16 cm | ≈ 20 dB | ≈ 32 dB |
Hollow brick 36 cm | ≈ 26 dB | ≈ 50 dB |
Clay roof tiles 1.3 cm | ≈ 3 dB | ≈ 8 dB |
Double-glazed thermal insulation | ≈ 33 dB | ≈ 27 dB |
To avoid complicated manual calculations, we use the Unifi Designer, a helpful tool for simulating Wi-Fi coverage (though only for Ubiquiti products). Unfortunately, in the simulation, walls can only be defined as reinforced concrete or drywall, while our house will use a mix of sand-lime brick (17.5 or 24.5 cm) and reinforced concrete. Since the attenuation of sand-lime brick is somewhat lower than that of concrete, I defined all the walls in the simulation as concrete. This should result in the actual signal strength in the finished house being better than what is represented in the simulation.
In the Unifi Designer, moving the access points allows us to see where the signal is strong at different frequencies. This helps us find the optimal positions for the access points to ensure the best possible Wi-Fi reception throughout the house.
Wi-Fi Coverage: Ceiling Mounting and Access Points
To ensure optimal Wi-Fi coverage, we will install two access points per floor.
For the network components, we rely almost exclusively on products from Ubiquiti. They offer a license- and subscription-free solution for more demanding routing/switching, camera surveillance, and access control at a good price-performance ratio. We plan to use the U6+ access points, but we may also switch to the upcoming U7 Pro access points depending on availability and price trends. In the living room, the U6 In-Wall Access Point will be installed. This model features an integrated switch with four additional LAN ports for connecting other media devices.
Outdoor Coverage
Additional outlets for network cables must also be planned for the outdoor areas—for example, directly next to the front door to connect a PoE doorbell with an integrated camera. Additionally, camera surveillance of the back of the house, including the stairs to the balcony, is planned.
Wi-Fi
We want not only the interior of our house to have a stable Wi-Fi connection but also the outdoor areas. In particular, the terrace and parts of the garden should have at least acceptable Wi-Fi coverage in the 2.4 GHz band so that we can occasionally work or relax there.
What about smart home now?
We will definitely install a smart home system—however, we have decided against a wired system like KNX or Loxone. The architects have provided us with a rough estimate for the desired integration costs of around 50,000 euros.
For us, that’s too high a price, especially since we need to save on certain aspects of building the house.
Instead, we are opting for a custom-built solution with wireless actuators and sensors. Due to their high availability and the proven wireless standard, it will likely be Zigbee. However, a mix of different standards would also not be a problem since we will be using Home Assistant, which runs in a Docker container on our Unraid server. I will provide more details on the implementation of the smart home installation in a later post as the plan becomes more concrete.
Conclusion: Future-Proof Network Installation
For us, it was important to discuss the network installation in detail with the architect even before the electrical planning. This ensures a solid foundation of network cables, well-placed power outlets, and efficient Wi-Fi access points, so that our house is equipped not only for today but also for all future technical requirements.