New Build Home Network / HA Device Suggestions

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I am currently in the middle of a long awaited complete home remodel, in which I have gutted an existing house and expanding it to about 3,000sqft. If it helps with context, the house will be in northern NJ.

I have been planning over the past year the network and subsequently, HA and all of the devices it can touch, to try and be smart enough to not kill a budget. With that being said, I plan on having 2Gb fiber come into the house, and using a Ubiquiti stack to distribute across the house. I plan on using Cat 6a throughout the house and having 1-2 drops per room. Here is a list of what I have thought of so far:

Ubiquiti Stack

  • 24 port PoE layer 3 switch
  • 8 port PoE layer 3 with 2.5GbE switch
  • 2.5GbE uplink Wifi 6E AP
  • Ubiquiti Dream Machine Special Edition with 8 ports PoE and NVR capability
  • Doorbell camera
  • 5x G5 Bullet cameras

Other Smart Devices Planned

  • Sensors throughout house where reasonable (air quality, temp, humidity, radon, etc.)
  • Whole home built in speakers with Juke Audio amp
  • Lutron Caseta switches throughout house
  • Motorized blinds in main areas / master bedroom
  • Centralized HA wall mount tablet for charging, can be removed to walk around

Areas I am still researching

  • Integration of radiant floor heating to HA

Am I missing something that you all have liked in your whole home builds? Should I do 2 ethernet drops per room for future proofing? Anything else while we have no walls I should think about doing?

Thanks in advance and hope to have some good conversation on this!

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I did 2 cat 6 drops per room and never used more than one, for what it’s worth. The only time I now drop more than one is behind a TV since there might also be a streaming device and wifi isn’t great for those.

I would add a full mesh wifi system. Personally I love my Orbi system, but Ubiquity makes one as well. Considering not just your phones/tablets/etc but a lot of automation equipment may also use networking and 99% of them are wifi so the stronger your wifi system the better. My Orbi mesh is actually 1 hub plus three more satellites and I can get wifi well beyond my property line.

Other tick list items I use VERY often in my HA:

  • Weatherflow Tempest (for hyper accurate local weather and conditions, it’s small, wireless and amazing and their support is top notch)
  • Rachio irrigation controller(s) - also integrates natively with the Tempest above
  • Fibaro motion sensors - I really like these because they are small and modern, not the boxy ugly motion sensors most companies put out and I’ve been very happy with their performance. Of course this depends on which protocol you are going with
  • Speaking of protocols, I like having three primary: WiFi, Zigbee, Z-Wave so all my eggs aren’t in one basket and I have a wide variety of devices across all three to choose from
  • If you are ripping out your phones you might consider a cellular booster for hard-to-reach areas like basements
  • I’ve been pretty happy with my Eufy doorbell, mostly because it is “more local” that most and more private than, say, a Ring
  • Not sure if you are Mac or PC, but for security cameras I really like SecuritySpy, it’s very robust and expandable and integrates very well into HA to give motion sensor / people detection to your cameras that you can trigger in HA with

Your radiant floor heating should be easy to accomplish with a variety of HA friendly relays.

Just a few of my thoughts.

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Nothing like having the Eye of Sauron watching you everywhere you go :laughing:.

While these are nice they are massive overkill for most applications (and that includes pretty much any residential application). I installed two 6 Pros…then added two 6 Lites. I also have their little 5 port switches in a few spots. If I were to do it from scratch, I’d install the in-wall APs throughout the house in key areas to provide denser wireless coverage along with having the built in switch ports.

I’d say a dedicated drop anywhere you already know you’re going to have something hardwired (desk, TV, etc.) and one spare on the opposite side of the room. Living room setups typically aren’t re-arranged, but a bedroom/office might be.

For motion, I’ve tried a lot of sensors, and I’m a huge fan of the LD2410C+ESP32 combo. They have been the most consistent of any that I’ve tried, are mmWave radar so they don’t lose you when you sit still; and are cheap. If you build them yourself, they’ll cost a whopping $8 each for the boards. You’ll just need a case. Alternatively, you can pick them up from SCREEK’s eBay shop prebuilt and in a case. Anywhere you can, look into mains powered or, if battery, devices that take larger cells. Swapping batteries suck and you have the opportunity to strategically place outlets.

As for humidity/temp, I think just about all the “off the shelf” sensors are about the same for accuracy so it’s really about making sure whatever protocol you land on (presuming ZigBee/Z-Wave) has a robust enough mesh to not constantly have to deal with sensors dropping connectivity.

Maybe a little niche, but my favorite media player is the Nvidia Shield TV Pro. No interface lag and can play pretty much any media you throw at it. May not be a problem if you stick to standard streaming services, but if you ever dip your toe into Plex, it will. Having hardwired connectivity over wireless is a big plus.

Have you thought/have an alarm system? If you don’t mind the minor leg work of sticking up your own sensors, I highly recommend Surety. The IQ panel they use has local integration with HA that you can run in tandem with professional monitoring. The integration is super fast and allows you to pull all the connected sensors into HA. The batteries in the sensors last forever (unless you want to go the wired sensor route, which isn’t a bad idea). The monitoring is handled by Alarm.com who do sub-contract out based on your area. I can say for mine (Charlotte, NC), they are Johnny on the spot. We’ve had a few false alarms over the past few years and no issues with them being missed or not responded to in a timely manner.

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This is all awesome and taking all into account. My parents currently have the Orbi mesh and it does just fine. The only issue is I “need” the 2.5GbE if I want to take advantage of the 2Gbps from the ISP. Understandably, it is definitely overkill. It’s only a 3,000sqft house, but my main requirement I should have put up too was that I love doing this stuff. My girlfriend…does not like the tinkering, and anytime there is buffering or an ounce of effort to do something, she won’t deal with it. So overkill is fine for me and why I appreciate the sensor recommendations. If I weren’t going for the 2GbE+ APs I would surely be saving some money too.

I will say though, I do think I will put in a sprinkler system so glad to hear the integrations to go along with the Ranchio, just may not do it at the onset.

The cell booster I have definitely thought of, being that I will still work from home, but haven’t dug too much into it considering WiFi calling. But I will be in a pretty known dead zone so it is on my list.

Appoligize for the scattered thoughts.

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I didn’t take a look at the Fibaro sensors till reading this and boy is that not creepy?? Can they operate without the blinking eye? If so I agree with @CO_4X4 that they are pretty neat looking, and they are all in one so it saves clutter. Although going down to the other sensor section you have, I had never come across the LD2410C+ESP32 build before and that’s pretty neat. I’ll need to dig into it, but fully agree that figuring out a mains powered sensor would be ideal, with battery being second. I hate wire clutter, and now is as good as any to avoid it!

For the APs, I already have one of the Enterprise. APs, but I think putting it in a mixture with the in wall may work with the house layout, but I would need to design it out to see what I think. Still wouldn’t use the full 2Gbps, but may be fine if it’s for putting in the basement or extending out for outside, etc.

Ethernet drops are kind of in line with @CO_4X4 and what I was thinking, where TVs and desks are it makes most sense. But no need to put 2 in all the bedrooms let’s say or living room outside for a tv.

Finally getting the last section, these are another pair of products I haven’t come across. Interesting on both fronts. I love Nvidia from a corporate standpoint since I do a bunch of Ai work with them for work, but had no idea they had this kind of product. I am expecting to go full cord cutter and get YouTube TV or Hulu rather than Plex (since it will be familiar for my gf), and I would imagine this may integrate well, if I don’t want to deal with the smart TV interface and what not.

For the security, I like this idea and definitely up to do it manually. My gfs parents have issues with their security and other alarms all the time, and end up with a fire truck at their house for false alarms when they aren’t there at least once a year. So having the control at that granularity is pretty nice.

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You’ll never use anywhere near 2 Gb in a wireless application. I’m 100% with you on wanting to take advantage of the service, I have 2 Gb as well. The only time I get close to tapping into it is when pulling some massive downloads like torrents across a wired connection. The wireless NIC in most consumer electronics can’t get anywhere near those speeds.

Those huge uplinks are really meant for enterprise applications where you might have 100 devices trying to join a Zoom call at the same time where a 1 Gb link may become a bottleneck.

I get this is partially moot if you already have the AP; just meaning this as a point of edification that you won’t be missing out by not having them.

Parting shot here; it’s going to be a lot easier to put one in now, even if it never gets used, than to need an extra one later and have to run it. Just something to think about.

Plex’s interface is just as simple as any other streaming service. The backend management is a different story, but that would be on you to handle I’d imagine.

When you setup alarm.com, you provide contact information for them to reach out to when there’s an alarm. These can be separate lists for police vs fire. They will go through the full contact list before contacting emergency services. We’ve had two instances where both my wife and I missed the call and emergency services were dispatched in about 4.5 years. Both were because of a visitor setting off the alarm.

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LOL, It’s not as “Eye of Sauron” as it seems, it’s just a light and you don’t see Sauron’s iris and it is configurable and able to be disabled.

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