ELECTRICAL & TELECOM

Supplemental Criteria Telephone Pre-wiring

“How To” Details

Updated September 2017 – this Criteria is now optional

Supplemental Criteria

If you would like a hard-wired low voltage system in your home that provides a higher level of security and reliability. SAFERhome Standards offers the two supplemental criteria that measures and recognizes the full access technologies ready home. When all the low-voltage (telephone, cable, security) home runs meet in one place they make the home smart ready. Putting all the wires on one wall or in one closet with an A/C receptacle gives you open wiring network design.

This gives the homeowner the ability to use electricity not only for energy savings but also for independent seniors aging-in-place lifestyle needs. The other benefit is that the house will have the ability to cross-communicate with any current/future or proprietary technology’s. The SAFERhome Standards recommend and measure for at least one extra telephone line to the front door bell position from where all the other low voltage wires meet.

How To Details

Supplemental Criteria – Telephone Pre-wiring: Cat 5E (4 pair)  homeruns to all areas and return to one central area. (Node  Zero)

The following configurations are nothing more complicated than a re-organization of the wire which will normally be installed in your home. Virtually all homes in North America have telephone and cable wiring.

Pre-wiring is pre-planning for the future.

SAFERhome always call for a telephone and coaxial cable run to the locking side of both front and rear doors plus any other significant entries to the home.  This is for your door bell or intercom, security, monitoring, etc.

The family room (and possibly the home office too) has telephone and cable outlets behind what you consider the optimal television location. This is a safety issue reducing wiring on the floor.

The home office or computer work station should have two telephone cable runs and two cable outlets for phones, fax, internet, etc.

If the kitchen has a work area, telephone and cable should be installed there.  Many homes have television and telephone connections in the kitchen area.

Whenever there is the consideration of a lift/elevator option, a telephone jack inside your downstairs storage closet is a must. This jack should be roughed-in 48 inches floor to centre on the side the handle is on (the side opposite to the hinge point).  This is a common sense safety feature.

Bedrooms also require telephone and cable pre-wiring, as well as a telephone jack in the garage.

All rooms should have a 4-pair low voltage run which returns directly to Node Zero for future needs.

SAFERhome requires the use of Cat-5E. This superior grade wire delivers an electronic information highway in your home — “a larger and better quality pipeline” is what the professionals call it.