Shades Part 1 (planning-prep)

This was the day.

I'd been planning it for weeks.

I wanted to install a significant amount of technology in the house. Partly because it will be a good learning experience but mostly as a way to have a technology showcase. Plus, it is really cool....

The idea started as just having Ethernet wiring in every room and some surround wiring in the basement and the great room. Then we thought we should have wiring for some speakers outside on the patio. Then that turned into the idea of wiring speaker runs in most rooms which quickly turned into making sure we could add a whole-house distributed audio system. What about distributed HD video to each room? We'll want lighting control and while we're at it, we should automate the shades in the basement so when we watch movies we could control the light and it would be way cool.

Guardian was the low voltage source for Fulton Homes and I thought I would have them do all of the work. I began to hesitate as their offerings were mostly lower end and when I started asking them about HDMI distribution they started talking to me about their “plasma pre-wire” offering. "uhm.... no, it's an interface... no, like a plug... a cable that carries HD and surround signals all by itself... Yes, really."

The real fun started when I specified a second subwoofer connection for the basement. This seemed really strange to them and I had to assure them that “Yes, I really really do want more than one subwoofer in the basement.” They still made me Pinky Swear.

But they looked at me like I had just shown them my Kuato when I started asking them about automated shades.



Kuato



So we ordered what we could and I figured that I'd have to do the shades myself. The problem with doing this was twofold:

• We didn't own the house yet
• Guardian would normally be very unhappy that they weren't paid to run low voltage wiring.

I had a couple of things going for me on this last point but the best was that they had no "auto shade pre-wire" offering and got kind of scared when I asked them about it. There was no way they would do it and thus they couldn't complain about any revenue loss by me doing it myself.

We have three windows in the basement that were going to get shades. The other two were in enclosed rooms and light from there wasn't going to be a problem. The Lutron QED (quiet electronic drive) shades were the product we had settled on (really, what other product is there) and the shades require a seven-wire bundle to work properly. (Three wires for power and four wires for control.)

We could have just picked up seven wire-spools and run them all together to make a bundle but why do that when Lutron has partnered with manufacturers to make a bundle (Lutron Red) specifically for these shades? I'll tell you why, because that wire is freaking expensive, that's why.

In the end we decided that the Lutron Red was the best way to go as each wire has a different color, the power and control wires are separated and shielded from each other and it would be a lot easier to pull a single jacketed bundle instead of seven separate wires or even two different bundles. Wire was ordered arrived on time and today was the day.

Mark had agreed to help, which was good because he had ladders and tools. Hands + Brain were also a prerequisite but fortunately there were no issues there.

We figured we would follow the low voltage runs that were already there. Each window shade was to have a controller point at the window and be controllable remotely. This way, if you were near a window and wanted to just adjust a shade “old school”, you could do that as well as call up different “scene” settings via the master control boxes. We can have buttons labeled “Movie” or “Entertaining” or “Poker” to adjust the shades (and lights) accordingly.

Hole Rule
Guardian drilled a hole into the main floor to run their wire. Remarkably, (and I know this is hard to believe) the distance from this hole to the wiring cabinets stayed the same no matter how many wires we pulled through it. 40’ every time. How lucky is that? Once we figured that out we decided to pull wire in the basement from the hole to each window’s shade control box, and then add 40’ to the distance. Yes, we are geniuses. That's why we're in the biz kids, don’t try this advanced math at home.

next part 2 (Installation)

January 25th

Coolness....

We drove up earlier in the day and there was a guy putting styrofoam on the outside of the house and attaching the wire. There were actually more guys but they were on the other side of the house. When we came back later the house looked like this.

Ready for stucco

The morning before I met with the Project Manager from Fulton (Paul) and the guys from Guardian. This was the company that provides low voltage services to Fulton Homes home buyers.

They claimed we had ordered more wiring than they usually see. I agreed that it was probably more than they normally see (but it wasn't that much to me). The problem I faced at the Design Center was that I would not be allowed to run wiring myself. So I had to decide how much wiring I wanted and where I wanted it within a very short period. After working out some numbers in my head I sat with the Guardian representative in the Design Center and we started working out the placement of the data lines and cable.

It got so cluttered that he gave up on the idea of figuring it out now. "You know, I think we should just meet on site when it's time to install the cable so we can determine the exact placement." Which is sales talk for, "You crazy."

So, months later, we met and walked through everything. By that time I had planned to sneak in and run some wire on my own without Fulton's knowledge. (that's a story for later) As a result I decided to trade a couple of wiring bundles for two speaker pre-wire runs and an additional wiring cabinet. Guardian actually made more money on the cabinet than normal, and I got some extra space for future expansion.

Lots of Wire

White=Security, Grey=Speaker, Blue=Data

Next up.... Shades...

January 19th

This was a cool day. Electrical was completed. We had come by a couple of nights before to see how far they had come with the electrical but the electrician team was still there at 7 pm listening to crazy music and running wire. We left them alone lest we interrupt some sort of ritual.

The AquaPex and the natural gas lines were in as well. Why does code require them to be cast iron? Because when it explodes it causes more shrapnel, that's why.

The roof was loaded with tile. They add the weight of the tile to the roof to help the house settle. I guess it's less spooky that way at night. While I was taking pictures this homeless person wandered in the view and wouldn't leave.

We will be installing a Lutron RadioRa lighting system and we'll need to have additional space in the gang boxes to install some of the master controllers. How would we know where the controllers would go? We had to design the system and figure out which lights were going to be controlled by which switches and in which areas you'd want to be able to control more than one light at a time and so on. Lutron provides a cool tool for just this purpose and after you are done with the layout you can print out wiring instruction sheets for the electricians so they run each light load to the right switch.

I met with the electricians and they liked the idea and so we stapled them to the framing next to the gang locations. You can see one of them in this picture.

As we were walking around we saw our lot sign. For some reason this made it "official" for us. The signatures, contracts, agreements, and the actual building didn't actually make it official. We needed to have this sign or the deal was off.

In the end.... even with all the excitement...

Homeless