Should I Add Smart Home Technology to My New Build?
What's worth wiring in now, what to skip, and how to avoid building in obsolescence.
Build in the infrastructure. Be selective about the devices. Wiring, conduit, blocking and power are cheap during framing and expensive afterward. Devices get better and cheaper every year and can be swapped whenever you like.
Worth doing during construction
Structured wiring
Run ethernet to every room where anyone might work, stream or mount a television, terminating at a central panel. Wi-Fi has improved enormously and a wired backbone is still better, especially for access points, and it's nearly free to run now.
Wireless access point locations
Ceiling-mounted access points with ethernet drops beat a single router in a closet, particularly in a two-story home or one with a finished basement.
Power and blocking where devices will go
- Outlets behind every planned television location, with conduit or an in-wall pathway for cables
- Blocking in the wall for mounted televisions and heavy fixtures
- Power at doorbell, exterior camera and porch locations
- An outlet in the eaves for seasonal lighting
- Power at window locations if motorized shades are even a possibility
Neutral wires at switch boxes
Most smart switches need a neutral. Having one at every box costs almost nothing during rough-in and quietly determines whether smart lighting is easy or a project later.
Panel capacity and conduit
Space in the electrical panel, and a conduit run to the garage for a future EV charger and to the panel for a future generator. Small line items now, real projects later.
Devices worth installing now
- Smart thermostat, which pays for itself and pairs with a zoned system. See HVAC
- Smart garage door control
- Video doorbell
- Water leak sensors near the water heater, laundry and any second-floor bath, which is one of the cheapest pieces of insurance in a house
- Smart locks, if you want them
What to be cautious about
- Proprietary whole-house systems that lock you into one manufacturer and one installer. Open standards age better.
- Built-in screens and panels. They date faster than anything else in the house.
- Anything requiring a subscription to keep working after you've paid for the hardware.
- Automating things that aren't a problem. Not everything needs an app.
The principle
Wire generously, automate selectively. In ten years the wire will still be right and half the devices will have been replaced. See when low-voltage decisions lock.