As I’ve mentioned, three of the four stories of my 1920s house are completely gutted.
What an opportunity! Not having to snake ONE wire through a whole using a fiber optic cable!
Above: Me at Ground Zero on the third floor, where one toilet that overflowed from a five-year-old is maxing out our homeowners insurance policy.
Seriously though, I had a previous post about whole-house audio (which I am going to do because it will be easy and cost-effective), and now I am curious about running DC current to different rooms in the house.
Why? Add a minimum, all environmental sensors and tablets still require either frequent battery changes (there are some that are better than others in my experience, whichever Zooz clone takes 3.3V batteries) or a 5V typically micro USB connection.
Before the water damage fiasco, I had nine of these using different ways of powering them, and I suspect pretty much all sensors get a little wonky when the battery is somewhat train but not entirely. Examples include battery powered sensors getting buggy with motion detection, or not reporting the temperature and humidity, but otherwise appearing like they might be healthy in Indigo. My experience with luminance is it has never been at all helpful.
Add in that I am an industrious but poorly informed DC electronics barbarian, and I am wondering what people would do if they shared any similarities with my used case and had the option to run low-voltage wire anywhere they want in their house.
Based on my very limited knowledge of any of this, I am worried 24VDV is too much at risk of arcing, so I was thinking of using 24 V AC, or possibly 12 V AC and using step down converters for whatever devices I am connecting. The step down converters can be in recessed wall sockets to save space. (Heck, I am considering using fake wall sockets purely as the outside for my DIY multi sensors).
What would you guys want in this kind of situation? It is really hard to predict where to put some form of outlet that is not standard means voltage without altering the value of the house because it just looks weird and out of place.