How to Wire a Smart Home:
A Simple, Repeatable Template

Article written by Zvonko Rosic, Director at AVC Integrations, 20 years’ experience in MEP consulting and automation systems.

Everything below is my personal opinion. It is not a manufacturer specification and it is not a substitute for the current wiring regulations or a qualified electrician’s design. It is simply the template I have arrived at after two decades of first fix, second fix and commissioning on real projects, and it is the one that keeps installations simple, keeps costs sensible and keeps me out of trouble on handover day.

Jump straight to a section: DALI lighting · Keypads · PIR sensors · Shades and curtains · TV, AV over IP and HDBaseT · Wi-Fi · Doors and touchscreens · CCTV · Home cinema · Cable schedule · The cables I specify · FAQ

Why a wiring template matters more than the kit

Most smart home problems are not software problems. They are cable problems, and they were baked in during first fix, long before anyone opened a laptop. A driver that cannot be reached, a keypad line with no spare, a TV with three cables where it needed four: these are the faults that cost thousands to correct once the plaster is on.

So I work to a template. The same cable types, the same topologies, the same spare capacity on every job. It makes estimating faster, it makes the electrician’s job clearer, and it means that when a client asks for a change in year three, the answer is usually yes rather than “not without lifting the floor”.

The template below is platform agnostic. Whether the house ends up on Crestron, Control4 or Lutron, or a mix of all three, which is common on larger projects, the structured cabling underneath is essentially the same. That is deliberate. On a two-year build the control platform can change between design and commissioning. The cable cannot. Throughout this article I have linked the exact cables I specify, so you can put a real product code in front of your electrician rather than a description.

Lighting: DALI is my default

For spotlights and LED drivers I use the DALI lighting control protocol. DALI (Digital Addressable Lighting Interface) gives you individual addressing, clean dimming and, importantly for the installer, a topology that is forgiving.

You do not need special DALI cable

This is the single biggest saving on most lighting packages. There is no need to spend money on specialised DALI cable. My recommendation is a 5-core 1.5 mm² flexible cable (3185Y), the sort you can buy in any electrical wholesaler, on any day, in any town. It carries the switched live, neutral, earth and the two DALI data cores in one run, and it is available when you need it at 7 a.m. on a Tuesday. Exotic cable that has to be ordered in is a programme risk, not a technical advantage.

Wire the lighting as a ring

All spotlights and all LED drivers for LED strips should always be wired in a ring. Start at the lighting control panel, run through every fitting on that line, and come back. A ring means that a single damaged core somewhere in the middle of the run does not take out everything downstream of it, because you still have a path from the other direction.

Know your driver count, and then be conservative

The DALI limit is 64 drivers or ballasts on a line. When I say driver or ballast, I mean every spotlight and every driver for an LED strip. People routinely forget that one LED strip can have several drivers on it, and that is where the count runs away from them.

My rule on the strip itself: never exceed 5 m of LED strip on one driver. Beyond about 5 m you get voltage drop along the tape and the strip visibly fades towards the far end. So a 12 m cove is not one driver, it is three, and all three count towards your DALI total.

Always bring the tail back to the panel

From the last driver on the line, I strongly recommend running the 5-core cable back to the lighting control panel. The far end is not connected to anything. It is parked. It is there purely as a spare, so that if the cable is damaged somewhere along the run, you already have access to the line from the other side without opening a ceiling. It costs a drum of cheap flex on first fix and it has saved me on more jobs than I can count.

Lighting that is not on DALI: mains dimmable circuits

Not everything wants to be a DALI address. Wall lights, exterior lights and, in many cases, chandeliers are better handled as mains dimmable circuits, also known as phase dimmable circuits. These are dimmed at the panel by a phase dimming module rather than by an addressable driver, and for a decorative fitting with a lamp in it that is usually the cleaner and cheaper answer.

For those, run twin and earth 2 x 1.5 mm² from each separate lighting circuit straight back to the panel.

Exterior lighting follows the same principle: one cable per circuit, back to the panel. Remember that a circuit can mean several fixtures, so six bollards on one circuit is one cable, not six. Those six bollards are then wired between themselves in twin and earth 2 x 1.5 mm², the same cable that brought the circuit out to them.

Keypads: one ring per floor

Keypad cable must be run back to the panel, whether the keypads are Crestron, Lutron or Control4. The cable I use is Lutron keypad cable (1822LC2H), which in some cases is sold as Cresnet cable. It is the same idea: a shielded cable carrying low-voltage power and a data pair. One product code covers keypads on all three platforms, which is exactly what you want when the control system has not been finally chosen at first fix.

My strong advice is to run one ring through all the keypads on a floor. Out of the panel, through every keypad on that level, and back to the panel. As with the lighting, the returning end is not connected. It is a spare. One cable per floor instead of one per keypad is a real saving in containment, in labour and in panel space.

PIR occupancy sensors

Crestron sensors

Crestron PIR sensors are, in my opinion, the most visually appealing sensors on the market, and on a high-end ceiling that matters. All the sensors in a whole house can run on a single Cresnet 1822LC2H cable. Again, run it as a ring out of the lighting panel: through every sensor and back from the last one to the panel, leaving the returning end parked as a spare.

To be clear about what I mean by ring for Crestron keypads, Lutron keypads and PIR sensors: the cable physically returns to the panel, but the far end is not terminated. It is spare capacity, not a closed electrical loop.

Third-party sensors

If you are using third-party PIR sensors, do not try to bus them. Run a radial from the lighting panel to every single sensor, using the same 1822LC2H keypad cable. That cable typically has four cores:

• Two cores for the 12 V or 24 V power supply
• Two cores for the contact closure

Motorised shades, blinds and curtains

Shading is where a lot of otherwise well-cabled houses fall down, because it is specified late and because people assume the keypad cable will do. It will not.

Do not use keypad cable for shades

For Lutron and Crestron motorised shades, blinds and curtain tracks, use a dedicated blind control cable. The Lutron or Crestron keypad cable must not be used here, even though it looks like the same family of product and even though it will physically fit. A motor draws far more than a keypad does, so it needs a noticeably bigger conductor cross section.

The origin point is not the lighting panel. It is the shading power supply panel, which on almost every project I do sits immediately next to the lighting control panel. Keeping the two panels adjacent is worth insisting on at design stage, because it keeps the containment routes shared, it keeps the commissioning engineer in one place, and it keeps the two systems talking to each other over a very short link.

One cable per motor, and double treatments need two

One motor, one cable, no exceptions. Never daisy chain shade motors. Shade motors are the last thing to be commissioned and the first thing a client notices when a run is wrong, so radials are worth the extra drum.

Third-party motors: Silent Gliss, Somfy and similar

If you are using third-party motors, tracks or curtain systems such as Silent Gliss or Somfy, the recommended cable is the 5-core 1.5 mm² flexible cable, the same cable used for DALI lighting. That is convenient on site, because it is a cable the electrician already has on the job.

The rule does not change with the manufacturer. Never daisy chain, even with third-party motors. Always run one 5-core cable per blind, curtain or track, back to the shading power supply panel.

Televisions, AV over IP and HDBaseT

Every TV position gets the same bundle, without exception:

• One coaxial cable, a 75 ohm satellite and aerial coax, from the satellite switch to the TV.
• Four Cat6 cables, I use C6R4 solid Cat6, from the TV back to the central AV rack.
• Two double sockets at every TV position.

The four Cat6 cables have a job each:

• Cable 1, HDMI distribution (the video signal itself)
• Cable 2, infrared control of the TV
• Cable 3, internet for the TV smart apps
• Cable 4, spare

That fourth cable is not optional in my template. Distribution technology changes faster than buildings do, and the spare is what lets you adopt the next generation without a chase in the wall.

Always two double sockets at a TV

I always ask for two double sockets at each TV position, never one. You do not know at first fix whether the client will later want a local video source at the TV: an Apple TV, a games console, a soundbar with its own supply, a streaming stick. Each of those wants a socket, and each of them wants it hidden behind the panel rather than trailing down the wall. Sockets are the cheapest item in the entire package and the most expensive thing to add later.

HDBaseT or AV over IP: the cable is nearly the same

This is why I no longer worry much about which distribution technology a project will land on. An HDBaseT matrix sends video, audio, control and power down a single Cat6 run to a receiver behind the TV. An AV over IP system does the same job over a network switch, and increasingly that is what larger houses end up with, because it scales past the fixed input and output count of a matrix.

Both want the same thing at first fix: good quality solid core Cat6, properly terminated, home run to the AV rack. Get four of them to every TV and you have already covered HDBaseT today and AV over IP tomorrow, without knowing which one you are buying. That is the whole argument for structured cabling in a single paragraph.

Wi-Fi and wireless access points

Access points need no power cable. Run a single Cat6 (HDBaseT grade) radial from each access point back to the AV rack. The access point takes both its data and its power over that one cable using PoE (Power over Ethernet).

Wire more of them than you think you need. An unused network outlet in a cupboard costs almost nothing and sits there as a spare. Too few access points, on the other hand, and the performance of the entire system suffers. Remember what depends on that Wi-Fi: the smart home app on the client’s phone, every iPad and touchscreen in the house, every streaming service, every voice assistant, every remote support session your integrator will ever run. Wi-Fi is the single most complained about part of a modern smart home, and almost every complaint traces back to too few access points, placed where the cable happened to reach rather than where the coverage was needed. In a house with thick walls, underfloor heating screed and metallised glass, I would rather have one more access point than one fewer.

Doors, touchscreens and access control

For any door that needs to be released electrically, from a touchscreen, from a user interface or from an app, I always suggest running one 5-core 1.5 mm² flexible cable and one Cat6 cable to the door position. With that pair present, it does not matter what type of lock or keypad is eventually specified, because you can wire it. It is a genuinely universal first fix, and the same bundle serves touchscreen positions of any type.

For home automation platforms such as Crestron, Control4 or Lutron, each individual touchscreen needs its own Cat6 cable back to the AV rack. Modern touchscreens are PoE devices, so that one cable is genuinely all they need: no local power, no fused spur, no socket hidden behind the panel.

For access control, meaning door stations, external keypads and intercoms, I always run Cat6 to each device. IP intercoms are now the default across every major platform, and they want a network drop rather than a proprietary multicore.

Alarm and security

For the alarm system, meaning contact sensors, PIR sensors, break-glass detectors and so on, the recommended cable is 8-core alarm cable, run as a radial to each device. Eight cores gives you the tamper loop and the spare cores you will want when the alarm installer arrives with their own ideas.

CCTV cameras

Cameras follow the same rule as everything else on the network. Run one Cat6 cable as a radial from each camera position back to the DVR, which on my projects lives in the AV rack alongside the rest of the head-end equipment. One camera, one cable, no daisy chaining and no local power supply, because the camera takes its power over the same Cat6 using PoE.

Keeping the DVR or NVR in the AV rack rather than in a separate security cupboard is worth doing deliberately. It puts the recorder on the same switch and the same UPS as the rest of the system, it keeps one set of keys and one point of access for maintenance, and it makes integrating camera feeds into the smart home touchscreens and the client’s phone app far simpler than pulling them across from an isolated system somewhere else in the building.

As with access points, run more camera positions than the current design calls for. A capped Cat6 in a soffit costs nothing and gives the client a camera position in year two without scaffolding and a new cable route.

Speakers

For speakers I use 4-core 1.5 mm² cable. Where a zone has two speakers, a single 4-core cable serves both. Run the cable to the first speaker, leave 1.5 m of slack there, and continue on to the second speaker. That slack is what allows the ceiling speaker to be dropped out and worked on without straining the termination, and it gives you room to move the position by a joist if the ceiling design changes.

Home cinema: where the money should and should not go

A dedicated cinema room is where I see more money wasted on cable than anywhere else in a house. The template itself is simple: one 4-core cable per run, and one 4-core cable per speaker. Everything else is a decision about cross section and about what the subwoofer needs.

Expensive cable is not the upgrade it is sold as

When you are building an in-wall cinema, spending serious money on cable with a beautiful design and an exotic jacket makes no sense to me. Inside that jacket it is copper wire, the same copper wire, and the jacket is going behind the wall where nobody will ever see it. The performance is in the speakers, the amplification, the room treatment and the calibration. It is not in the sleeving.

Cross section is what actually matters

What does matter on a speaker run is the cross section, and that the conductor is genuine copper, not aluminium and not a copper-clad mixture. Get those two things right and you have covered everything a cinema speaker run needs.

A 4-core 1.5 mm² copper cable to each speaker will handle anything you are likely to specify:

• Normal speakers, including very high-end ones: two cores are more than enough.
• Extremely powerful speakers: use all four cores, doubled up, to double the effective cross section.

That is the beauty of running 4-core to every position. The decision about how much cross section a speaker needs can be made at second fix, or even at commissioning, rather than being locked in on the day the walls close.

Subwoofers: active or passive?

Subwoofers are the one place in a cinema where the first fix decision genuinely changes the cable, so you need to know which type you are dealing with before you pull anything.

• Active subwoofer: run a microphone (balanced line level) cable from the AV rack to each subwoofer position, and remember that an active subwoofer needs a power socket at that location.
• Passive subwoofer: it takes the same cable as the speakers, a 4-core run from the AV rack.

Lifts and gates

For lifts and their control mechanisms, I strongly suggest running a Cat6 cable from the AV rack to every single lift, including any future automation lift positions. Lift integration is increasingly IP based, and a Cat6 that is already in the shaft riser is worth a great deal later.

For gate control, run one 5-core 1.5 mm² flexible cable and one Cat6 cable. Same logic as the doors: whatever the gate motor and intercom manufacturer turns out to be, you are covered.

The cable schedule at a glance

Print this, give it to the electrician, and most of the argument on site disappears.

The cables I actually specify

These are the exact products behind the table above. I am not paid to recommend any of them. They are simply what I have settled on, and what I would want a contractor to price.

• DALI lighting and third-party shade motors: 1.5 mm² 3185Y 5-core circular PVC flexible cable.
• Keypads, Cresnet and PIR sensors: FS Cables 1822LC2H (Crestron, Control4 and Lutron keypads, Crestron PIRs as a ring, third-party sensors as radials).
• Lutron and Crestron shades and curtains: FS Cables blind control cable (radial from the shading power supply panel, never keypad cable).
• TV data runs: FS Cables C6R4 Cat6 (four per TV: HDMI distribution, IR, internet, spare).
• Satellite and aerial: FS Cables AntennaX 75 ohm coaxial cable (satellite switch to each TV).
• Wi-Fi, touchscreens, cameras, door stations, intercoms and lifts: FS Cables Cat6 HDBaseT cable (everywhere the schedule says Cat6). Step up to shielded Cat6A for high-end AV over IP.

Six principles behind the whole template

• Use cable you can buy anywhere. Availability beats specification on almost every job.
• Design to 50 DALI drivers, not 64. The headroom is the point.
• Ring the buses, radial the rest. Rings for DALI, keypads and Crestron PIRs. Radials for everything else, and always for shade motors.
• Always park a spare end at the panel. A parked cable is the cheapest insurance in the building.
• Leave slack at every device. 1.5 m at a speaker, a coil at a driver, you will use it.
• Cable for the platform you have not chosen yet. Good structured cabling makes Crestron, Control4 and Lutron interchangeable at first fix.

A final word

None of this is complicated. That is the point. A smart home template should be boring, repeatable and generous with spares, because the intelligence lives in the programming, and the programming is only as good as the cable it runs on. Get first fix right and everything after it becomes a conversation about what the client wants, rather than what the wiring will allow.

Please take all of the above as general guidance rather than gospel. Every single project has its own specifics, its own structure, its own client and its own constraints, and no template survives contact with a real building entirely intact. Use it as a starting point and adapt it.

And if you have a specific question, please ask. At AVC Integrations we are more than willing to give advice free of any charge. We simply enjoy meeting new people in the same industry, people who are wrestling with exactly the same project challenges we are, week in and week out. A conversation at first fix costs nothing. A chase in a finished wall costs a great deal.

Zvonko Rosic, Director, AVC Integrations.