Pre-wire for future installation?

Hi there,

I hope this is the right place to ask for this info...

I am currently working on a design for a client who has just informed me they would like cbus on their project for lighting control, however, they would only like to control the some of the ground floor of the property until funds allow for upstairs to be switched over.

they have asked breifly how would this be done, would each circuit need to be ran back to node0/whatever you wish to call the kit room? would i be right in thinking that each 'normal' (none cbus) switch would require a home run also? to allow for the live switching, then when cbus is implimented is it a case of ditching the normal live switch wire and just hooking the circuit live into each appropriate dimmer?

if that makes any sense?

kind regards,
Jonathan

 

Thats pretty much what I have had to do for similar clients, dont forget to run the cbus cabe to each of the normal switches ready.
Regards
Mark

 

Hi Jonathan,

I have every reason to believe that installing the C-Bus system is cheaper than traditional power systems. No need to double cable there are some clever ways around the cost and still having the whole system from day1.

We tried all this on my parents rewire and it was actually cost effective and worthwhile.

Here are some of the things I did.

a) Instead of having many "groups" of lights in one room, as C-Bus would allow we instead tied all of the outputs together so all the lights in the room came on together instead of having a HIS and HERS look and feel to the room.

b) The old wooden door jambs (in my case) had small and narrow toggle switches. We replaced those with pushbutton mechanisms and wired it for c-bus as normal. The other end ran back to a BUS COUPLER.

This allowed us to make 4 "GROUPS" work on one BUS COUPLER. Saving about $300 beyond the normal costs.

c) Used lower output lamps so that more lamps could be tied to one dimmer channel. When used cleverly I produced the same amount of working light as would be normally expected.

Overall C-Bus prewire for lights is actually less 240V cable and some not-so-expensive Cat5 Clipsal cable. The wall plates are $5 instead of $80 and bus couplers can effectively do 4 rooms each in the low cost areas. Just remember to count corridors and bathroom, WC, laundry as a room each.

Be sure to include prewire for closet lighting.

By using this "one time" "low cost" design method you can have all of the benefits of C-Bus without any of the wastage.

I seem to recall that with the time and materials saved on this design we saved enough money to justify the main control module for the dimming and its 8 channels. Another clever method is to buy the 12 channel relay module and only have on/off without the dimming. You can later add a dimmer and expand the features of the house.

The final touch, some time later, would be to add the C-bus faceplates for total integration.

Because all of the lights were "in a row" all we did was start with the longest run and slowly add more wires to the bundle till we got to the group that was closest to power and by then the bundle was quite hefty.

We then ran a similar bundle of Cat5 cables to all of the future wall plates.

Bearing in mind that Alarm PIR can also be used for C-Bus switching and if you have a laundry or isolated WC then you dont even need a wall plate as human activity dictates lighting. The alarm panel needs to be the type that can operate relays. That way you dont waste money on switch plates that will never be convenient to use (when your arms are full of laundry or at 3am).


Maybe this is one way to save you money now and not waste materials or labour making the actual setup functional "the old way".

 

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Bus coupler in action. This one is linked to a wireless switch for the keychain. When you arrive home the garage door door opens and various lights can be switched on outside. It is a good interface for Cat5 wires to pushbutton mechanisms into the C-Bus network. Saves money initially.

This device can link
a) alarm panel relays,
b) mechanical pushbuttons / toggles
c) wireless relay outputs (as shown)

as custom C-Bus events.

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This is one of the ways I deal with common polarity, low voltage wiring. Here it has been used to manage the inside of an alarm panel to send power to several PIR devices. It can also be used to manage many C-Bus strands as the same network.

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A low cost pushbutton solution. Here one switch works with the room light and the other with the corridor illumination. You can have as many switches as you like operating the same function. The wires all go into a bus coupler. In this installation all buttons are dimmers.

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Some of the pushbuttons have been replaced with C-bus panels and the wood replaced on the side. The conversion was quite simple. The Cat5 strand was isolated, the panels attached and the bus coupler function removed and powered directly from the C-Bus network.