I need HELP with my new house...

[Radium_Angel]

I used to be a building inspector, I'll be happy to show up and tell everyone they are doing things wrong 

[Dravas]

So I wouldn't change the valves since they are already electrically controlled it looks like, see link in comment. So the question becomes what is the brains of the valves?  I would need a bit more information.  As for thermostat control I would use one 3 wire with satellite wireless thermostat controllers on zigbee or z-wave and as much as everyone likes google i would stick to a honeywell T9 or T10.  If you want to use home assistant Ecobee would work well with room sensors. Onto smart switches, since your house was built in the 90s, you dont have a neutral wire so GE Enbrighten (z-wave) or Lutron Caseta (needs a hub) will help you there but not every room needs a smart switch - for example closets can the entry to the garage i put in motion switches.  

[LloydLynx]

I'd keep the house in its current style and put a giant CRT in that entertainment stand. Only an idiot would want a dystopian home smart home.

[echtogammut]

For your hydronic system check out the Bosch CT100 series of controllers. For less money and more DIY, check out Tekmar's 561-563 series. These will all work with two wire t-stat controllers. I think the Bosch units are only available through installers, but I may be wrong (often am). 

 

As for Home Theater... this is a question for AVS Forum, which will lead you down the long road of wall treatments. Just post your room and Jeff Parkinson or any of the guys there will help... if you propose something crazy enough, Jeff may come of retirement.

[iOnicDev]

I had a similar problem (UK) it is actually very simply done, however, i cannot bothered to go upstairs and bull everything out the boiler cupboard to look at the wiring to colours are not accurate.

I am also not sure if the us/canada version is the same as the uk version.

 

Firstly, instead of using the existing wiring to complete a circuit use it to delivery power to nest thermostats

then disconnect all the old thermos from the boiler, but keep one pair to connect to the heatlink

due to it only having two wires on the uk heatlink there are number holes, 123 - 456 for heating and water

(from what i remember) he will need to connect the boiler to 1 and 3 and then bridge 3 and 2 with a one inch peice of insulated wiring and done

 ive made some quick diagrams (dont judge)

 

** edit i forgot to label the last image, the 2 left wires are power i cant remeber if it runs on 12v or 120/230v, if 12 use the 12v power supply, if 120/230v jump off the boiler power simples.. and the other two are from one of the old thermostats

and for all you haters, this 100% as i did it myself nearly two years ago for water and heating and works flawlessy, (water tank) so yes it will do his water and heating if it needs to, it also has listeria protection for hot water tanks

 

****also he can connect as many thermostats as he likes to one heatlink and it all runs on wifi, he doesnt need a heatlink per thermostat

[Egg-Roll]

39 minutes ago, Jtalk4456 said:

I'd be in fear too if my house was that shade of pink lol

He was wondering the best practices of building a Theater Room, the only way to go obviously is hot pink  Simply because it's "Full of Fun 69 Be4 anything else" Aka FF69B4, obviously the only color to go with

 

Edit: Alternativly if he feels all 007 like he could go with Bright Pink

[WkdPaul]

@black1stallion2

 

Your thread was merged, please always post in the appropriate section / thread.

[Streetguru]

You guys had it checked for asbestos before tearing into some walls right?

[Knoppersd]

Hi Linus,

for your heating system I maybe got something for you.

My dad just installed this system in his house and it is using remote Thermostats for the temperature config (app and hardware).

 

It could be worth a look even though I don´t know if its availble outside Europe.

 

https://www.homematic-ip.com/en/products/detail/homematic-ip-valve-drive-motorised.html

https://www.homematic-ip.com/en/products/detail/homematic-ip-floor-heating-actuator-12-channels-motorised.html

https://www.homematic-ip.com/en/products/detail/homematic-ip-wall-thermostat-basic.html

 

The Thermostats are battery powered but you could use the wires and have a 3V/DC power supply connecting to the battery terminals. This system can also interconnect with heating and AC systems.

 

Hope this could help

[chops16]

45 minutes ago, thisisjusting said:

My nest runs my forced air ancient furnace on 2 wires. Not sure if this helps but you said no smart thermostat can work on 2 wires.

 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I just did some googling, as I don't own a smart thermostat, and lots of people say that the Nest thermostats run on 2 wires... I think this would be his best option

[Egg-Roll]

10 minutes ago, Streetguru said:

You guys had it checked for asbestos before tearing into some walls right?

That would be the smart thing to do...

 

I think past homeowners need to disclose it before selling if they know of its existence, so since the people he bought it from are the original owners/builders they should know. If they lied they then become legally responsible, but to what extent no idea...

 

Edit: This house was built in the 90's if I remember correctly asbestos was basically banned from homes in 1979 so it's very unlikely the home has any.

[LinusIsSmart]

For home theatre:

 

AV Receiver: Denon AVR-X6700H

Speakers: RP-8060FA 7.1.4 DOLBY ATMOS® HOME THEATER SYSTEM

Projector: Epson Pro Cinema 6050UB Projector

 

The AV receiver supports 8K/60 and 4K/120.

Review: https://www.whathifi.com/reviews/denon-avc-x6700h

Specs: https://www.denon.com/en-us/product/av-receivers/avr-x6700h

 

Speaker System: https://www.klipsch.com/products/rp-8060fa-7-1-4-dolby-atmos-home-theater-system

 

[Radium_Angel]

7 minutes ago, Egg-Roll said:

Edit: This house was built in the 90's if I remember correctly asbestos was basically banned from homes in 1979 so it's very unlikely the home has any.

For Canada he's safe.

 

The remaining stock for homes in USALand could be found up to the mid-80s in certain parts of the country. For commercial buildings it was 1978 (with the remaining stock shoved into residential homes.)

[CT854]

2 hours ago, rcai7774 said:

Turn a room into a Victorian getaway - complete with arsenic wallpapers, ornate furniture, and gas lamps!

Don't forget the cadmium paint in the paintings!

[Jtalk4456]

46 minutes ago, Egg-Roll said:

the only way to go obviously is hot pink  

Yeah we're gonna have to agree to disagree there lol. 

[MrSurp]

Hello,

 

I hope this is the correct subforum for this type of post.

Regarding Linuses new house: Why won't you install a heat pump instead of a new (I'm assuming gas powered) heater and an AC.

A heat pump can do ac + heating (it's basically an ac with reversable valves) and if you have solar pannels you're basically getting heating for free (Of course the heat pump has quite the upfront cost though) and it's better for the environment.

 

 

[Egg-Roll]

14 minutes ago, Jtalk4456 said:

Yeah we're gonna have to agree to disagree there lol. 

Luckily he hasn't made the mistake of letting us to decide how he does things, the internet would troll him very hard

But yea, it's possibly the worst color to paint on a wall lol. Cars on the other hand...

 

30 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

For Canada he's safe.

 

The remaining stock for homes in USALand could be found up to the mid-80s in certain parts of the country. For commercial buildings it was 1978 (with the remaining stock shoved into residential homes.)

Most of the stuff I've found talking about it says it can be found up to the early 90's but it's not loose in any way but in solids like concrete. They could be confusing it with the US however.

[ntindle]

Hey Linus and friends,

 

I work as an engineer at a home automation company called Crestron. I HIGHLY recommend you at least google Crestron Home and investigate working with them. It would make an interesting video and also would support many features that you would probably enjoy. It’s not as DIY as home assistant, but its designed for your type of use case. 
 

I don’t know if it will work out for you, but I think you would like a lot of the features and it’s quite popular with luxury homes like yours. 

[Yoinkerman]

Idk about Linus house but usually it's because replacing a furnace ends up being like $3500 and a heat pump is many times that in cost.  Also house layout and other things to consider that can escalate costs quickly

[Unboxious]

First off, very cool that Linus is doing a LAN room. I've always wanted one myself.

 

Secondly, I had a thought on how the RGB could be managed: OpenRGB supports a network protocol. You can have every computer in the LAN room hooked up to the same RGB server, so that server can sync RGB effects with them. Even better, you can also have LED strips, such as the ones mounted on the walls or desks, connected over wifi with the WLED project. This would let you use every single RGB LED in the LAN room in beautiful harmony. You can lay out in the software (using the OpenRGB effects plugin) so that every LED's location corresponds to a location on a 2d grid, and then choose different cool effects that are rendered on that grid. There's a lot of potential there, and the software is only getting better.

[sub68]

Usefull for the home theater

[darknessblade]

Regarding the Lan-center.

 

Why not do most of the Non-essential power in the wall/under the desk, and have a box/tubes under the entire desk where all the Cables are. SO you have 1 sleek design where every PC/console/device is neatly hidden and only the bare minimum essentials are visible.

 

Similar to one of the OLD PC desks builds. 

with Panel connectors So all cables for USB/audio devices neatly going to a Panel-connector, instead of behind the desk.

For display's you only use a Length cable that is just enough. {if you need a 70CM Cable, you use a 80CM cable just to give a bit of Leeway}

-----------------

Examples for panel mount:

https://www.aliexpress.com/i/32921305222.html

https://aliexpress.com/item/4000406389999.html

https://.aliexpress.com/item/33017006206.html

------------------

For additional devices:

You have those click to open Multi-media/power panels that are made for desks. Which can be used to hook in additional devices

----------------

Example:

https://www.aliexpress.com/i/33060106165.html.
----------------

 

Regarding the 2 Wire Furnace/heating,

 

if i am not mistaken this could be a 24V ON/OFF circuit. With the Mercury switch doing nothing but close or open the circuit if a certain temperature is reached.

 

You might even be able to Convert it to BNC:

Using a old network switch like:

https://docs.rs-online.com/a320/0900766b800b64ea.pdf

 

Maybe this is something you can test out in a Video: Lan party over BNC. What could go wrong.

[flibberdipper]

They've already got a boiler system in place. It'd be pretty stupid to tear out all of that, hope and pray you can run air ducts, and then install said heat pump.

[King_PIN]

I've built a couple theater rooms home owner style not professional so here is my take on somethings.  I wrote this on youtube but thought I would share here also. 

 
Home theater room - It's a real good idea to build a wooden false floor off the concrete. It's much harder to get low and energize a room on concrete. Second if you want some sound proofing you can build a room within the room with staggered studs. So you build 2x4 walls 2-3 inches in front of the existing concrete and wooden walls with staggered studs. You do your normal 16" spacing and then stagger studs at random points in-between those.

HVAC - I'm assuming you will have a projector in there. Proper ventilation and AC goes a long way in keeping the projector cool and the room cool as HT's can get muggy quick.

Corner Bass traps in all 4 corners, floor to ceiling and sound absorption in first reflection points to start. See how live the room is and decide afterwards if you need more. It's a home theater room you want a bit of live sound not a dead room like a recording studio.

Not sure how much room you have but a transparent screen with the front 3 behind works best if possible. If you really want home theater sound and IMPACT check out Mark Seaton's website for their Catalyst's or JTR for their NOESIS line if you truly want home theater sound for your front end L/C/R. Subs...it's not a theater if you can't get low to at least 12hz and feel the rumble although some people go with bass shakers on their couch and chairs but I find them annoying. Too many movies have content down to 6-10hz these days. DIY is the way I go with a pair of 21" subs each with their own 5000watt amp on their own dedicated 20 amp line. But sound is a rabbit hole and all dependent on how much you need to be happy.

Dedicated sub panel for the HT room is cheap and a great investment and helps immensely. 20 amp outlets for power amps on one leg with other audio equipment and video equipment on another leg with the rest of the room power and lighting.

Some images of what I did.  Lot's of DIY. 

 

 

[WkdPaul]

@MrSurp

@Unboxious

your thread was merged, please always post in the appropriate section/thread.