[Ending dead spots on the Internet] Are old and weak power boxes blocked? "Whole-house Gigabit Cable Backbone and PoE Smart Monitoring" in Taiwan's Old Apartment

The trash can in the entrance corner: the sorrow of weak electricity boxes in old apartments

In the greater Taipei area, many owners who live in apartments or medieval mansions that are more than 30 years old often complain that although their homes have applied for Chunghwa Telecom’s 500M or even 1G fiber optic broadband, the Wi-Fi signal is often disconnected or stuck in the master bedroom or kitchen, and the delay is extremely high when playing mobile games. When you walk to the entrance and open the "weak current box (information box)" with a rusty iron cover, you will find that it is densely packed with coaxial cables from Channel 4, expired telephone lines, optical fiber black boxes, routers, and a bunch of messy wired transformer plugs. Because the box is extremely small and has no heat dissipation holes, the temperature inside the box often reaches 50°C in summer, causing the machine to frequently crash due to heat. This is a common "weak current flaw" in old apartments: there is no physical wired backbone planned, and the wireless sharer is hidden in the iron box, blocking 90% of the wireless signal. To meet the needs of modern whole-house smart appliances, smart cameras and ultra-fast networks, restructuring weak current boxes and laying out wired backbones is the only formal way.

Key popular science: Expansion and transformation of weak current boxes and Cat6/Cat6A wired wiring

In smart homes and high-speed network architectures, the transformation of weak current systems must focus on the upgrade of two physical links:
1. Expansion of weak current boxes and transformation of power supply cooling: The old weak current boxes (approximately 30cm × 30cm) are too small. During the renovation, the weak current master will use a stone cutter to cut the entrance wall, expand and replace it with a modern standard "large-capacity anti-interference weak current box (such as 40cm × 60cm or larger)", and introduce a set of AC 110V independent sockets into the box for use by the photovoltaic coordinator and router, and open louvered heat dissipation holes on the door cover to facilitate convection.
2. Cat6 / Cat6A copper conductor physical backbone: Wireless signals are easily blocked by cement partition walls and co-channel interference. The plumber will use the original CD conduit (telephone line conduit) inside the wall, use steel threaders to pull out the old abandoned telephone lines, and simultaneously pull in Cat6 or Cat6A shielded twisted pair network lines that support Gigabit transmission (pure copper wires are preferred, and cheap copper-clad aluminum wires are not allowed), and the network cables will be directed to the living room TV wall, master bedroom and study room to build a Gigabit physical backbone network.

The wiring advantages of PoE (Power over Ethernet) technology in smart monitoring and wireless AP

In smart home deployment, many homeowners want to install wireless base stations (APs) on the ceiling or install smart anti-theft monitors in the corners of the balcony, but they often face the dilemma of "no power sockets on the ceiling." At this time, the introduction of technology is the gold standard for weak current construction:
-Standard Cat6 network cables have 8 strands of copper wire inside. PoE technology uses idle pairs in network cables to transmit 48V DC power and transmit high-speed data at the same time. This means,that no separate power lines or transformers are required.
- Just install a "PoE Switch" in the weak current box at the entrance, and use it with smart hardware that supports PoE power supply (such as Ubiquiti UniFi system or various IP Cameras), which greatly reduces the wiring complexity in the ceiling and improves system stability.

Budget price of Shuangbei weak current reset and wiring and pipe project

When upgrading the weak current system of old apartments in Shuangbei area, the reasonable project estimate is as follows:
* The cost of construction including work and materials is approximately NT$ 8,000 to NT$ 15,000, depending on the wall structure (brick wall or reinforced concrete wall).
* Including cable hunting, cable pulling, and making RJ45 network information socket panels. The salary plus material fee for a single wire pull is approximately NT$ 1,800 to NT$ 3,000/channel. If the pipeline is smooth, multiple lines can be pulled together to provide a discount.
* The cost of complete work with materials is about NT$ 1,500 to NT$ 3,000.
A 30-square-foot old apartment renovates the weak current system (1 large weak current box + 4-way Cat6 network backbone + PoE base station configuration). The total project budget is approximately NT$ 22,000 to NT$ 38,000. This is an extremely cost-effective investment to eliminate dead spots in the network.

Commercial acquisitions and businessmen’s long-term asset thinking: Ultra-fast optical fiber networks and physical backbones are the hidden premium points for real estate to attract high-end SOHO customer groups

For businessmen who specialize in acquiring old apartments in Shuangbei for renovation and sales, operating high-quality co-living spaces (co-living), or leasing to technology upstarts, In the era of working from home (WFH) and video streaming, network quality is a “veto indicator” for young tenants or buyers when viewing houses. If an object is luxuriously decorated, but has slow network speed and signal dead spots, it will immediately make high-production SOHO people, software engineers, and e-commerce entrepreneurs lose interest. During the pipeline renovation stage, the businessman spent less than 30,000 yuan of weak electricity budget to re-draw physical network cables and configure hidden PoE APs, and promoted "enterprise-level seamless coverage of ultra-fast optical fiber network residences" in marketing, which can accurately target the technology customer group with the highest paying capacity. Compared with ordinary apartments in the surrounding area that have no weak electricity planned, it can create 10% The rental premium is about 10%, and the assets can be quickly transacted in the leasing or sales market, significantly increasing the overall net operating income (NOI).

The Ministry of Economic Affairs' latest "Regulations on Consumer Electrical Equipment Installation" and the key points of electricity safety in old houses

Due to the popularity of high-power household appliances (such as air fryers, microwave ovens, dishwashers, instantaneous electric water heaters, and IH furnaces) in recent years, the Energy Administration of the Ministry of Economic Affairs has revised the "Regulations on Consumer Electrical Equipment Installation" many times to strictly require the diversion and protection mechanisms of residential electricity circuits. Statistics show that more than 30% of building fires in Taiwan are caused by electrical factors, among which "old wire insulation deteriorates and short circuits", "socket contacts are oxidized and loose, poor contact" and "non-fuse switch (NFB) overloaded and failed to trip" are the three main fatal causes.