Camera wiring solution (without attic access)

[aaronk]

I'm looking to install some wired security cameras at my house.

The front part of the house has both an attic, and a crawlspace. But the back of the house has a separate flat roof with no attic access. It's also on a slab. And my office (where I would like to put an NVR or PC) is at the back.

I've searched the web and YouTube extensively for examples of an installation that would work for this situation. The only one I've really come across is in this video. I think that might work well for me; the only added challenge here is that I'd be going through insulation. It just makes me a little uneasy that I can't find any other examples of this type of installation (a bundle of 2+ cables directly through the outside wall).

Does the solution in the video seem good in general for my situation, or is there something else I should consider? How about his choice of a conduit LB box?

To run the wires, I was thinking of using cable clips to run network cables (outdoor rated) to the back of the house under the house eaves. Is this sensible?

 

[tangent]

Find somewhere in the part of the house with an attic or crawlspace to terminate your cables. You could put the pc/nvr there too or just a PoE switch.
Then you could run a single cable from there to your office or use something else like MoCa or HomePlug AV2.

 

[BigFoot]

Suggestion: Site your NVR as close as you can to an external wall & put a single cable run through the wall into a medium sized IP66 external junction box (high enough not to be vandalised, or use steel), then run conduits to each camera

I have some external wires to run around an 1898 Yorkshire stone home here in the UK - I'll be using cable saddles affixed by 1x 40mm screw into a 'red' sized rawlplug with cables secured & bundled using zip ties. This will allow me to readily run additional cables as the system expands

I'm using Cat 6 exterior grade PE sheathed UTP cable

 

[snookered]

The front half of my house has a walk in attic, with a sub floor. I was able to cut a 14.5" x 2' (on center with floor joist so I could screw the panel back down). This gave me access to the far wall on the other side of the house (no attic) underneath the sub floor and finished ceiling from the main floor. Since the room has carpet, I cut a 3" diameter hole in the sub floor of that room under the carpet just before the tac strip (of the far wall). I then drilled a hole through the wall (under the sub floor), through to the outside (used about a 2' long drill bit by 5/8" wide). I fished the cable from the attic, to the hole in the room (office), and then continued pushing the wire through the hole to give me access outside. I cut a small piece of pine (6" x 2"), and screwed that under the sub floor as support to put the 3" circular sub floor back (that I cut out). Put the carpet back where it was, and you would never know I was in there...

Sorry, you don't really give a lot of details so I'm not sure if this would be practical for you or not.

 

[aaronk]

Find somewhere in the part of the house with an attic or crawlspace to terminate your cables. You could put the pc/nvr there too or just a PoE switch.
Then you could run a single cable from there to your office or use something else like MoCa or HomePlug AV2.

I like this suggestion. It makes a lot of sense with a PoE switch, and I like the idea of HomePlug from there to the PC.
Is HomePlug bandwidth sufficient for this?

 

[aaronk]

Suggestion: Site your NVR as close as you can to an external wall & put a single cable run through the wall into a medium sized IP66 external junction box (high enough not to be vandalised, or use steel), then run conduits to each camera

By "single cable run" you mean a bundle of cables right? So quite a sizable hole in the wall exterior if you're running more than a couple of cameras?

 

[tangent]

Is HomePlug bandwidth sufficient for this?

Maybe. It depends on the number of cameras, their bitrate/resolution/fps, the type of home plug adapter used, and line conditions.
Some homeplug devices work better than others, the speeds they claim are significantly overstated. MoCa uses coax cable and is more reliable.

 

[aaronk]

MoCa uses coax cable and is more reliable.

The house has no coax except a line going into the office for internet, so unfortunately that's not an option.
I'll look into the recommended HomePlug devices on Wirecutter, and plan for either that or a network cable to the PC.

 

[tangent]

The house has no coax except a line going into the office for internet, so unfortunately that's not an option.
I'll look into the recommended HomePlug devices on Wirecutter, and plan for either that or a network cable to the PC.

I'd look at HomePlug reviews on SmallNetBuilder
Powerline - Ranking

It works best to use a dedicated machine to record your cameras. Personally I'd stash a relatively small PC somewhere more central with your PoE switch and use powerline to connect to the rest of your network for local and remote viewing.

 

[BigFoot]

By "single cable run" you mean a bundle of cables right? So quite a sizable hole in the wall exterior if you're running more than a couple of cameras?

It all depends on how you class a 'sizable hole'

CAt 6 exterior grade ethernet cable has a diameter of 6mm =/- 0.2 mm, therefore it has a cross sectional area of 28.27 mm

A 1 inch ( 25mm ) hole has a cross sectional area of 490.87mm, so the latter divided by the former would suggest that you can fit 17 ethernet cables through it

It kinda depends how many camera's you're wanting to fit

Other size holes calculate as follows :

16mm ( 5/8") hole - 7 ethernet cables

20mm ( 3/4") hole - 11 ethernet cables

22mm ( 7/8") hole - 13 ethernet cables