The best wiring for modular buildings

The term “wiring” generally refers to the set of cables, connectors, physical systems, infrastructures … which allow interconnection, in a building or more, to build an electricity, telephone, internet, etc. network. Particularly in modular buildings, a well-designed and structured wiring can be a significant and significant element in responding to the different needs of the citizens who will live there.

Before dealing with the wiring, however, let’s see what is meant by modular buildings, so we could better understand the effectiveness of using certain wiring systems for these structures.

What’s a modular building

Modular construction means the use of well-defined constituent elements that are repeated to compose a building project composed of several units that are precisely structured according to those elements or make up individual housing units. The modules, prefabricated or not, offer the possibility of making the most of the building surface and a saving of time and money, given precisely by the use of spaces and structures or systems, which compose them, always equal to themselves.

Structured cabling

Above all and in particular in modern buildings, where the services connected to the internet are mostly used (just think of all the home automation systems that can be in a home) to structured cabling, special attention is paid because it applies to communication systems electronic devices such as TV, telephone and data.
In the case of modular buildings of several units, this wiring is carried out starting from the center of the buildings, or from the one located in the central part of the entire construction module: if these occupy 1 kilometer, the initial part of the structured wiring starts from the 500 meters, or the average distance.

The cables of each modular unit are connected to each other by a connection system for the various cables that is reinforced through a protection tube; the latter allows to increase the strength of the connection system itself but also to increase the quality of the system and therefore of the building.

In fact, the protection tube further prevents wiring cables from being exposed to weather conditions, protects them from humidity and other environmental situations that can damage the cables and compromise the service they should provide. The main cable is connected to several others that guarantee the connection in the individual buildings or housing units that guarantee the unitary connection to the same network.

The electronic communications transmission system

A communications system; data and more, which should be respected should allow the same speed of data download and transmission to all residents of each individual modular structure according to when indicated by the provider of the network itself and allow a stable connection without any malfunctions.
A specific check is therefore necessary to prevent short circuits and accidents due to the peculiarity of this wiring system.

It is essential to follow the reference standards in force (the American one, TIA / EIA-568, European EN-50174 and international ISO / IEC-11801) which detail each design phase according to the requirements:

• analysis because the wiring installation satisfies the purpose for which it is intended (TV, telephone, data, or all together)
• description of the methodology of evaluation of the spaces (furnishings, layout of the walls, main access points of the connections of the single buildings)
• study of the ducting systems and suitable cables (metallic, fiber optic, balanced and / or coaxial cables, multi switch cables, etc.), as well as the housing of the control units, internal technical rooms and the interconnection of the internal system with transmission of signals in outdoor spaces.

Future developments

Recalling that we are dealing with wiring for modular buildings, therefore newly designed, the future implications to keep an eye on are technologies that relate to wireless systems, Wi-Fi and millimetric waves at 60 GHz.
These technologies under development promise high and stable connection speeds in all modular buildings, as well as the ability to limit physical wall interference, for example. The “negative” side is, at the moment, the impossibility of completely covering a building with a single control unit, therefore a well designed structured wiring will be necessary.

The trend with regards to Europe is to create a single market for electronic communications by 2025, the “Gigabit Society”, or the possibility for all citizens to benefit from very high capacity connectivity, even in public places. The necessity to have on hand typologies of physical elements that are technologically up to the project such as cables, sockets, control units, connectors etc. is inevitable, so there will be ample space for manufacturers to develop and refine these products.

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