Wiring a new house -- copper or fiber?

[mrmb]

I’ve seen it mentioned here and elsewhere that fiber optic cable is cheap these days.  We’re in the planning stage of a new house build.  I was going to have the new house wired with CAT 6, but now wonder if I should use fiber, if the cost differential isn’t substantial.  Fiber has a lot of benefits over copper, not the least of which, I believe, is the rejection of RF and electrical interference such as the problem found with running low voltage wires too close to high voltage cables.

 

At any rate, I’m a complete newbie when it comes to fiber.  Has anyone here wired their house with fiber, or can suggest a place for me to start researching same.  I have questions like what type of bulk cable would be needed for a residential application.  What type of device would one need to switch at the outlet from fiber to copper, so my PC’s, Apple TV, DVD Players etc., could accept the signal input?  Do these fiber-to-copper switching devices have their own power (wall wart) needs?  Having devices spread around the house at each outlet to convert the fiber signal to something legacy devices could use, sounds like added problems and cost.  Is that true?  If so, is it not a big deal or not?

 

If fiber is indeed comparable in price to copper, as you can tell, I’m flying blind when it comes to the pluses and minuses of stringing fiber in a residential application.  What type/specs of fiber would be recommended.  Where might I source bulk fiber?  As with copper, I assume that some manufacturers of fiber would produce a better, more reliable product than others.  Is that true?  What might the good manufacturers be?  Any education or recommendation that you could supply regarding the ins and outs of wiring a house with fiber would be appreciated.

[Speed Racer]

I see no advantage to running fiber instead of copper. If you are planning now, you can make sure your network wiring is not to close to the electrical wiring.

[Dr Tone]

Run copper.  You could consider putting one fiber run along side copper to your audio room.  If you are were worried about RF it's the only run that would matter.

[jabbr]

The answer is beyond the scope of a quick message. You might wish to leave some fiber cables along with copper Ethernet when the house is being framed. This site  is a reasonable one to get longer pre-terminated runs. I'd go for 2mm dia probably multimode but you can also consider singlemode. Unless house is huge, OM3 grade is prob ok. 

[davide256]

If you plan to stay less than 20 years, copper is fine. But don't expect your Ethernet wires to be corrosion free as the house ages... and if you live near the beach its a no brainer to use fiber

[bobbmd]

Just get some Walmart CAT 6A and it will also keep werewolves and vampires away

[SarahBishop]

The high capacity fiber that most suppliers are utilizing requires 2 joins. To do this without anyone else's help without preparing and instruments is alongside unimaginable. My supplier (Cox) introduced fiber to within the house, with a fiber to ethernet interface box. Once the flag is at Gigabit Ethernet over CAT 5E, it is anything but difficult to work with and goes directly into my AC WiFi router.

192.168.1.1

[ismewor]

It is useless with fiber in a home. Cat7 or Cat8 will do. so Copper it is. 

Your hub is fiber, from you cable company. than convert to copper to your house. 

And you going to use Wifi aren't you? 

[mrmb]

Sure, WiFi will be used.  But, with the walls open, a wired LAN is easy, fairly inexpensive and its stability can't be beat.  So, the plan is to pull at least 1, if not 2-pairs to every area where it could conceivably be needed.  I will probably have fiber along with CAT ran to a couple of important rooms (e.g. 2-channel audio room and H/T room).  98' kink resistant and terminated  (at both ends) fiber is ~$10.00 a piece, so for $0.10/foot, why not throw some in the mix (even if it is not immediately, or ever used)?!  Fiber also comes terminated in several shorter lengths at obviously even less expense.  This  low  fiber cost surprised me, especially since it was terminated.  And lastly, in the important areas, I will make sure the electrician runs conduit with pull strings so in the future, other cable can be easily pulled after the house is completed.  

[gbryant]

Run pvc conduit from each location back to IT hub location.... you can upgrade at will...