The Best Ways to Secure Cables Around Your Smart Home

If you're considering turning your house into a full-blown smart home, you'll need a way to manage all those cables.

12:09 18 February 2019

As the smart home becomes more and more common in modern life, you may well have joined the Internet of Things revolution and linked your home up via several devices.

Here’s a few tips as to how best secure your wires.

What Needs Wiring?

You may well be wondering why cables are needed in a modern, hi-tech smart home. The answer is, by and large, they aren’t. However, there are some key pieces that need to be hardwired to your less ‘intelligent’ appliances.

Any of the following smart devices will need hardwiring:

• Video doorbells
• Smoke alarms
• Light switches
• Thermostats
• Wall outlets

Now, how to secure them.

Cable Ties

The simple and reliable cable tie is as effective as ever at doing what it says on the tin, if you don’t mind the sight of exposed cable around the house.

If your wires are already semi-concealed by other items around the house, then the cable tie offers an inexpensive and uncomplicated solution. Make sure you’re buying ties that are correctly sized and durable enough to last.

If you’re looking for a quick fix and aren’t too concerned with overall aesthetics, ties will do the trick.

Cables Sleeves

Probably the optimal choice for smart home users, cable sleeves offer a neat and efficient solution and are your best bet for encasing multiple cables as succinctly as possible.

RS Components offer a full range of heat shrink sleeves that, once applied and heated, shrink to a pre-determined ratio around your wires, making things even more compact.

They’re also easy to cut to length and you can make small incisions into the ends of the sleeves if you need wires within the bundle to head in different directions.

Cable Clips

Cable clips offer a desktop solution that prevent cables from dropping off, meaning they’re traditionally useful for your phone, tablet or console, but could offer some practical use around the smart home as well.

They also allow cables to fit neatly behind any storage unit and offer a nice addition to your main wiring management.

Size Matters

Finally, make sure all your wiring is to the right length to maximise the neatness of your setup.

A smart home is the modern, clean way of living, so the less you can see the better.

It might be one of the less exciting elements of setting up a smart home, but making sure you’ve got your cabling secured properly will play a key part in the aesthetics of your home.