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Central Vacs Made Easy
By Steve Maxwell
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A central vacuum is one of those household features that adds way more value to a home than the trouble and expense of putting it in. Easy, that is, if you tackle the installation process at the early stages of the building process and with the right knowledge. Necessary know-how is what you’ll get here. If you can cut and fit plastic plumbing drainpipe and make basic, low-voltage wire connections, then your central vac installation will be a breeze.
There are three reasons to consider a central vac for your next building project: superior cleaning power, ease of use and quiet operation inside your home. No hand-pushed vacuum can compare with the performance of even an ordinary central system. And with recent advancements in central vacuums themselves, performance is cleaner and quieter, with filter maintenance easier than ever.
All central vac systems have three main parts. The first is a network of thin-wall, 2-inch diameter PVC piping that delivers vacuum suction to flap-door outlets around the house. Technically it doesn’t really matter what kind of pipe you use, as long as it’s large enough in diameter. But stick with proper PVC vacuum pipe just the same. It’s cheap, easy to work with and sized to accept all the various outlets that connect with the flexible floor hose and attachments you’ll use while cleaning your house.
The second part of any central vac system is a network of wires running alongside the vacuum pipes installed within wall and floor frames. Actually, you may want one or two separate wiring networks, depending on the kind of central vac equipment you plan to run.
At a minimum, all central vacs have at least one pair of low-voltage wires that switch the vacuum unit ON automatically whenever a hose is plugged into an outlet. These wires typically carry harmless DC power to a relay in the vacuum unit. The other ends of the wires connect to electrical lugs on the back of each flap-door fittings. Whenever you plug the metal end of the corrugated vacuum cleaning hose into the flap door, it touches two internal metal contacts, completing a circuit that switches the vac ON. The electricity to power the vacuum isn’t actually carried by these low-voltage wires, they only switch a relay that in-turn energizes the vacuum by switching on regular household current.
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Central Vacs Made Easy
By Steve Maxwell
|
|
|
A central vacuum is one of those household features that adds way more value to a home than the trouble and expense of putting it in. Easy, that is, if you tackle the installation process at the early stages of the building process and with the right knowledge. Necessary know-how is what you’ll get here. If you can cut and fit plastic plumbing drainpipe and make basic, low-voltage wire connections, then your central vac installation will be a breeze.
There are three reasons to consider a central vac for your next building project: superior cleaning power, ease of use and quiet operation inside your home. No hand-pushed vacuum can compare with the performance of even an ordinary central system. And with recent advancements in central vacuums themselves, performance is cleaner and quieter, with filter maintenance easier than ever.
All central vac systems have three main parts. The first is a network of thin-wall, 2-inch diameter PVC piping that delivers vacuum suction to flap-door outlets around the house. Technically it doesn’t really matter what kind of pipe you use, as long as it’s large enough in diameter. But stick with proper PVC vacuum pipe just the same. It’s cheap, easy to work with and sized to accept all the various outlets that connect with the flexible floor hose and attachments you’ll use while cleaning your house.
The second part of any central vac system is a network of wires running alongside the vacuum pipes installed within wall and floor frames. Actually, you may want one or two separate wiring networks, depending on the kind of central vac equipment you plan to run.
At a minimum, all central vacs have at least one pair of low-voltage wires that switch the vacuum unit ON automatically whenever a hose is plugged into an outlet. These wires typically carry harmless DC power to a relay in the vacuum unit. The other ends of the wires connect to electrical lugs on the back of each flap-door fittings. Whenever you plug the metal end of the corrugated vacuum cleaning hose into the flap door, it touches two internal metal contacts, completing a circuit that switches the vac ON. The electricity to power the vacuum isn’t actually carried by these low-voltage wires, they only switch a relay that in-turn energizes the vacuum by switching on regular household current. |
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