I am completely rewiring a home - both electrical and data. For datacom I will be running RG6 quad shield for CATV, speaker wire, phone line and Shielded Cat5e.

I have two questions. The first is how much practical separation do I need to have between my data cables and electrical cables? In most cases I can keep them one-two feet away and cross at 90 degree angles. In a few cases they will have to run pretty close to each other.

The second question concerns a cable run that goes from one side of the house - outside through watertight PVC back into the house in another room. Do I need to run a ground wire throught the data conduit?

Thanks,
David

 

Practical separation? As much as possible. You may have to live with some interference, but make what you can when you can with the spacing.

A ground wire through the conduit would not be needed.

Hope this helps.

 

Thanks for the info.

Will the shielded Cat5e provide extra protection from interference?

Does the shielding need to be grounded to work?

Thanks,
David

 

why are you using sheilded cat5e ?

do you have something unsual causing problems ?

yes the sheild does need to be grounded to be effective

 

I chose the shielded cable as an extra precaution. This is a total remodel down to the studs so the incremental cost for a little piece of mind just in case seemed to make sense.

What is the most practical way to ground the shielding. The runs will go from a structured wiring panel which will be grounded out to the recepticals which will likely be those plastic open communication boxes? Does anyone make a device that attaches to the shielding and provides a ground pig tail or something of the sort?

Thanks,
David

 

I would suggest not using the sheilded cable its really only used in very specialized applications and if its not grounded properly it can actully wind up causing problems rather than solving them

I do a fair amount of ethernet cabling and haven't run accross a application where sheilded cable was needed

i did use some prior to cat 5 days where it was specked by the cutomer and I recall grounding being a PITA

I have seen some discussions on boards like this and I know enough to know that proper grounding is essential . If I where to have to use sheilded cable I would have to resarch grounding practices

If you do decided on sheilded you might want to contact the cable manufacturer and get their recomendations I would also check the NEC and see if they have any requirments as to grounding

if you really want to "do it right " I would run conduit to all locations . that way you could always pull new cable if there was a problem

i