Hello, everyone! New to the forum, just signed up to see if this could potentially help me identify a wire hanging out of my wall. Was this way when I purchased the house. The previous owner was trying to remodel and did a lot of work. Guess, he never finished what he planned for whatever was to go here.

Seems to be a low voltage line. My best guesses were a motion sensor or Smoke/Co detector based on it's location. Faces a door to my attached garage so a sensor would make sense, also have 10 interconnected smoke/co detectors upstairs, but not a single one downstairs. Would also make sense for this to be a hookup for one of those since there are none DS and this is right by the kitchen.

Any ideas? Can you tell simply by looking at a wire? Any way to see what it is connected to by tracing the line somehow?

Sorry about the tiny images. That is due to site restrictions. Hopefully you can still make out what I am attempting to show you.

Thanks in advance!

-Tim

 

Looks like old phone cable.

 

Could be for extra doorbell as well.

 

That's 18-4 cable.
Could be for a phone, alarm keypad, thermostat, pushbutton for auto garage door, doorbell button.

 

Hey, guys. Thank you for the responses. I've been waiting on an email notification for a response, and assumed no one had only to see these when I came back to the site. Anyway...

The pictures do not show this but that hole in the wall is about 1 foot if not less from the ceiling. My guess would be that a thermostat, keypad, push button, or anything that would normally be within reach would not be the case as it is pretty high up. That is why I was guess at a motion sensor from my alarm company. Would a motion sensor be able to be powered by a wire like this?

As for another bell for the door, I'm not thinking that is the case simply because our current bell is less than 5 feet away on the opposite wall. It would seem illogical to have them so close. Maybe if it were on the far side of the house.

Also, would a Smoke Detector work on a wire like this? Could this be connected to my chain of interconnected S/CO detectors in the house. I really have no clue when it comes to electrical, and ideally I can use this as another Smoke detector. But, I don't want this being tied to my doorbell, and every time someone comes to my house and rings my bell, my smoke detector goes off! Hahaha. That is why I was asking of a way that a clueless person such as myself could track it back to its source.

Thanks again!

 

With the extra wire maybe there was a piece of furniture there. Then pulled the wire down for a tabletop phone?

Try putting a meter on the wires to see if active. Green to red would be 48volts DC if phone.

Smoke detectors are normally 120 volts so use beefier cables.

No basement to look at from below?

 

You could look for the other end in the basement?

 

The four-conductor is obvious but how can you tell from a picture that it is number 18? If it were telephone cable it would more likely be number 22 or 24 gauge. Thermostat cable could be number 18 but is usually 2, 3, 5, 7 or 9 conductors. Alarm cable could also be as small as number 22.

Is there an alarm system in the house? I would think that the location and the presence of an alarm system, even one decommissioned, would point towards a motion sensor.

 

No basement in our house.