Pulling cat6a through existing electrical conduit?

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halfmoonforever

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Hi, I know it's not ideal, but I was thinking of using my existing electrical conduits (where the plugs are) to route cat6a cable through to connect my rooms with proper cabling instead of wireless. (reason why is I'm replacing all the plug fittings anyway, and figured I can choose one that has network points as well)

Has anyone done this? is it possible?

I live in a complex, ground floor, so no, I don't have a ceiling that I can conveniently use. I'm not interested in wireless at all.

If anyone has/knows its possible, it'd be a great help if you could chime in.

Thanks!
 
xrapidx

xrapidx

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I've done it in two rooms in my house without issue. (actually cat5). The one room is my main server room that everything gets data from - its made no impact.
 
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WAslayer

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the one problem i foresee, if your conduits are in the wall and ceiling as they normally are, is pulling the cable to the correct places.. it could be that there is no direct route to each room, or the conduits are joined at an angle making it difficult to reach the conduit to the room you need to go to.. you get things like fish tape to pull cables/wires but the same would go for the fish tape, its being able to actually reach where you want to reach..

two things i have considered, not as great and neat as having conduits, but better than cables laying on the floor or nailed to the wall, is a trunking that looks like skirting or getting decorative pieces that cover the corner of the wall and ceiling and have the cable run behind that to each room and then run the cable down the wall in a corner or against a door jamb..

one example of skirting trunking.. http://za.rs-online.com/web/p/cable-trunkings/7874527/ there are a few different ones available.. some smaller and other that can support a rj45 keystone jack as well..
 
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frodob

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Running data cable parallel to electrical cable is a big no no... And against code as far as I understand.
 
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WAslayer

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Sinbad said:
Have you considered power line networking?
Click to expand...

people get varying results with this and if your source plug runs to the db board and then to the destination plug, you supposedly can severely reduce performance..
 
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halfmoonforever

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Today said:
Isn't that illegal in terms of the electrical codes?
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frodob said:
Running data cable parallel to electrical cable is a big no no... And against code as far as I understand.
Click to expand...

As far as I see it's not against code if you have properly shielded cable, hence why I'm going for cat6a and not normal cat5. The issue there is that if you have a situation where high voltage enters low voltage carrying cable, it could fry your components and/or cause an electrical fire. Obviously I'm not going to shove in naked cables everywhere.

The only reason they don't recommend it is for interference, something that a properly shielded cable should be able to handle without any issue

the one problem i foresee, if your conduits are in the wall and ceiling as they normally are, is pulling the cable to the correct places.. it could be that there is no direct route to each room, or the conduits are joined at an angle making it difficult to reach the conduit to the room you need to go to.. you get things like fish tape to pull cables/wires but the same would go for the fish tape, its being able to actually reach where you want to reach..

two things i have considered, not as great and neat as having conduits, but better than cables laying on the floor or nailed to the wall, is a trunking that looks like skirting or getting decorative pieces that cover the corner of the wall and ceiling and have the cable run behind that to each room and then run the cable down the wall in a corner or against a door jamb..

one example of skirting trunking.. http://za.rs-online.com/web/p/cable-trunkings/7874527/ there are a few different ones available.. some smaller and other that can support a rj45 keystone jack as well..
Click to expand...

The complex was built in 2007, so it has old-school wooden skirtings/doors already so unfortunately that's not an option (I did consider it)

Have you considered power line networking?
Click to expand...

Yes. I'm currently running that solution between my PC and the router inside the lounge (only place they could place it as the fiber terminates there where the DSTV does), even though the TP Link units are rated at 300mbps, I'm not even getting 25mbps.

Although this is sufficient for streaming to the lounge and all the other stuff I do online, I have fiber, which can go up to 100mbps, of which I can't justify the price I will be paying since my bottleneck will be that connection.

FYI, the same TP link units gave me the same speed in a complex built in 2015. I won't put shoddy / crappy wiring out of the race yet, but I'm not willing to shell out a few thousand more on the gigabit versions if I can't even get 100mbps out of the claimed 300mbps unit ones.
 
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halfmoonforever

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xrapidx said:
Yeh - I'd imagine its not legal.
Click to expand...

Annex N details networking cable, the only thing it says / talks about is making sure everything connects to a earthing busbar and what the standards are around it. Nothing is mentioned that you are not allowed to pull through networking cable using current electrical conduits. The only restriction is PVC sheeths (?) and the only negative aspect for unshielded cables is noise on the LAN impacting performance.

https://www.scribd.com/doc/32614384...n-1-7-the-Wiring-of-Premises-LV-Installations
 
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halfmoonforever

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static_sa said:
Does your router connect to something in the wall to make this work?
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yes the router connects to the TP Link unit, and it connects directly into the wall socket. that's how they work unless I misunderstand. I'm not running them through any surge protection gear my PC and router is connected through.
 
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halfmoonforever

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WAslayer said:
electrician just left.. there are regulations that stipulate electrical and telecoms cables need to be run separately..
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Nothing in the document I linked to though? except for connecting it to a busbar? anyway, thanks for your feedback
 
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savage

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wireway
open or enclosed route or support such as a rack, tray, ladder, ducting, trunking, sleeving or conduit that is intended to contain conductors or cables
NOTE A wireway can consist of one or more separate wireway channels, each of which is intended for different services such as installation wiring and telecommunication wiring.
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Conductors in a conduit MUST be of the same type and voltage. You can not combine telecoms and power, or 220VAC and 24VDC in a single wireway.

When you run DC systems, you need dedicated conduit for your DC cables, and dedicated conduit for your AC circuits. You'll also need dedicated conduits for telecoms, and dedicated conduits for power.

That being said - it's just daft running networking cable in the same conduit as power. You'll get interference problems, and not only that, but unless you break out of the conduit (which is another story all together seeing that draw boxes would be required), all your network cabling is going to end up in your DB, where again, you'll have even more issues with AC/DC/Telecoms systems in the same DB which aren't allowed.
 
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envo

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savage said:
Conductors in a conduit MUST be of the same type and voltage. You can not combine telecoms and power, or 220VAC and 24VDC in a single wireway.

When you run DC systems, you need dedicated conduit for your DC cables, and dedicated conduit for your AC circuits. You'll also need dedicated conduits for telecoms, and dedicated conduits for power.

That being said - it's just daft running networking cable in the same conduit as power. You'll get interference problems, and not only that, but unless you break out of the conduit (which is another story all together seeing that draw boxes would be required), all your network cabling is going to end up in your DB, where again, you'll have even more issues with AC/DC/Telecoms systems in the same DB which aren't allowed.
Click to expand...

Oooh, I think the OP didn't know to look for "wireway". First I've heard of it too and wanted to do the same thing (although I'm on the 2nd floor)

I'm also very interested to know how cat6a (which is shielded enough to not have much, if any, interference on our network equipment at work) and power would interfere so much with each other that it simply will be slower than the 20mbps the op is getting on those power over ethernet jobbies?

Since you seem to know your stuff, care to share anything we can do to wire up our apartments? My complex is a few years old, and I've already checked, tiles already out of date/stock (whatever) and won't be able to replace if I go with an underfloor conduit (which to me seems the best?)

How would you go about wiring up a place with network cable where there isn't separate conduits for each?

TIA
 
LazyLion

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Bad idea. Never run network cable close to electrical wiring. Even though it should be shielded you will experience degradation.
 
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