Basic CAT5 question

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gascap

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...I think it's pretty basic anyway...

I need to run CAT5 from the finished basement studio PC DAW, to the second floor office PC - via the attic and back down to a jack in the wall - this final jack's conduit is already established to the attic.

There is no nice existing conduit to piggy back to, and I'm obviously trying to avoid as many hole cuts as possible.

There IS a nice straight air supply duct that goes straight up through the floors and would make super short work of the task - but I'm not sure that is wise considering the heated air that it would be living with for some 20 vertcal feet...maybe some sort of insulated conduit within that rascal?....

I could also route it all outside - maybe use an exterior grade CAT5 cable like shown here:

http://www.securityproshop.com/product/main.asp?pro_id=461&cat_id=

Does anyone know the ramifications of either scenario?...suggestions for the solution?

Thanks to all!
 
To my warped way of thinking the temperatures in the shaft shouldn't be too hot. Can you find some "high temperature" cat5 cable? Even the normal stuff should be fine would be my thought.

-lee-
 
No warpage there!

That's what I was thinking (and am hoping for) all along...unless I'm warped too.

I DO think it gets pretty toasty in there (115 degs at most)...which is a concern. I too think the normal stuuf is rated fine for that...I'm just not sure.

I'll post results as I discover.

Thanks!
 
CAT 5 performs very well at 120 degrees and below .

The wires inside CAT 5 are the same as telephone wire, and they have been living above and below ground for many years.

There are industrial solutions that regularly expose telephone communications wires for extended periods of time to temperatures in excess of 125 degrees.

Generally speaking, when installing this type of wire outdoors you want to keep it in shaded areas where high heat indexes would naturally occur, but it's not absolutely necessary.

You can measure a drop in data throughput above 120 degrees as heat does affect data throughput. Above 135 degrees you are going to see some data corruption, nothing the networking layers of the OSI model can't handle, but it will eat up some CPU cycles and could increase transfer time.

Above 140 degrees and you are going to start experiencing some problems.

What you want to avoide is crimping or otherwise causing any kind of pressure or extreme bending of the wire in heated conditions.
 
Legally, the NEC demands that if you run any cable inside a heating duct it must be "plenum rated" - I just got back from Home Despot, and they had both normal and plenum rated cat5 cable. A 1000' spool of the normal stuff was about $50, and the plenum rated was $150. Didn't see any shorter lengths of the plenum rated stuff.

Now you know the code, 'sup to you - I will say that one of the main reasons for this rule is fire spread - the plenum stuff is more expensive because it's supposed to be self-extinguishing.

Hope that helps... Steve
 
Oh definitely ... the plenum stuff will certainly go out by itself once it has caught fire and burned :D

Seriously though, if you live in a city limits, you should check the plenum code. That's a very good suggestion by knightfly.
 
Thanks, All!

I feel better about using the duct now...it did make me take pause though.

Thanks again!
 
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