Re: shielding low voltage wire, running low voltage wires aside 12-2 romex

["Robert L Bass" <RobertLBass@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

"G. Morgan" wrote:
>
> How about posting in plain text, genius.

Sure thing.

=== Plain Text Follows ===

> Thanks for the tips.  I've been trying to maintain separation in
> all cases but as several mentioned, it's nearly impossible in an
> older (late 1800's) home to do this in all cases.  12" of
> separation sounds ridiculous especially when studs are often 16" or
> less on center.  You can only drill so many holes before you are
> doing more structural damage than necessary.  I thought about
> testing it by wrapping some low voltage wire around some hot romex
> and testing throughput on the low voltage.  Has this been done and
> published before?

John,

Sorry you got treated to the abusive post from my stalker.  Perhaps I
should have been more clear when I said it's OK to run close and
parallel for a few feet.  By that I meant closer than one foot -- not
closer than 2 inches.

To recap, do not run high and low voltage services next to each
other.  Keep them as far apart as you can for optimum performance.
You don't need lots of holes, but you can not run low and high
voltage cables through the same holes.  That's a no-no (code to some;
law to others; call it what you like but don't do it).

The test you're considering probably won't tell you what will happen
long term if you run low voltage cables next to high voltage runs.
Everything may appear just fine at first but give problems later.
For example, I installed a security system in an older home in CT
years ago.  Some time later an someone else ran new 110VAC cables
right next to one of my keypad (data) runs.  Every so often one of
the keypads would operate erratically.  It didn't start happening
immediately and it wasn't all the time either.

On the first call I simply swapped out the pad, checked to see if it
was OK and left.  Shortly thereafter I got a call that the system was
still having problems.  The panel seemed OK because the other keypads
were working.  Upon investigation I found the new Romex cable lying
practically on top of my data cable.  I moved my cable over a couple
of feet and the problem was solved.

I've also serviced numerous systems which we took over from
competitors who couldn't fix problems.  If the client mentioned
keypads not responding or giving wrong indications, we'd disconnect
the data cables and meter them.  On a fair number of occasions we
found AC voltage being inducted into the security system cables.
Almost invariably rerouting a few cables solved the problems.

I've wired quite a few older homes, John.  One of them originally
belonged to Sebastian Shallus, brother of Jacob Shallus.  History
buffs will tell you how old that house is.  It was moved a number of
years ago to North Canton, Connecticut.  If you need help figuring
ways to wire an older home I'd be glad to share some techniques with
you.  I promise not to suggest anything that will weaken the
structure.  Call when you have some time (my phone is in my sig line)
and I'll try to help.

--

Regards,
Robert L Bass

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