I have course to run around 20meters of 6mm SWA to an outbuilding for power, and want to run CAT5 into it too. I'll probably use 2 pairs of this for telephone, and 2 pairs for computer.
Am I likely to get mains hum / interferance from the SWA?
Whenever I've done this I bury the SWA in a trench with sand around it, then electricity warning tape above that.
I run in a duct of 50mm plastic waste pipe for data and phone cables. The simple solution to cable pulling with this is to tie a small piece of rag to a bit of string and then use a vacuum cleaner to pull it through the pipe. I attach a double length of polypropylene cord to the string, allowing me to pull cables through. One length of cord remains in the pipe.
It would be less likely with screened CAT5 ..... I take it you know that it is not allowed to run data comms & power in same conduit or trunking - unless physically separated?
Shouldn't worry about it at all, we've done this and have had no problems at all. CAT 5 is an inherently balanced system like balanced audio where you can run circuits around willy nilly without problems.
Anyway the SWA cable does much to contain the mains "field" within.
Yes maybe, but does that *really matter* in this instance?.
Consider the number of places where CAT5, phone, and power leads are in very close proximity to each other?, like behind most every PC workstation or home PC, and I've never heard of a problem as yet.
Andy wossisnames Idea of burying the SWA cable separately is quite a good one though, after all you've paid for something that you can direct bury, so I suppose you might as well make use of it unless you really want to be able to pull it up occasionally.....
If you want to stick to the wiring regulations you aren't supposed to put mains (LV) cables and signal cables in the same duct.
If it becomes subject to inspection at some point in the future (e.g. on sale) this might be detected and flagged.
From the EMC perspective, probably not a problem, I agree.
The other factor in this is if duct like 50mm waste pipe with bends is used, it may be hard to get SWA to go through it. Flexible cables will of course.
SWA may as well be buried direct. As for pulling cables through a duct they might come round a swept 90 bend when the duct is empty but once you get a few cables in there it'll start to get tight and two 90 bends I'd say is really asking for them not to pull at all. Plan to have access points at changes of direction, makes life so much easyier in the long run, straight pulls are *much* easier.
Yes the regulations etc state that...but its not a problem otherwise, and if any one cops the strop about that here if we decide to sell then I'll just cut the data cable and that will be that.
If there was a political party promoting its self on de-regulation than they'd get my vote anyday:))
Its unlikley to interfer with each other. Its only when you run the CAT 5 past MRI machies, and the like you have to start worring.
Its normal to run the CAT 5 and the 240v in two seperate trunkings, so your sparkies don't screw the computer data comms, and the data comms guys don't kill themselves with 240v. This is because the two are different skill sets, and two different sets of people.
In my house I run them both together.
I would run a 110mm pipe, and have gentle bends. Its just easier when you want to push something else through later.
If you take a look under the floor in the data center of most large companies, you will find miles of all types of cables just chucked under there, no trunking, no labels, no neetness. When you stop using a cable, you just cut the ends off and leave it down there. Now some new places do it all neet, but I have never seen one stay that way for long.
Come on!, have you ever known that to happen?. And if you did then there must have been a total moron on the loose who could have done much more damage......
I'm sure some places do get that way; whether it's "most" is not something I have enough data on. I know that *our* computer room and office underfloors do keep the Cat5 runs quite neat and separated from the 240VAC - the Cat5 (of which there really is rather a lot:
80-100 cubicle-placement-opportunities per floor, floodwired with 8+ Cat5 ports each, and more for the machine rooms in the central area of each floor!) runs on chromed-wire cable trays, loosely cable-tied in place. The 240VAC feeds run lower, with singles running in closed galvanised trunking, feeding floorports either directly or through Klik-style sockets. There's vertical separation between 'em (the mains trunking sits on the underfloor, the Cat5 trays are on stands, so that the two can cross without needing to change levels), there aren't many places where the two run parallel for long; and the lighting runs (oddly enough) in the suspended ceiling rather'n down below. It's a bit more of a mess up there, though the clear intention is that the lighting wiring runs on cable tray - but there's door-security cabling, some CCTV, and other stuff which various contractors have added with not as much neatness as the building services people would like ;-)
I once witnessed a 110 volt valve heater circuit get feed back down and into the output stage of a early IC pre amp / mixer (early 1970's design) due to a broken stray terminal, it made quite a mess - the only part of the pre amp that were able to be saved for use was the mains power supply.... :~((
FWIW I used 4 inch soil pipe round our gaff for that very reason. The only place I've used 50 mm is for the ducts that come in from the two sat dishes hidden out in our garden, where there are only two cables involved......
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