distance from RG6 to power cables

[arley]

Greetings:

I am in the process of rewiring my house, and in addition to the power lines, I'm having the electrician pull a ton of RG6 throughout the house to give me future flexibility. I have heard that you're not supposed to run coax in the same conduit as power lines because the current in the power lines can screw up the signal in the coax.

Simple question: how far apart do the coax lines need to be from the power conduits? I'll be running coax and Cat5e lines separate from the power lines. Six inches? a foot?

If the technical details have any bearing on the matter, I'm running Belden 1694a coax throughout. All cable runs will go through a structured media center (the Leviton 42" box--I'm going to run the phone system and a whole-house computer network through that box, and maybe some home automation stuff in the future), The distance from the future satellite site to the Leviton media center box where i'll install a multiswitch is about 100'; since I think I'll be using a 3-lnb dish I'll probably have him run 4 or 5 runs of coax from the dish to the Leviton box.

The ideal place for the Leviton box is about 2-3 feet from TWO 200 amp breaker boxes which control the electrical supplythe whole house. Is this too close together, or should I install the Leviton box elsewhere?

Any guidance would be appreciated. I don't want to have to redo this later, as it would involve tearing into walls a second time.

As far as WHICH dish I will install, a lot depends on what is announced at the Charlie Chat tonight. ;)

Arley

[cnsf]

One suggestion is that you double up on each coax run to make space for dual tuner Tivos or other PVRs.

If the coax is insulated well enough as should be the power lines (romex), you should be fine using the same conduits. You may have issues with the CAT5e or regular phone lines if you use DSL and have them close to power lines. Don't share conduits with 220 lines.

I'd place the leviton box away from the breaker box. You're bound to have poorly insulated lines somewhere in the breaker box. Give yourself at least a few feet. A separate room would be even better.

Hope this helps.

[arley]

Thanks for the info; I had planned to run two runs of coax to each room that might possible have video in the future, with the idea that I could use that as a spot to originate video, but using it for a second tuner makes a lot of sense.

I've read "SmartHomes for Dummies" and know just enough to be a pain in the rear to the electricians. That book talked about using your vcr to broadcast a video all over the house--I can't imagine ever wanting to do something like that, but I wuz gonna pull the cable anyway for that capability.

[cnsf]

The VCR thing is similar to a central Tivo idea (I think UltimateTV has a server like this). Better to have the two cables in each room and you can also use a diplexer on one line to get in a third signal if necessary.

RG-6 insulation is pretty good. Cat5e is a little more sensitive as is plain phone (2 twisted pairs) line.

If the ower line is well grounded and insulated, you should be fine next to RG-6. DSL is iffy. I had a T-1 in the same binding (outside) as my phone line and couldn't get DSL because of it. Got a new phone # w/different routing and it was fine then. Try to keep your CAT5e runs as short as possible. Over 300ft could really impact the signal.

[Mike123abc]

You should put conduit in so you can pull what you need later... Who knows what you will need in the future. I just redid the wiring when remodeling a bedroom, I put in a 4x4 box with 2 conduits going to it (1/2 and 3/4) to the attic. I stuck a cover on it (the room has a separate RG-6 wire already. It is hard to predict the future, if you are going to have plasterers out anyways may as well tear up the wall a bit and have them fix it back up before you paint and in the future you may be very thankful... At the worst you just have an unused blank plate in the wall forever.

[arley]

Great minds think alike; I told the electrician to run a few runs of blank conduit from the basement to the attic.

Looking back on the history of consumer electronics, who would have ever thought in the mid sixties when telephone area codes came about, that we'd be running out of exchanges? Nobody saw the need for numbers for fax machines and cell phones since they didn't exist. similarly, I thought about running fiber throughout the house but since there isn't any reasonable application in the near future, I held off on it; but those blank conduits may come in handy in the future.

There is a quote, possibly apocryphal, attributed to the head of the US patent office in the late 1800's or early 1900's that the Patent Office should be dissolved because everything that could be invented, already HAD been invented.

Anybody out there have any experience with the Leviton phone switching boards that go in the structured wiring panels??