Cat5 near mains

[marvinwright1]

Hi,

I'm running CAT5 around my house and at some point in the run to 50% of my rooms the only way I can route the cables are under the floor boards of the first floor. On our landing where I want to route the cables there are quite a lot of mains cable's routed here too. It would make my CAT5 run parallel to the mains for just under 3 meters.
What can I do to minimise any interference in this section of the run ?
The cable is standard UTP solid core.

Any advice would be great.

Thanks,

Marvin.

[jro7563]

Im no expert here, but ive just run some CAT5-E and like you mine runs very close and next to mains voltage cables under the floorboards and i havent had any problems at all.

[MasterYoda]

there really won't be a problem

[marvinwright1]

Thanks guys, I searched on google about this and there are mixed opinions.
Guess I'd be real unlucky if it caused me any problem.

Cheers,

Marvin.

[KrisLee]

Morning,

Strictly there should be a 50mm separation between power and cat5. Cat5 can be run perpendicular to power. In your case I'd risk it as it's a only a small parallel run and you've got a very small network.

Regards,

Kris.

[marvinwright1]

I'll certainly be able to manage 50mm separation.
I'm sure it'll be fine

[dj-dulux]

As well as the 50mm rule, don't forget to follow the regs for the drilling of holes through beams etc. Don't want the floor collapsing!

Dupe...

[daniel_owen_uk]

Could always use shielded just for the extra piece of mind?

[Boyzer]

Lots of office infrastructure is put in using 3 part compartment dado trunking... And in my experience, most of the cabling has been put in the middle section, ie. the mains and the cat5e are running side by side, in many cases, with less than 50mm between them..

Which is mad, bearing mind the cost of the trunking!!

Similarly, i've seen hundreds of central office 'poles' which feed power, voice and data, sockes, which although i've not been in them, are probably no more than 2 inches wider than any single mains socket.

In short, keep them apart as much as you can, but I wouldn't worry, but do beg/borrow or steal a cat5e tester, which will highlight any weakness in your cabling... Never mind mains... Pinching, damage or just poor wiring at the ends (i.e. you might suffer from Near End Cross Talk) Which would mean you wouldn't get your full access and/or syncronise use of the 1gb, or 100mbs...

[marvinwright1]

Thanks a lot for all the replies. I have a basic cable tester, I know a network guy, I may be able to borrow a better tester.

Cheers,

Marvin.

[incentive]

50mm gap between high voltage and low voltage is all thats needed, that is the regs. if u can get more then so be it i wouldn't worry. i've seen loads and loads of low voltage stuff laying over swa and not having problems, and even getting passed at the end of jobs as nobody checks it anyway most of the time.

[Impossible]

Last summer I ran a network connection next to a 410v power cable outside. I was worried about the provide, but it did 100mb day in/day out for a week.

Imp

[thompma]

using 3 part compartment dado trunking... And in my experience, most of the cabling has been put in the middle section, ie. the mains and the cat5e are running side by side, in many cases, with less than 50mm between them

The 50mm ruling is difficult to think of a 50mm gap, where in the trunking example quoted, you'll find that the 50mm gap is the physical distance of the trunking "wall", which is typically 25mm deep, hence the 50mm distance.
Hope this helps.