Home Restoration: Separating electrical cabling from TV and other cables

In today’s world, Home Restoration means a lot of things, and with the current wave of technology hitting us face first, we need to know how to handle the myriad of variables that come along this tech tsunami.

In previous articles we talked about the need for doing good cabling especially when it comes to electricity. This keeps the structure safe from short circuits and the damage that might come along, now, one of the ways we usually handle this is by piping the cable. Now, you might be asking why, because a home is not a building ergo not the same amount of cable go along. Well, you’re wrong. In today’s homes, there’s not much difference between the cabling you might find there than an office.

This is because there are many things installed in homes these days: satellite and/or cable TV, home security systems that use cameras, local computer networks and wifi access points, and these is just the start.

The existence of all this different kinds of cables make it more than necessary to know how to handle them and most importantly how to keep them away from electrical cables. The reason for this does not revolve around the factor of short circuits, but also the interference one can cause to the other.

Allow us to explain, electricity is measured in voltage and current, electrical current creates magnetic fields which by nature interfere with any other signal coming along any type of cabling, now, this disturbance may go unnoticed unless the cables it is being caused on correspond to either TV or security cameras. Also there’s the risk of what’s known in electricity as a “voltaic arc” which means that, electricity by nature looks for the shortest way to the ground, if it “feels” there’s quick way, voltage “jumps” from one cable to the other if they are close enough creating not just a short circuit but burning anything and everything on the end of the cable.

This is why, the number one recommendation when doing home restoration involving re-cabling or cabling new areas is to put electrical cables in metal piping configurations, this keeps them from causing unwanted interference on other devices as well as blocking any voltaic arc that might present itself.

It is also important to have an electrician always present when you do this kind of jobs so you have a professional hand nearby for questions and assistance.