In the process of changing all my utilities to underground service and have a question on the phone and CATV. I ran two separate 1″ pvc conduits, one for the phone and one for the catv, now that I have these conduits sticking up out of the ground outside my house now what? What is the best way to get these cables in the house and get them attached to my ground system and still keep them protected in conduit? I have an existing demarc box for the phone that I can relocate and use, but what about the catv line? Currently the catv line comes overhead to a terminal block w/ground attached to a small ground rod and then enters the wall (not in conduit).
Is there any type of demarc box that will handle both the phone and catv for the outside, or should I just have them enter the house and use some type of terminal block or network interface inside.
How is this typically done?
Thanks
Replies
I shifted mine to enter on the 3rd floor so burglars can't cut them (this is overhead of course).
Anyway, if you want to be a stickler for the catv ground, add a ground coupling, then just bring the cable in anyway you want, but I think it will have to exit the conduit before the ground coupling. you can use an 'el' and the phone and catv can probably be in the same conduit, though since you have two conduits now, I don't know how you would join them.
Some utilities that offer both cable and phone will have a special box with a NIC, and then you bring your house lines to the NIC. It sounds like this would be the best approach for your situation. It probably has a ground bus in it, and hopefully you could secure the conduit to the box with a coupling of some type.
I have a distribution box for LAN, cable, phone and sound, so the installers just brought the cable all the way to the distribution box. The phone is six pair, so they added a small punch down block, and put a patch cable from the punchdown block to the distribution block.
When I built my house I ran the cable, phone, and electric each in separate conduits right through the wall, conduit and all.
Then the cable (co-ax) and phone (6-pair) enter a home network interface box (http://www.leviton-lin.com/catalog/BuildPage.aspx?BuildPageID=575), which is grounded.
I can post some pictures later on when I get some batteries for my digital camera charged up.
Great stuff. I am doing the same
The Leviton has been brought to m yattention before. I have been told to go with a big box, cuz you always add stuff later.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
WWPD
That ground rod is for lightning suppresion. You should also ground the cable to conduit or the main panel. If you don't ground the cable at all or to a place not at the same electrical potential as the main panel, you'll have a ground loop and all kinds of weird things can happen. Grounding to a water pipe makes no sense, since we're talking about an electrical issue and the plumbing is usually somewhat corroded to some degree. If there is resistance between the ground for the water pipe and the main panel, you haven't really grounded the coax since it's not at true ground potential. Given the choice between grounding to a water pipe and the main panel, go with the panel. If you decide to use a structured wiring panel for the coax, phone and network, you can ground the cable to the panel, then run a ground for the panel to the main panel(assuming you have Romex in the house). Structured wiring panels make everything a lot neater and keeps it from taking over the basement.
"I cut this piece four times and it's still too short."
Edited 10/4/2005 5:58 pm ET by highfigh
The "new standard" for cable in many areas is for them to have a demark box similar to a phone one only larger. Ask the cable co.
Also, be aware that code requires that the cables have an arrester within NN feet of entrance into the structure. I think this applies even to underground feeds.
Edited 10/4/2005 7:14 pm by DanH