Networking and electrical wires are two different types of wires that are the most important part of any home or office wiring. While electrical wire powers the electric components, networking wire is important to have connectivity with the internet.
These two wires cannot go together in any case. There should be a difference between both of these wires to ensure optimal connectivity for both wires. However, there are different opinions about it and let’s have a look at some scenarios.
How Far Does Networking Wire Need To Be Away From Electrical
Running them Side-by-side
It is never recommended to run electrical and networking wire side by side. This can cause interference on your networking wire that would create connectivity and speed issues for your connection. If it is mainline to your house or your office, it is imminent that you keep your networking wire as far away from it as possible.
There are different opinions about running networking wires with different sort of cables and distance but some of the most popular cables that are being used and their optimal distances should be as follow.
DSL wire
A DSL or Digital Subscriber Wire is not protected against any noise interference. The rubber coating on it is only to protect it against wear and tear or any sort of damages. Hence, it is never recommended to run your DSL wire along with an electric cable in any case. You should keep them away from each other at all times as if they are brought close, you will end up losing your internet connection completely. Needless to say, if the wires connect with each other at any point, it can cause a short circuit as well.
Coaxial cable
Coaxial cable is optimally protected against any interference. It contains a dual-layer of protection that is insulation and then a steel mesh to reflect back any sort of interference that you can get from an electric cable.
However, electric signals can be stronger sometimes or your coaxial cable can lose its efficiency to resist these interferences over time. Hence, it is recommended to keep coaxial cable at least 12 inches away from your electrical wire to ensure that there is no noise or interference with your coaxial cable at all times.
Ethernet Cable
Ethernet cable is the most protect and insulated cable. The latest Cat5/6 cables are designed to protect the information and data on the cable from any sort of outside interference. However, it is still not recommended to run it side-by-side with an electrical cable.
You can run an electrical table down one stud and the ethernet cable down a different stud. The optimal distance that you can keep between these cables is 8 inches but anything less than that would not cause you any problems either unless one or both of these wires have some damage at a certain point that would cause their cables inside to touch each other and that can cause a disaster. That is why it is recommended to have at least 8-inches difference between them both.