A word of warning, it must be said that you shouldn't have a "normal" data cable in the same conduit as mains.
With CAT 6 cable you won't have transmission/interference problems, but still it is not allowed by code, unless the network cable is of the type insulated up to 400V, marked with "CEI-UNEL 36762 C-4 (U0=400V)", see (italian):
https://fibra.click/cavi/#coesistenza-con-cavi-in-tensione
https://www.cavel.it/it/supporto-tecnico/certificazioni/coes...
When I moved into my apartment it had just been "certified" by an electrician which took a week. There were outlets without covers on them. Exposed live stripped wires hanging in the hallway. Ground wire to the breaker box but not actually connected to the rest of the house. Exposed terminal blocks hanging everywhere. I doubt this "professional" even bothered to visit the place and just cashed a royal fee to sign the paperwork.
It's a total joke. If this crap gets "certified" then a DC cable beside an AC one In a conduit is really no issue :)
If you see clearly illegal things, report them. The person doing the certification can have their license revoked.
Things aren't always ideal but please don't turn this into a laughing matter.
If I reported such a situation in Canada, it may or may not have satisfactory official resolution before heat death of the universe. One can hope.
If I reported such a situation where I was born, at best nothing would happen ; more likely I would get laughed at. (At worst, electrician and their 3 buddies would teach me a valuable lesson about how things work around these here parts).
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARSpp4B9-X4
[2] https://sschueller.github.io/posts/wiring-a-home-with-fiber/
Homeowners insurance generally covers negligence by the owner
Does it?
I just know several people who have done their own 'renovations' that have had insurance claims turned down (even after arbitration) because they didn't have a licenses contractor do the work. People who insisted they knew better than anyone else. Typical.
So rewire at your own risk, I guess.
And the second is that mains lines are AC and could introduce noise into the wired lines - again, fiber isn't susceptible to this.
The new norm allows this mixing as long as the low voltage cables are certified as having insulation for 400 V.
Still you cannot strip the cable (i.e. you cannot put a terminator/receptacle) in the same box as mains.
The code is mainly about electrical safety, it doesn't consider the possibility of interference, that is "your" problem (but shielded cables give no problems in practice).
> 300.3
> (C) Conductors of Different Systems.
> (1) 600 Volts, Nominal, or Less. Conductors of ac and dc
> circuits, rated 600 volts, nominal, or less, shall be permitted
> to occupy the same equipment wiring enclosure, cable, or
> raceway. All conductors shall have an insulation rating
> equal to at least the maximum circuit voltage applied to any
> conductor within the enclosure, cable, or raceway.
Basically idea is to prevent a low/less voltage cable from potentially being energized by a higher voltage cable. It would suck to strip the ends off your CAT6 and discover it's been energized to 240v.
Although residential in the US rarely (never?) goes above 170 volts (peak), which is more forgiving than the ~325V of most of the world.
Article 100 defines a raceway as “An enclosed channel designed expressly for holding wires, cables, or bus bars, with additional functions as permitted in this Code”
I.e. you can have in same conduit a "protected" (double insulation) mains cable (the type is called FG16 now, it was FG7) and a low voltage/signal cable.
The idea is that the FG cable in itself, having the external insulation besides the single wire insulation and being suitable to "unprotected" installation can coexist with signal cables, the conduit in this case is only an added mechanical protection.
The type of certified 400 V insulated cables I mentioned earlier is instead allowed to coexist with "normal" single wires (this is the normal way electricity is distributed in buildings) inside a conduit.
The issue using FG cables (besides the fact that it is way harder to be inserted in small conduits) might be that it would be suitable to power (say) a mains receptacle (live+neutral+earth) but wouldn't be suitable for (still say) a diverter or a reverse switch due to the colour coding of the wires.
Claiming a conduit is just a convenience doesn't change anything.
Where did you get the 170/325 numbers? In residential applications it's 220-240v for most of the world. North America uses split phase for most outlets but major appliances still run on 220-240v.
While they call mains voltage 120V, that's actually RMS voltage and not peak voltage. The peak is 170V, which I think is a better gauge for thinking about insulation and safety (by the time power is being resistively dissipated, you've already lost). Residential "240V" circuits use opposing legs of a split phase, so nothing is more than 170V from ground, which is what matters for insulation and most failure modes. You're not going to get any more of a shock from a "240V" residential circuit than a "120V" one unless you manage to touch both ungrounded conductors at the same time - it's the arc flash risk that gets worse.
Although now that I'm really thinking about it, maybe mixing insulation types is not foolproof at the extremes. If there is a wire with 170V inside sitting in free space, the worst case assumption is that it can have 170V on the outside of its insulation as well (due to the parasitic resistance and capacitance across the insulation, and ignoring the parasitics to ground. If this sounds strange to you, think about how those non-contact voltage testers can work). So if you put a grounded conductor with a low insulation rating right next to it, that insulation could have voltage across it higher than its own rating (depending on its parasitic R/C), which may cause it to break down over time. The possibility is likely moot with real world values, but still.
But you’re right, I haven’t seen any professional installation, that doesn’t use CAT 7 for a long time.