I'm looking at feeding both a coaxial and an Ethernet(probable cat6A) cable too multiple locations in my house shortly. I was wondering what size conduit should I use?
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1How many of each cable will be in the conduit? Do you have a data sheet and/or dimensions of the cables you'll be using? What type of conduit do you plan to use? – Tester101 Oct 21 '15 at 12:27
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1Don't forget to take into account the minimum bend radius for each cable when planning the conduit. – RedGrittyBrick Oct 21 '15 at 13:27
After a quick google search, I've estimated the dimensions of the cables as follows:
- RG6 - diameter = 0.33", area = 0.08552 sq.in.
- CAT6 = diameter = 0.25", area = 0.0491 sq. in.
So to run just these two cables, you're going to need 3/4" conduit (based on NEC Chapter 9 Tables). If you run two of each cable (4 total cables), you'll need 1" conduit. Three of each (6 total cables), you'll need 1 1/4" conduit.
answered Oct 21 '15 at 12:51
Pulling at maximum conduit fill (40% other than for short sections) is a huge pain. As such, I prefer to go larger unless there is a space constraint. That also leaves you more open for future options (the joy of conduit for communications cables is that you can easily have the right communications cables when what the right ones are changes.)
You'll probably want to use 1" ENT in 2x6 framing, 3/4" ENT in 2x4 framing. The 1" is preferable because you can get an HDMI cable through it if you ever need to, but you shouldn't drill holes that big through 2x4 framing.
answered Oct 22 '15 at 0:09
