Cat6/Low Voltage Termination in a wooden enclosure

Question

I have been bouncing around the idea of running CAT6 thru my older (1970s) house. Single story with an unfinished attic

I have identified a bedroom closet as the potential location for the central wiring location. The closet is on the outer wall of the house.

Rather than install a patch panel in the closet itself and have to deal with tidying up all of the resulting cables, I was toying with the idea of a wooden enclosure directly above the closet

Something along the lines of this http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S89046815/ With a pair of 6U rails to mount the patch panels. Rails would be mounted about 6" in on the client cable side and 9" in on the termination side

Nail some attic decking onto the joists and secure the enclosure onto the decking

Run all cables up into the attic Drill a 4" hole on the side of the enclosure to feed cables from wall jacks (or maybe drill a series of holes and just run smurf tube directly into the enclosure) Drill a 3" hole on the bottom and run a short length of PVC to feed the switch (24 port for now but possibly 48 later) or pass patch cables from router and VOIP up to the panel.

Would this raise any code violations?
Potential fire hazard maybe from terminating inside a wooden enclosure in the unfinished attic? Any structural code issues from putting this near the outer wall/studs.

Any other problems this might cause that I'm overlooking?

Answer 1

No obvious code violations. You're talking about low voltage cable in a non-plenum area, and any cable you buy is almost certainly going to be plenum-rated anyway.

If you're using an enclosed box like the one you referenced, dust probably won't be a huge problem.

Heat will not be a problem if you're just pulling cable and terminating it in patch panels.

However; if you're planning to put any actual electronic equipment in that box, like network switches, the attic heat could be a serious problem even if you install fans in the box to vent hot air. The air you'd be drawing into the box from the attic will be hot.

Presumably, the entire purpose of putting the patch panel in the box is to put things like your cable or DSL modem, router and switch(es) in the box, too. Those may all be the same device, of course, depending on your configuration.

I suppose you could run some ductwork and use both intake and vent fans in the box to draw cool air through it from your living area. But that's getting pretty elaborate.

I would just put it all on a high shelf in your closet. But even then, it is possible that your equipment will generate enough heat that you'll need to vent the closet to avoid damage to the equipment.