Cat 5e For Security Wiring

[drader]

I am in the process of building a new home. I pre-wired (maybe by mistake) Cat 5e wire to all components of my security system NetworX NX-6V2. I have pre-wired for a motion sensor and glass break in two zones less than 100' from the control panel. I also wired the Cat 5e to the keypad.

Will this wire work or do I need to pull everything and use 22/4?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[WayneW]

It should work fine, you aren't the first to do this.

 

[maximusbraveheart]

I think it is rec'd for keypads due to the data rate (just put in an Elk). Wired motion sensors can use a fair number of wires too. It is always handy to have some spare wires in the area for something else. You can double up or more to drive speakers etc. I think it may be a waste for window contacts as 2 conductors is all that is needed & there are so many runs. It would add up.

 

[Spanky]

The wire gets a little fat around the door and window sensors that only need two wires, but maybe you can stuff it into the wall cavity. There is not a problem running CAT5 for any of the security sensors except the siren speaker which should have 18 ga. or larger wire. You can use two 2 pairs wired together for each wire in parallel for the speaker to get the larger wire if you have CAT5 already run.

 

[HighTest]

If you use Cat 5E, do you twist some of the pairs together? I noticed that the length list goes down in length for smaller gauge wire.

For example, on my Caddx, the manual shows 22 guage only allowing 250' for the keypads. With Cat 5E at 24 guage, unless you twist some of the wires together, you'll have a shorter distance. This may vary from system to system depending on their requirements.

So as long as you twist them together, I think you'll be fine. As to the twist method, does anyone have suggestions?

One method may be two twist each pair together (orange/white twisted with white/orange), but maybe you want the return (common) to be twisted in, so it'd be orange/white twisted with blue/white and the returns twisted on the white/orage and white/blue for EMI/RF suppression?

This is where it's not too clear, but I think either approach should be fine.