What Guage Wire for motion detectors

You can use Cat5 if you need to and it will work fine but typically as said 22/4 (either solid or stranded) is used.
 
What you have to be careful of with alarm devices is that the terminal blocks are rated for a range of wire (not always noted in the installation instructions) and usually go from 14 to 22 awg as an example from one mfg I work for. Using wire less than 22 may not make a reliable connection (I say may not as it is a case by case) and could cause false alarms etc. Not saying it will always be a problem but the potential is there.
 
Also, worth noting that solid wire especially in harsh environments such as warehouses and outdoors will likely get brittle with age and temperature.

I have on occation used cat5 to wire security. (rather, I have used a cat5 that wasn't being used on customers network to avoid some exposed wiring that would have been unavoidable otherwise)

It is amazing how creative you can get when you have to. I have even seen someone wire two PIRs on a single 22/4 and have two zones. The technique bugs the snot out of me from a service tech standpoint though it does work. (red/black power and green as hi for zone "A" and yellow as hi for zone "B" both devices share low or common with (-) of the power)

The point is that you can use a bunch of different wire/ wiring techniques and get the same result. Just keep in mind what problems might arise over the years. (In normal everyday wire is used outside or underground in conduit it will over the years crack, become corroded and quite possibly become the dreaded "Ground Fault" service call.
 
I used cat5 because that's what my wiring guy wanted to use - but it was a little trickier to work with - the wires can break easily. I also doubled up pairs which again, isn't as easy to work with.

If I were doing it again, I'd use 22 or 24/4 stranded - much easier to work with. Also keep in mind on panel end, you're combining the power from several sensors into one, so stranded just twists together better. however, as mentioned above, you can make almost anything work.
 
Which panel did you go with?

I'm looking for a bunch of terminal strips. Something just to make a nice easy connection from my wires running around the house to the I/O of the input blocks (think patch panel for networking...tie all the wires from around the house to one point, then from there wire them into the hubs).

--Dan
 
For my 8 PIRs, I used cat5e to each one, 4 conductors for the PIR. I then doubled up the remaining four conductors and used them for an Elk SP12 speaker at each location. The eight speakers wired in parallel come in right at the Elk's built-in amp specs.

I have not had any problems with this scheme. The bottom picture shows the two Elk input expanders (wiring still needs to be tamed a bit). At the top are terminal strips. Horizontal is power + and - to the PIR's. The two vertical strips are + and - for the Elk speakers.

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