Catenery carrying Cat5e

[Richard]

Morning all,

Is there any requirement to earth the catenery of the above situation?

I can't see any reason to, so was just wondering what others had to say.

Thank you

 

[supasparxs]

Hi Richard,
I'm probably wrong but I would say that you do not need the earth the Catenery.

One thing I would mention if you are running the Cat5e outside I would use Cat5ePE

The PE is for a hard casing around the cable so that it is duct graded

(great name by the way

Richard

 

[Rockingit]

I would say that the only thing you need to consider is that the catenary does not create an earth path between two otherwise separate buildings (ie, if they are both of metal construction but maybe one is a TT and the other a TN).

 

[MarkieSparkie]

Hi Richard, Your catenary should not be directly earthed in normal circumstance, in fact it is considered good practice in industry to insulate one (or both) ends with porcelain or nylon spacers, this is not normally required in a domestic situation. There are two issues with standard Cat5 cable that you may wish to address:- 1) The outer insulation is thin and any movement relative to the catenery wire (e.g. in windy conditions) is likely to abrade the sheath. 2) Because the outer insulation is thin it's exposure to UV light is going to embrittle the sheath quite quickly. Therefore it's important to source cable with a black sheath (high carbon-black content) to minimise the effect.
If your span is not excessive, running the cable(s) in conduit may be more suitable.