what do electrical codes have to say about prewiring a cat5 cable into an electrical box... for example to install emitters to run Lutron Spacer system?

Is this legal? I know many here have done this practice... but I wanted to know if there was anything "improper" about doing it.

Not cool. It will never pass inspection. NEC states you cant share a box w/out a divider. Frankly, we cheat. It's a tough situation because we have to put our IR in. What we do is pull to the gang, coiled above. Wait until C.O. and pull over the top of the gang and in from the front. Don't jack up the sheetrock.

addition to post:

We want to get an electrican to install a simple Lutron Spacer system in our basic theatre showroom.

4 light groups, 4 dimmers, 4 scenes.

We want to choose scenes with IR from RTI RP6.

Do we need to put in an inwall Lutron master control? Or can we just have four Spacer dimmers, and blast IR in the box (I've read posts on emitter placement...so that looks easy enough)

If we don't have a master control (just RTI remote) how do you program scenes? The literature says you set the dimmers, then press and hold a master control scene key. SO is it possible without the master controller to set scenes?

Sorry for the newbie lighting questions... but we're not doing any lighting design for clients and just want to do up our showrooms nicely.

We have a Grafik eye hidden behind the rack, with a slave switch at the door of the theater. This way you can just stick the emitter right on the front of the Grafik eye... no code worries.

With the simple Spacer system, you set your scene, then press and hold the corresponding button on the Lutron remote. There are several codes in the Master Library and the Mega list (of which I'm certain that your familiar). To program the scenes without the Lutron remote, you might try it with a press and hold on the RTI remote... make sure you've got the buttons set up to "Sustain" when you do your programming... in theory, this should work.

thanks guys... seems pretty straight up.

actually in the nec code book there is a place where it says you can have low voltage and high voltage in same box....... i have pointed this out to about 5 municipalities and their inspectors...... the cat5 must be for data control of switch /device and cat 5 must be rated at 300volt s and like 80 celcius or something like that...... i even had u.l. contact inspector because he did not beileive what he read.

best thing to do is have electric inspector out to job site explain what you are doing and he/she will let you know how they want it done

ed

I usually just put the wire coiled up above or below the box and after sheetrock I just go in and fish it out between the box and the rock. If you are using Homeworks switches hey are designed so that the low voltage wires actually stick out between the box and the rock.

Thanks, ceied. I will have to do some digging as that "loophole" could save us some grief. Good call.

Ceied,
Could you point out what section in NEC, 1999 would be preferred.

Also, I thought that it could be done as long as the wire met NEC and/or local requirements. Look at Homeworks panels. However, I thought that if you carried a LV license, C-12 in AZ, that you can not touch anything over 60 Volts and where it is terminated.. Meaning the same gang box. Thus, you would need to have a license electrician term the wire in his/her gang.

Anyone else have clarification on this?

NEC 2002 = 800.52 The wires must maintain a .25" separation. 620.36 Spells it out clearly for lighting control. Anthony.. no need to dig here it is. It is one of the practice questions for the Florida electrical contractors exam. 800.52 is a bit cofusing but 620.36 clears up any room for the inspector to spin it.
Hope this helps.

I think Lutron makes a Radio RA product that converts an IR signal to the Radio RA signal. With this, you would put in Radio RA dimmers and then put the IR thingy in the rack. Wire that IR things to whatever remote rpeater you are using and viola.

No need to worry about cat 5 and reliability of mouse emitters on the spacers. I always found this to be a bit intermittent at best when controllintg multiple spacers.

The back of the spacer is clear. The emitter goes on the back. That way it is outa sight outa danger of being ripped off or a blocked flasher across the room.

NEC 2005 the code you should be following now has deleted 800.52.

Where is Larry Fine when you need him?

How does this "low voltage in a high voltage box" topic, a seemingly dubious area, affect things like Vantage lighting control wiring for example? Their cable is low voltage 2 conductor wiring but runs to each dimmer/switch. I'm sure they didn't compromise any codes to be able to achieve their control...?

Is it just the gauge of wiring or the class of insulation or something that I'm not aware of that the NEC considers in its rulings?

Does anyone know/care.

Do you think I'm spending too much time on Remote Central?

Should I pay more attention to my business?

Hoo.. wife just brought me a beer..gotta go.