Please assure me I'm not going to burn my house down.

toddverrone OP 102 posts                                                02-17-2017 10:04pm

I’m not dead yet.. ;-)

Wiliewonka - cat 5 plenum cable insulation is Teflon and is good to 200* C. Cat 5 is also rated to 300v. Not 600, but well above 120.

//

Actually they make a shielded 600V insulation rated twisted 4 pair cable.
The insulation rating is not for the copper conductors of the twisted pair cable. It’s so the cable can be installed in the same cable assembly or raceway, like a Cable Tray, with other conductors. Or in an MCC, (Motor Control Center) cabinet with power cables. NEC code says the cables shall have an insulation voltage rating not less than the highest voltage of other wires or cables in the same raceway, cabinet, or cable assembly.

Benefits of Using Belden DataTuff Category 5e 600V AWM-Rated CablesBelden provides two Industrial Ethernet Category 5e cables designed specifically for superior electrical performance and outstanding noise immunity. The Belden DataTuff 4-pair shielded cables carry a 600V AWM rating which makes them approved for use in listed MCCs and switch gear, and they feature Belden’s patented Bonded-Pair technology. While these cables have the design and certifica-tions that make them ideal for MCC and switch gear applications, they can also be used for more tradi-tional Ethernet applications. They are not, however, intended for 600V power delivery.

https://www.belden.com/docs/upload/NP314.pdf

NOTE: They ARE NOT, however, intended for 600V power delivery.

//

A twisted 4 pair cable is not designed/manufactured to be used as a mains power cord. It can be used for low current power application. Example would be POE (Power Over Ethernet) LED lighting. There are other power limited examples.
You can parallel all the conductors together as you want but it still does not increase the maximum allowable current rating of the twisted pair cable per UL or NEC.

As far as I know the outer jacket of the cable sole purpose is to hold the lay/geometry of 4 pairs in place. Yes it can be PVC or plenum rated for where it can be used to meet NEC code. Changing the lay/geometry of the 4 pairs will change the design characteristics of the cable. The cable is made in non shielded and shielded.

//

I decided to make a PC out of cat 5 plenum cable. I kept it in its blue sleeve (containing 4 twisted pairs) and then I braided 3 lengths together for each conductor. I then took those three braids and braided them. What I have sounds incredible and I’m fairly confident that it is safe electrically.

If you are hell bent on using cat 5e for a power cord I would suggest you use some type of recognized insulating sleeve material to cover the paralleled groups of the hot and neutral conductors prior to braiding them together. Teflon has zero physical abuse properties. I know of no UL Listed aftermarket power cord that uses Teflon for the outer insulation covering the current carrying line conductors.
When bent too sharply it stretches the outer side of the bend making it even thinner than it already is. With an approved outer insulating sleeve material the entire length of the cable you will insure there is no chance of a HOT line to neutral or Hot Line to equipment ground short or worse arcing. Arcing is the main cause of electrical fires.

It’s not the connected load of the piece of audio equipment you should be worried about. It’s the available short circuit/ground fault power your branch circuit and electrical panel can deliver.
And just because you paralleled a bunch of insulated 24 gauge copper wires together does nothing for just a few that might fault, for what ever reason, from hot to neutral, or hot to equipment ground. Only those few are at play in the faulted circuit.

Safety electrical standards and codes are written for the what if happens.

The actual insulation around the wire itself is Teflon... I think the blue outer sleeve is PVC.

Not from my experience. The outer jacket is Teflon and the insulation around the wire is PVC. It is the outer jacket of the cable that is plenum rated.

In the case of Belden they stopped using Teflon for the outer jacket of their plenum rated cable years ago. Belden developed their own outer jacket material. It is called Flamarrest®.

Outer Jacket Trade Name Outer Jacket Material
Flamarrest® LS PVC - Low Smoke Polyvinyl Chloride

//

That said, this was just meant to be an experiment to see what I think about multiple solid gauge conductors, separately insulated and braided together to form larger conductors. I’ll probably do something similar out of 20 or 18 gauge 600v wire. Any recommendations? OCC or the like would be nice.

There are quite a few cable company manufactures that make after market power cords for audio equipment that use multiple paralleled individually insulated solid core wire for each of the two current carrying conductors of their cords.

Examples of aftermarket power cords using multiple insulated solid core conductors.

PS Audio
http://www.audioadvisor.com/prodinfo.asp?number=PSPWAC5

Pangea Audio AC 9SE MKII Signature Power Cable
http://www.audioadvisor.com/prodinfo.asp?number=PGAC9S2

Audioquest
https://www.crutchfield.com/S-wi4RnpruA6y/p_703NRG23F/AudioQuest-NRG-2-3-ft.html

Shunyata

METALS AND CONDUCTORSCCC
- COMPUTER CONTROLLED CRYOGENICSPROPRIETARY PROCESSESVTX™
 ConductorsShunyata Research’s exclusive VTX™ conductors are made in the shape of virtual tubes. The core of the conductor is completely hollow minimizing skin effects and random eddy currents. They are produced using OFE Alloy-101

http://www.shunyata.com/images/technical_features/pdfs/pwr_tech_201509.pdf
Not sure of their actual construction design. I couldn’t find any actual pictures.

Note in all cases the outer protective insulation covering the hot and neutral conductors/wires is PVC and rated for mains power handling applications.

toddverrone OP 121 posts                                             02-20-20172:26pm

@jea48 check this:

http://www.southwire.com/ProductCatalog/XTEInterfaceServlet?contentKey=prodcatsheet393

That is the wire I used. The outer jacket is high temp smokeless PVC and the individual wire insulator is FEP or what is commonly referred to as Teflon. I promise I did my homework

It’s good the outer jacket of the cable is PVC . At least for the way you are using the cable it gives a little better physical abuse protection.

Yes, it says the insulation cover for each 24 gauge wire is FEP. Though if you scroll down the page it says the insulation is thermoplastic, which is PVC. I wonder if it is thermoplastic with a layer of Teflon over that?

toddverrone OP 121 posts                                      02-20-2017 10:39am

I promise, if you do the research you can confirm, cat 5 that is UL listed is rated to 300v

Yes, you are correct. But at very low amperage, rated in ma. Example, the ringer voltage on a telco phone system. The voltage on the ringer circuit can averages around 90 volts AC. It can go as high as 140Vac, possibly 150Vac. But the current is very low in the ma range. The circuit is also fuse protected which limits the current.

Again the cat5e cable was never designed/tested/manufactured/UL Listed to be used as a mains 120Vac power cord. If for what ever reason the cord faulted the current available from your electrical panel could be in the hundreds of amps before the branch circuit breaker could react and hopefully trip open breaking the fault. Will all the paralleled #24 gauge wires survive the event? What limiting fuse protection do you have to protect the parallel 24 gauge wire of the power cord?
If the fault is an arcing fault the breaker will never trip as long as the continuous current draw is below the breaker handle rating. Of course the same is true for any power cord. One reason for NEC code AFCI (Arc Fault Circuit Interrupter) branch circuit protection.

Bottom line..... You feel safe with the power cord you have assembled. The PVC outer jacket on the cat5e helps. I personally would not build a power cord using cat5e data cable. I would also not recommend anyone reading this thread do so either.
.