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Location of electric vs. speaker runs in studs?

#1
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2/7/08 at 9:00am
  • Joined: February 2008
  • Post Count: 2
Hello all. First post here, so please be gentle...

I'm finishing off about a 500 sq foot basement space in my 5 year old home, using wood studs, 16in centers, standard stuff. I plan on having a couple of power and coax/cat5 runs higher up the wall for small tvs/displays on opposite walls, as well as wiring for a projector, along with building a stage area for my flatscreen TV and main viewing area (projector screen will come down in front of TV).

I'll have to run plenty of electric for outlets low along the wall, as well as a couple of dedicated runs for my electronics at the "stage". Generally speaking, where do you guys recommend running speaker, video, and other non-electrical wiring, when drilling through studs? I've read that a minimum of 12in away from electrical runs is suggested, but is there a "best practice" of where to run other wiring?

I've had this vision of keeping my electric within the bottom 16 inches of the studs, and audio/video/cat5 within the top 16 inches of the studs. With that in mind, is there any problems running all of this non-electric wiring and cable so close together? Any interference issues to be had?

Thanks for any and all input.

JB
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#2
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2/7/08 at 12:30pm
  • Joined: November 1998
  • Post Count: 2,399

Re: Location of electric vs. speaker runs in studs?

Since the outlets are down at knee level, it is a natural to run the AC lines horizontally at that level.

If you really want to keep interference to a minimum, you need three levels, about 16 inches above the floor for AC, about 16 inches below the ceiling for digital and low level cables, and a third level, say, in the middle, for speaker cables, respectively.

In my case I had to bring all the cables (vertically) up and out near ceiling level to get past columns (intentionally) embedded in the wall. The cables ran outside the wall near the ceiling for a foot or so and went back into the wall on the other side of the column. I did not bother to cut multiple openings all along the top of the wall so all the cables were juxtaposed as they emerged from just one opening near the column (and all went back into one opening on the other side of the column).

Also I skimped on wiring, not wishing to run all of the AC wires all the way down to knee level in each section of the wall between columns. So I used a 3 inch spacing instead of a 12 inch spacing for the groups of wires running horizontally through the studs all at shoulder level.

Video hints: Constructing a Basement Home Theater

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#3
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2/7/08 at 7:22pm
  • Joined: September 2002
  • Location: Madison, Wis
  • Post Count: 51

Re: Location of electric vs. speaker runs in studs?

Yes, you want to stay at least 12" away from electrical if running parallel to it. If you have to cross electrical, do so at a 90˚ angle. Other things to consider, give your system it's own circuit, make the outlet and audio jack for the sub lower that 16", we use 10". Not all subs will hide an outlet at 16".

Don't know what you are puling for video to the proj, but pull 2 or 3 cat5e wires along with anything else because they can be converted to anything in the future. Even HDMI. We still only use and pull mini-RGB 5 conductor wire for component cables. Currently, unless you plan on getting HDDVD or BL, HDMI is not needed (IMO). Long HDMI runs aren't cheap. Cat5e is!
Also pull a 1" tube from the system to the proj. That way you are covered for future changes.

All highs.... all lows... it must be.....YUK!!!!

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