Power wires and cat5/coax close to each other???

[rplace]

Man, you guy are the best. So far this week you have set me straight on the single Forte for my center and its orientation. The right way to figure the screen height from the floor up and how/why to put my Heresys on their sides in the rear. Many many thanks!

So on to the question of the day. I thought I was pretty smart as I finished off the rest of my basement last fall prior to the HT work that is in order this fall. I put a 1.5 inch PVC pipe running the 40 feet from the nasty side of basement (read furnace, water heater, etc.) to the finished side. My thinking was that I could pull any future wires through it. I had a local A/V store come check out my space and put the sell to me on some equipment I still need (tuner/preamp/processor, screen, and projector). We talked about wires for projector and future expandability for Crestron and cat 5, coax, etc. Anyway, I mentioned the pipe and that I was going to pull my dedicated 20 amp circuit for equipment and 15 amp circuit for miscellaneous lights through that pipe along with the 2 cat 5s, extra coax, and 2nd room speaker wires that they suggested I do. They said it was a bad idea to have a long run of romex/power in conjunction with the other wires/cables.

So what is ok? The PVC pipe sits in the cavity created by an I-beam running the length of basement. So I have about 6 inches top to bottom in that cavity. Can I run some of the wires in the pipe and fish some outside the pipewill that be sufficient? Is there anyway to shield things? What sort of spacing do I need between power and other cables? If they must/should go in completely different paths I am really in trouble because the rest of the basement is already dry walled, painted, trimmed and finished. I might be able to get another complete run of PVC in that cavity. That would provide two PVC pipes sitting on top of each other. I doubt what ever the electromagnetic problems that are in question would be negated by two wall of PVC pipe. Would it?

Thanks again! Rich

BTW, the equipment in need referred to above is shaping up to be:

Stewart Screen, Sunfire Theater Grand III or IV, and a Runco D-710 projector. Projector looks great, but the price is high when you just look at similar features and specs of other projectors. Any thoughts/advice on any or all of this equipment???

[minn_male42]

you should never run power cables and signal cables in parallel for ANY length!!!

you need to separate them by at least a foot or more if you are running them somewhat parallel...... and when you need to cross them - do it at right angles for the least possibility of interference....

[picky]

minn_male42: Right-on as usual! Great advice, my friend.

[redtop]

Rich,

You may be tired of hearing from me...but I have a suggestion on the projector. I just purchased a Panasonic AE700. It's my first projector, but I shopped the $10,000 projectors at several boutique HT places here in Atlanta. The image was as good or better than any I saw at any price. It also has a great feature set. Check out the thread on AVSForum for more details. Only $2000 from projectorpeople.com in FL. They have a 4 hour bulb usage return policy if you don't like it. If you call them ask for Stacey, she is both nice and knowledgeable.

BTW, I have no financial or other interest in projectorcentral.com.

Edit: I'm shooting it on a 105"x59" DIY blackout cloth screen ($60 including frame).

[rplace]

Interesting, because that is the exact projector I was considering over the Runco. I would think between 3k and 9k (Aprox MSRP) that there must be some benefit I am not seeing...but I am finding it really hard to justify the extra 6K. I can buy it locally for $2,199. Thanks for the tip on the FL company. Looking more and more like Runco it out.

Thanks!