“Minimally invasive“ Retrofitting of IT cabling in Homes

Retrofitting of IT outlets in homes is not an easy task. Comprehensive renovating or reconstructing allows milling wall slots and installing IT cables in duct. But there is a much easier way that eliminates the need for renovating.

In many homes there are baseboards or base rows made of carpet and white walls. In such cases, a small 15 x 15 mm white cable duct can be mounted discretely directly on top of the baseboard. Unobtrusive small (!) wall-mount outlets with vertical cable exit keep a low profile. As the cable exit is on the top side of the outlet, automatic shutters are ideal to prevent dust from entering the RJ45 module when no patch cord is plugged in. RJ45 modules that accept not only solid but also stranded wires are an ideal solution as cable with stranded wires are thinner and more flexible than common installation cables, which in turn allows even more unobtrusive cable ducts. When RJ45 couplers are used, extra-long patch cords can be installed instead of common horizontal cable. ISO/IEC 11801-2:2017 specifies formulae to calculate the maximum cable length when using patch cords instead of horizontal cables. As a rule of thumb, patch cords should not be longer than 60 m.

Rooms in old buildings quite often have wooden ceilings with shadow gaps in which thin cables can perfectly be installed. Extra-long patch cords have proven their worth in such installations as well.