Can low voltage wiring be run on a roof top?

Question

I live in a dry climate where it doesn't snow and the roofs are pretty flat. Also, attics and crawl spaces are extremely rare here. The house I am living in is almost 50 years old and there are no outlets for cable, internet, etc. Also, the exterior walls are all brick.

I want to run RG6 to a central part of the house and place a line amplifier/splitter to distribute cable and internet from there. The problem is that there are no real ways to hide wires if I run anything on the exterior of the house and fishing wires from the outside to the center of the house is near impossible. How code compliant is it if I run the RG6 through 1/2" or 3/4" conduit on the rooftop and paint over it with a protective paint? Also, the wiring is going to go through a rather large rooftop vent that is used to vent a room containing a gas furnace and water heater. The opening is much larger than required by code and it is a room vent, not a specific gas vent.

Answer 1

The answer depends on where you live. Electrical code varies by location.

The answer in my case would be a resounding "no." I have overhanging trees and thus squirrels running around my roof who would chew through plastic conduit and electrical wiring. Nothing short of a full metal jacket would stop them.

Answer 2

The NEC is silent about RG6 wiring, at least in residential applications. Inspectors never pay any mind to it since it's TV wire and is in the FCC arena. People have been stringing wire from television antennas on roofs in every part of the country for more years than I've been alive, and I'm pretty old.

You can connect an RG6 to an antenna, cable system or satellite dish, stand in a bucket of water and place the bare wire in your mouth without getting hurt. There are virtually no safety issues with RG6. Just be sure to ground it, whichever TV system you use. Lightning can hit just about anything metal.

Use rubber boots on any external connectors. Other than that, just make it as aestetically pleasing as possible and you're good to go.

Answer 3

Sure why not!

Answer 4

No basement or Crawl space?

This vent idea...it sounds like the vent will receive heat from the furnace...not a good idea, and when the insulation is melted off, the cable may pick up voltage from the thermostat...not good for whatever you have plugged into it.

Also running the signal through a furnace room is a good way to pick-up serious static and interference from motors and other high wattage/ high voltage items that are in that room, ie: (furnaces, water heaters fans/ventilation systems)  

In this area (eastern US) you can't put any low voltage, like Cable, Internet, AV, Phones, etc. in a furnace room.

NEC is National Electric Code, and in many areas it is the IEC, INTERNATIONAL standard for safety.

Are you in the US, and have Time Warner Cable... they will do it for you for free.

You can get a media distribution box (like T-W Cable uses on the outside), and drill through the brick with a masonery drill bit (also like TWC), boot the cable, and do it "up to code" for very little money.

As the earlier responder said "LIGHTINING" > Make sure the whole thing is grounded correctly, otherwise one strike could blow everything you have connected and cause a fire... (Building Liabilities?) Do it to code and you will not be Liable for any damages should that lightining strike burn the whole thing down!

Call Best Buy or Circuit City and get a written, itemized estimate, and then use that as a guide for doing it right.

Once again is there any basement or crawlspace access?

Have you considered Wireless?