sundance-communications.com/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services Outside Plant OSP Construction Outside Data Protection

I have one of those construction dilemmas. I have a customer that is putting data and voice lines outdoors and feeding it through a pump house structure. I have only one feed to make from the main building, about a 200' run, and then the outside runs are all less than 200'.

I wonder if I should protect the outside pairs at the switch, at a reasonable price, but 4x the cost of a 24 port switch, or just protect the single outside feed and sacrifice the outside switch.

I'm leaning heavily toward protecting everything just to keep lightning from blowing up every outdoor device through the switch. Money is an object, but my reputation is at stake here too. The extra cost is about 5% of the total bid.

Any thoughts?

Carl

I would be looking at fiber rule of thumb is anytime Ethernet leaves a building it should go to fiber


as to the sacrificial unprotected switch you have to factor downtime and troubleshooting costs in along with the actual cost of the switch

While I like the fiber idea (it makes me money) not too many people bite at it. After saying the same thing skip did a guy actually told me " then someone should tell the phone company to change out all the copper they used. If you cant get the fiber in the bid here is an alternative. data protection

I already included the DL1200-POE and a CAT5-POE protector for the data pair leaving the building and terminating in the second building. The price per pair was in the budget and it gives them room to grow outside. They just figured out that they could have direct buried the data since we used OSP wire, and they'll probably do that if they need to add more drops in the future. There's a tube under the concrete going to a pedestal like they use in the concrete floor.

Do the same at both ends, its well worth the cost and the customer should understand

Can't. It's a card swiper at the distant end. The installing company can throw themselves under the bus :-) I'm just here to protect my investment.

Carl

Any time we as business owners or installers undertake an IROB project we must always adhere to NEC guidelines. The notion of it's not in the budget is never an issue. Installing communications equipment inside a building is one thing but going IROB is a horse of a different color as it now becomes a life safety issue. Know the rules and show/ explain them to the customer. Do not put you or your company in a position of liability!

Everything leaving a building should be protectedon both ends. I will turn down a job without it. As jwooten said there is too much liability..

The DL1200 is a rack mounted protected patch panel. Absolutely useless in my estimation. Maybe some CG will love it but anybody who knows anything about the NEC and protection will see it for what it is.

A listed primary building entrance protector must be installed as close as possible to where the cable enters (or leaves) the building. In most cases that isn't going to be a place to locate a patch panel. It must be grounded to the building's electrical service ground with a #6 AWG grounding conductor. This conductor MUST be no longer than 20 feet. If that is impractical, you must drive a 5/8"x8 foot ground rod, connect your protector ground to that AND continue the #6 from your ground rod back to the service ground.

Now, I don't know what this does to your price. I suspect using something like the DL12C properly at each end will be much cheaper than that CG special. If you don't want to locate the protectors and ground as I instruct don't even bother installing protectors.

-Hal

Thank you, Hal. I couldn't have said it better myself.

Ground, ground, ground, bond, then ground again.

Period.