Twisted black and red wires under my floorboards?

[russella]

Hi all,

I'm just about to start cleaning up under my crawlspace, which means removing loads of old redundant conduit and disconnected cable runs. Should be fun.

I can trace all of the cable to make sure it's dead at each end, and I've got one of them screwdrivers that detects live current if you put your thumb over the end, but I'm puzzled about a seemingly random collection of tightly twisted tiny black and red wires running around under there? Could this be from some old alarm system or something?

Any ideas much appreciated!

Russ

 

[mikhailfaradayski]

Do you have a digital camera? If so, can you post a photo of what you can see.

Do you have a rubbish bin? If so, throw that screwdriver in.

 

[Guitarguy]

Pictures?

Oh and the best place for those screwdrivers is in the bin

 

[russella]

Okay, point on the screwdriver is nice and clear. Is there a better tool to use, or is it just a case of working with everything off at the CU?

Re pictures, they'd not show very much I'm afraid - they literally are just random strands of thin red and black wire twisted around each other, no outer cover, and they're stapled to the floorboards.

They look a bit like speaker cable I guess, but the fact that they're under the floorboards and dotted randomly around the downstairs of the building (none upstairs) is puzzling. I think they're solid copper (not stranded), and they look really thin - much thinner than any mains cable I've seen, but about as chunky as the cores in an alarm cable?

Russ

 

[mikhailfaradayski]

well, without any pictures, you may aswell just guess. Alternatively, you could post a pic of them and somebody may possibly recognise them and give you an answer, saves the guess work.

 

[Guitarguy]

Do you have a digital camera? If so, can you post a photo of what you can see.

Do you have a rubbish bin? If so, throw that screwdriver in.

You beat me to it!

 

[Taylortwocities]

Your red&black wires could be a bell system. But could be almost anything.

And I agree, with your screwdriver

Untitled

• Taylortwocities
• 11 Feb 2009
• 20

PS It will be showing VOLTAGE in the cable, not CURRENT.
Any current will be going through YOU!