Cat5 cabling and interference.

[glatt]

I spent a day last winter fishing cat5 cable up from the basement to the 2nd floor. It works great. It was a real pain in the ass to do, so I fished a string along side the cat5 cable in case I needed to use the same path again in the future.

Well, it's the future now, and I feel like putting a light in the ceiling above the kitchen sink, because it's really dark there at night when cleaning up after dinner. As you stand at the sink you cast a shadow over the sink.

The location of the light would be right next to where I have this string in place already. Can I pull some romex through the same path as the cat5 cable to power this one light? I know it's not the best practice to put data cable next to power cable, but in the real world, is it ever really a problem? The two would share the same one inch hole going up from the basement into the stud cavity on the first floor, then they would be a few inches from each other in that cavity for maybe 9 feet, and get pulled back into close proximity again as they penetrate the second floor.

Can I get away with this? If it turns out I have to fish the power cable (romex) separately, I probably won't bother. It's a huge pain, and involves asking my wife to empty her closet while I drill around in there.

How susceptible is cat5 (actually I think it might be cat5e) to interference in the real world?