Back in the day, we had to get creative with old keypad wiring

Honestly, I was on a job about six years ago replacing a 20-year-old panel. The old keypad wire was that thin, 4-conductor stuff and it was stapled tight in the wall. I needed to run a new 6-conductor for a modern keypad but didn't want to fish a whole new line. Tbh, I tried using the existing ground wire from the old siren circuit as an extra conductor for the keypad. It worked perfectly and saved me over an hour of work. Has anyone else pulled a similar trick with old wiring?

2 comments

2 Comments

dakota_burns961mo ago

I've used the old siren ground as a spare conductor before, it works fine.

michael8801mo ago

Yeah, that's a classic electrician's trick. Right up there with using a paperclip as a fuse. It works right up until it really, really doesn't. I guess the fire department gets a faster response when the problem is literally in their old wiring.