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Saw a really old alarm panel in a building downtown and it got me thinking

I was over at that old brick office building on Maple Street last week, doing a walkthrough for a possible upgrade. In the basement utility room, I spotted the original alarm panel still on the wall, a big metal box with a simple key switch and a single red light. The install date sticker said 1984. It was still wired in, but obviously not used for years. The thing is, all the old zone wires were just bundled up and taped off near the panel, but they ran through the same conduit as the new Cat6 for the current system. It made me wonder how many of these old, dead systems are still out there, with live low-voltage wires just hanging around in walls. Have you guys ever run into something like that during a retrofit, and what's your move? Do you trace and pull the old wires out, or just leave them be?

2 comments

2 Comments

ward.jamie3d ago

Wait, they left the old zone wires live and just taped them off? That's a hack job. You can't just abandon low voltage like that, it's asking for trouble down the line. I always trace and pull the dead stuff if I can, otherwise you're leaving a mess for the next guy. Leaving it in there with the new cables is just lazy.

the_emma3d ago

That's just asking for future problems.