Power Over Ethernet with CCA Cat5E cables

[Heldwhat Christmas]

Given the discussion in the deals forum around Cat5e cable was wondering if people had experience running power over cat5e with CCA (copper clad aluminum) conductors instead of copper.
The web is full of people both bashing and supporting CCA... As far as I can tell, it looks like it wouldn't matter for communication runs, but I'm more worried about powering LED's over it.
It looks like the resistance is 2-3x that of pure copper so I'm worried about the heat but I put more faith in people's actual experience. Anyone power LED's with cat5e CCA?

Thanks!

[raplass]

Sigh... How quickly we forget why aluminum is no longer used in house wiring (double whammy of higher resistance and higher thermal expansion coefficient). But given the price of copper these days, it isn't surprising...

[timon]

The issue was the use of straight AL for wiring. AL will oxidize and AL oxide is a insulator so the contact area was reduced and thus the junction heated up. CCA should not have that issue so I done think it will be an issue but time will tell.

[mrpackethead]

For low powers its probably ok, but I wouldn't be pushing too much through it.. You'll be limited to about 200mA per cable for a 10deg rise.

[BuzzKill]

The cabling still has to adhere to the rating it holds. POE is 15.4 watts or 44 volts at 350ma. If it is rated for POE+ then it is rated for 25.5 watts or about 44 volts at 580ma. Would I push an amp at 12 volts through Cat5? Depends on the length. The highest rating shown for any POE standard (802.3at) is 51 watts and that is using all 4 pairs. That would be 4.25 amps at 12V. Just because you can doesn't mean you should. Remember, once the magic blue smoke has been released, it can never go back.

[mrpackethead]

50W.. mm :-) you should try 200W.. ( http://www.silvertel.com/press15.htm ) and i have one and it really works.

[kingofkya]

You just need a big spool 1000ft about $80-$100 and you should be good and CCA is what $50 last i checked.$30 diffrence is nothing if I don't have to mess with it.

Also there is no such thing as CCA cat5 simple because the standard dosen't allows that, witch why you see this in the description "only 25ft for data transfer", which means for starters lax standards on manufactures. ITS NOT REALLY CAT5. I once got a CCA cable with a varied diameter on the copper in the ranged anywhere from 24guage to what i am gona assume is 30guage (No idea how the hell that happens) all the work I did was scraped and we re ran every cable.
Honestly I have no desire to mess with the "cheap" cat5 anymore. Just 2cents.

Personally i only buy from theses guys. (Very thick caseing , and priced like the cheap stuff)
http://www.monoprice.com/products/su...05&cp_id=10233

[mrpackethead]

@King.. I'm with you on that. I only use good cable these days.. I like Belden Datatuff for making long outdoor tough leads or ones that will get moved around lots and lots..