[Cob] can bamboo be used as wiring conduit ?

[Lance Collins]

It depends entirely on what kind of cable you run.   The normal cable we 
run around houses in Australia is intended to live in wall cavities or run 
through conduit where it would otherwise be exposed.   So burying it in the 
cob wall would be inconvenient if any rewiring was needed.  Our wires are 
insulated and then sheathed with PVC so I don't think humidity would be a 
problem.  Even if it was a problem modern earth leakage circuit breakers 
would trip long before there was enough leakage to hurt anyone.  But normal 
cable is too soft to resist someone drilling into the wall.  That is, the 
cable would be held firmly in the cob and the person drilling would get no 
idea something might be amiss. With conduit or cavities the wire tends to 
be brushed aside by a drill bit.   But who would drill into a wall while 
the power was turned on?

I have 300 metres of outdoor cable buried in the ground (600 mm down) with 
no conduit around it.  But it's got a pretty tough sheath and would be fine 
buried in a wall or run through bamboo.   Might be a bit costly though.  It 
doesn't bend very well either.

What's wrong with running a cable duct along the bottom of the wall?   I 
think that with a little imagination the wiring could be hidden in full 
view.  It's done in offices all the time.

At 02:57 PM 16/02/2004, you wrote:

> > Epiphanies R Us.....
> > What would happen if a person were to make a shallow channel in the Cob
> > walls where you wanted to run the wires.. And then, after the wires were
> > laid, Cob and plaster over them???
> > The you could make an accurate blue print of where the wires were,, to be
> > able to access them in the future....  The idea of making a channel,
>instead
> > of incorporating the wire into the wall ...
>
>Not an engineer, but my feeling is this:  Barring a churning A/C unit 
>somewhere, you probably encounter humidity for some months of the 
>year.  Not dampness, just humidity, but it leaches into the somewhat 
>porous walls in these months.  You get a short in your wires and 
>presto-change-o --your walls are electrified.
>
>Of course not to mention the fact that it wouldn't pass code anywhere (and 
>that could be why.)
>
>Now, maybe I'm wrong, and its certainly an extreme example, but before we 
>go throwing away all the 'new', I think its a good idea to at least 
>reflect on why it might have come about, what purpose it serves.  Some of 
>these gosh-darn laws and rules were built on other people's bad experiences.
>
>Quinn