this post was submitted on 04 Jun 2025
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That room could be rented for $1k a month in California
On it, I’ve got a 3d printer ha
Test your drywall repair skill.
Already solid <3
Get one of those label makers and label it "Ethernet" then forget for a couple years till someone tries to use it.
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Remove the faceplate for the outlet
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Install electric pencil sharpener
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Reattach faceplate
Is it still hooked up? You can draw some power from the line and hook up some low power leds, or maybe run a trickle charger for rechargeable batteries. If it's disconnected, it would make a decent hidden vault with a cat-shaped key.
You could also plug in an old phone and get a landline.
It’s still hooked up but idk what I would display with the leds. It’s basically circuit breaker to phone line.
Maybe I should swap my cell for a vonage plan
Little CAT3 powered xmas tree
Assuming the wiring is still in place but no longer hooked up to the phone network, there are things you could do with that:
I could be mistaken, but I think I remember (from back in the day when it was more common) their being ways to use phone wiring to network computers, or send a signal from an amp to speakers in room (I have some doubts about the latter, since speaker wire normally a lot heavier than phone wire).
Doorbell or intercom is another thing that you could use it to connect between rooms. You could even rig up old phones between rooms (without being on the phone network), though you'd need to supply power and maybe jury rig a button to ring them across the line.
If you had use for some other kind of wiring, the wires could possibly be handy for pulling the new wires through the wall.
Pulling wires would be the best thing. Ethernet where it is is great. The issue is that the wire is clipped all the way through. You can’t just pull
though you’d need to supply power
Go for really old ones with the crank handle for ringing. Like from army surplus and you don't need the power :-)
We played around with these for a day in the army https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feldtelefon_50 when you crank the handle while your friend is still putting down the line you can shock them.
Get some dialup and see what is on alt. nowadays?
Wouldn't put more than like 5V DC on it, but you could use it to put power to some low power USB toys.
It's not the voltage you need to focus on. It's the current.
Analog telephone wiring used 90v @20hz to ring the phones. Off-hook, they were at 9vdc, which rose to 48vdc on-hook. The insulation can handle potentials much higher than 5v.
But, telephone wires are typically 26awg to 22awg, which are only rated to .361 to .92 amps for power transmission. Pull too much current, and you risk melting the insulation and starting a fire.
Since DC power (watts) are volts times amps, to keep the amperage low, you will want to keep the voltage as high as the insulation will tolerate.
Telephone wiring is very similar to (and may even be carried on) cat5/6 cabling. There are formal standards for using cat5/6 cabling for power transmission: Power-Over-Ethernet standards 802.3af, 802.3at and 802.3bt. These standards call for 44 to 60 volt power injectors, and up to 15.4 watts per wire pair. If I were going to jury rig household telephone wiring for power transmission, I would use those standards as a guide.
You should use a current-limited power supply, to keep your current below 0.361A, or you risk melting the insulation and starting a fire.
Very well thought out, thank you for this.
If it's still hooked up, it might be useful as an emergency power source for keeping cell phones and USB power banks charged in the event of a long-term power outage.
https://www.instructables.com/How-to-Get-Emergency-Power-from-a-Phone-Line/
My family was without power for three days recently, and about a week a few years ago.
I have solar so during the day I don’t need emergency power. That’s good to know though
I can confirm those numbers, I once was touching the terminal when a call came through. Shocking experience, would not recommend.
In addition to this, the voltage drop from one end of the wire to the other would probably make a 5V input useless to begin with when you only get 1.5V out on the other end. Higher input voltage doesn't suffer quite as badly while also helping to keep the current low like you mentioned.
Hide your ricin.
Could probably charge a cellphone from it slowly but for free.
A telephone
Weed stash.