How can you tell the difference between power & telephone lines connected to a house?

Answer 1

Neither is going to kill you just by touching them. Cute answer lorenzo, its nice of you to waste other people's time. So you say "connected to" the house. There are a lot of cues you can look for. in most areas phone lines and cable TV are the lowest on the telephone/utility pole. Electricity is usually higher up and the higher you go on the pole, the higher the voltage (typically). Now once in the house differentiating between the two should be simple. Telephone wire is pretty small and has multiple individually encased conductors (usually 2, 4, or 8 different colored wires). Regular voltage on a standard house telephone line is approx 43 volts and ring voltage is up right around 110 volts. The phone wires will often times come from the pole, run down the outside of your house and enter a grey plastic customer interface box, and then go out to the house from there. The Electrical will come into the house and enter (usually) a grey metal circuit box. In newer construction, the electrical lines are made up of 3 insulated conductors that make up a flatish but heavy type of cable called romex. These lines in a house typically run approx 110v and 220v. good luck and be safe. there are some very great and inexpensive tools for testing lines for current running through them just by touching the tool to the outside of the wire.

Answer 2

Well the telephone lines won't kill you if you touch them but the powerlines will.

Answer 3

thanks Darnelli i learned something i can use today.