Home Phone Land Lines - Hot or Not?

[bowtieman55]

Had a baseboard mounted phone jack that we are discarding...are the 4 wires hot or can I just cut and tuck them out of the way?

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[rockcity]

they are hot but its very low voltage and amps it nearly irrelevant for most situations. At least put a piece of tape on the ends of the wires before tucking them out of the way

 

[RatLabGuy]

Yep its low voltage.
I don't mean to be an ass but this could be answered with a $5 voltmeter.
You should cover and label them if for no reason other than to be nice to the guy that finds them 10 years from now.

 

[bowtieman55]

Thanks fellas. You're right Dave; as a homeowner a voltmeter is something I should have on hand.

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[Jeff B]

get a camera,

have a friend take a picture of you touching the wires to your tongue, great home voltage meter...

 

[/dev/ram]

The voltage only flows when the phone is ringing - ask me how I know... That's why the two lines are called "tip" and more importantly "ring"!

 

[krzyabncanuck]

Or touch them to other places also......

Kinda like the old Army issue TA 312.

 

[Granny]

Be careful!... don't know if volts, etc. have changed or not, but several years ago I made a few of the gadgets shown in the link. There is (or used to be) some voltage in a phone line. Hope this is useful.

http://www.instructables.com/id/FREE-Hidden-Electricity!/

 

[bowtieman55]

We don't have a landline phone in the house, but our internet router/modem does plug into another phone jack within the house. These are the only two phone jacks in the house.

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[RatLabGuy]

Oh so its kind of a moot point then. If you check the line coming from the phone company into the house it's probably been disconnected, so the only power coming to those wires is from the cable router. Or, it would be if you were buying phone service from the cable company...

 

[RatLabGuy]

Oh wait is your internet from dsl or cable?

 

[braxton357]

Well he did say it was plugged into the phone line...

 

[Ron]

POTS lines ARE not VERY low voltage.
They are 56 vac. Now they are milliamperes of current , so no one is going to die....but they will tingle. And I have actually triggered an arc fuse lighter using a phone line and calling it as a mis guided youth.

 

[bowtieman55]

Oh wait is your internet from dsl or cable?

DSL

 

[Ron]

Find the phone box on the side of the house there should be two lines there disconnect the one not being used its eqsy