I can just see someone hooking direct to a 110 v wall plug and trying to draw 5 or 10 amps thru the 24 gauge wire.
I think this is what Ed is concerned about. I did see this one time where someone needed a convenience outlet for a wall wart in a telephone closet. The idiot wired the 120VAC side of the wall wart to a pair on the 66 block and ran a power cord from the 66 block, on the next floor, to a wall outlet! The idiot should have installed the wall wart on the floor with the convenience outlet and ran the 9VAC@ 200ma. side through the 66 block and house cable.
Still not the best way and I wouldn't do it, but......
That's exactly what I meant, Larry. Yes, I agree that telcos often use voltages as high as 130 volts for coin relays, T1 spans, long loops, etc., but these are at insanely low amperages, often in mili- or even micro-amps. That's a big difference from a 120 volt control circuit with 15 or 20 amps of available current. A short circuit would surely result in a cable fire before any overcurrent device would even detect it.
