I have a detached garage that has its own electrical panel. The previous owner of the house was an electrician and it's done really well, however, there is not a very strong Wi-Fi signal in the garage.
I would like to have some smart outlets out there and such. There are 2 lines that run through the pipe that I can use (one was a 4-wire line for a house-switch to the eave lights on the garage, which also had a switch, and the other is a 3-wire spare). Currently, all, but one of the seven lines is being used by the sign off smart switch relay.
I was in the process today of swapping out the sonoff mini with a UL certified Shelly (because the sonoff failed electrical inspection, since it is not UL, certified), and I thought, "boy, I wish there was an ethernet line already running through this electrical pipe out to the garage, then I could have a wired backhaul out there".
I started thinking about it, and I thought, "huh, what if I actually just spliced in an ethernet connector and hooked up ethernet through these 12 gauge wires?"
So I started googling and I learned about powerline ethernet adapters. I'm not sure if that would be the same thing as me just splicing in ethernet connectors or not. There's no outlet involved.
I have read that you don't get very good speeds with powerline adapters, which is not an issue. I just want a couple of smart outlets and switches, etc.. and these two lines are just two of many that run out to the garage. Other than those, there are 200 W of other lines going out there that connect to the panel in the garage.
The 12 gauge wires I have are threaded.
So could this work? Can I just spice in a couple of ethernet connectors?
What are the upsides and downsides of doing this? I understand that there should be issues with regard to shielding and data loss. I don't need it to be very fast, I just need it to be reliable.
