Due to a concrete floor and my HT room in the basement (with a patio door between the receiver and rear speakers) I am looking at running speaker wire outside. I have vinyl siding and was planning on running it inside the siding. I like in Spokane, WA, where the winters get down to the low 20s for a couple months (at night) and the summers are in the high 80s. The outside wall is a "sun" wall (it's the south wall of my house). Does anyone know of any concerns I would have with 12 gauge speaker wire in the above situation?

Also, where is a good place to buy heatshrink tubing and is there a simple guide somewhere for mounting banana plugs with the tubing? What size of heatshrink tubing is best for 12 gauge wire?

THANKS!

I would definitely not run zip wire outside your home. Make sure to buy UL CL2 or CL3 rated speaker wire. The same stuff that's good for in-wall installations should work under your siding as well.

The temperature outside shouldn't affect the wire much. If anything, it will sound better in the winter when the copper is colder.

How do I know if wire is UL2 or UL3? Would the axiom wire for 85 cents/foot work? It does not say in the description anything about its UL rating. So the Home Depot bulk 12 ga stuff would NOT work?

I doubt that Axiom's bulk wire is UL rated. Also, in general, any speaker wire with a clear jacket is not UL rated. You should look specifically for in-wall speaker cable.

Pete, that should work well(assuming that you don't demand a "warm" speaker cable)and you can consider something like this .

I used Carol 12-ga 2-conductor UL approved speaker wire. It's suitable for -20 deg. C to +75 deg. C. It's $19.30 for a 100 ft roll. http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/pshowdetl.cfm?&PartNumber=100-740&DID=7

Thanks for the link!