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Everyone should have copper wire in their house


Razors Edge

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56 minutes ago, Longjohn said:

Yes, they figured out that aluminum caused house fires.

Actually, it wasn't the aluminum that caused housefires and is still used today by the power company with their feed from the street to the house meter.

What caused the fires were...

1) Federal Pacific faking the testing of their breakers for UL approval, that didn't trip, causing the fires. With the economies of shotty work they became the low price leader and were in most housed. Lawsuits? Declair bankruptcy as a defense.

2) Clueless DIY homeowner - replace the switch with the $0.75 CO only switch, mixing coper and aluminum, rather than the $1.95 Co/Al switch hidden on the bottom shelf at Home Depot/Lowes - and upgrading to  'designer/modular" switch are not even made for Co/Al.

That was actually my COVID DIY project, rewiring the house. While both breaker boxes had been switched from Federal Pacific to Square D a decade ago, it was all the switches and outlets throughout the house. New switches and outlets and connected with 6" copper pigtails mated to Alumniconn adapters that kepts aluminum and copper wires separate. No pigtails joining wires!

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2 minutes ago, Tizeye said:

Actually, it wasn't the aluminum that caused housefires and is still used today by the power company with their feed from the street to the house meter.

What caused the fires were...

1) Federal Pacific faking the testing of their breakers for UL approval, that didn't trip, causing the fires. With the economies of shotty work they became the low price leader and were in most housed. Lawsuits? Declair bankruptcy as a defense.

2) Clueless DIY homeowner - replace the switch with the $0.75 CO only switch, mixing coper and aluminum, rather than the $1.95 Co/Al switch hidden on the bottom shelf at Home Depot/Lowes - and upgrading to  'designer/modular" switch are not even made for Co/Al.

Yes, I never had trouble with it myself but it did lend itself to problems. I always used a split bug when connecting aluminum to copper and lots of that goo, don’t remember what it’s called but still have a bottle of it in the garage. I have aluminum running from my house to my garage only because I had a big roll of it I didn’t want to waste.

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1 minute ago, Longjohn said:

Yes, I never had trouble with it myself but it did lend itself to problems. I always used a split bug when connecting aluminum to copper and lots of that goo, don’t remember what it’s called but still have a bottle of it in the garage. I have aluminum running from my house to my garage only because I had a big roll of it I didn’t want to waste.

My house was built in 1973 when they changed the building codes to allow aluminum as copper prices spikes. I think of it every time the Building inspection/permit  department spouts the "exist to protect you" line of BS...as they accepted no responsibility for the change.

Shortly after I bought the house in 1993 came out to the kitchen on morning and an outlet with no load was blowing out sparks. Upon taking apart and seeing the melted insulation I realized it was aluminum. With every repairs, and maintenance, after that used a healthy dose of anti-oxidant on the connections. After several homes burned in the neighborhood - including the one next door, the HOA got a great deal, $200 I think, with a reputable electric company to switch out the Federal Pacific boxes if we elected to contract with them. I was one of the few that had 2 boxes - separate 120 and 220 - plus got them to correct what the well guy did that I knew was wrong - hooking the well pump directly into the 50 amp AC circuit.  HOA actually did a good thing...but doesn't look like Palmer Electric pulled any permits doing it and probably why the price was low.

 

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