On Sat, 24 Mar 2012 19:50:44 -0400, Nate Nagel wrote:

On 03/24/2012 06:54 PM, dpb wrote:
On 3/24/2012 4:26 PM, Doug wrote:
I thought about buying an older home built in the 50's in around
Houston, Texas but I was wondering about the electrical wiring.

a) does anyone know if aluminum wiring was used, when this area
switched over to copper wiring?

b) briefly what advantages does copper have over aluminum?

c) without pulling off outlet/switch plates, is there an easy way to
tell if the house has aluminum or copper wiring? Can aluminum wiring
use a breaker box or only fuses?

d) for a 1 story 1500 sq foot home circa 50's, what an electrician
might charge to switch wiring?

e) advice buying an older home with respect to electrical wiring?

The Al branch circuit wiring craze was generally in the mid-60s; the
chances of it in a 50s house are nil.

Al tends to oxidize and has higher thermal coeff of expansion so tends
to loosen connections w/ time more than Cu. The biggest issue is the
oxidation layer and contact resistance at connections that acts as a
miniature heater and eventually can reach combustion temperatures if
gets bad enough.

You'll have a home inspection done, anyway, wiring is just one of the
many issues to have verified and discover if there needs to be either
work done prior to the sale or discount the offer to cover the cost to
yourself after the sale.

--

Not sure how it works in the OP's area, but no home inspector that I've
seen is going to remove the cover to the breaker panel and/or a recep
cover plate. All they can do is plug in a tester and make sure that all
the right lights light up.

The home inspector I just hired took both covers off and took pretty pictures
to go in the scrap book he put together of the house. ;-)