On 3/26/2012 11:53 AM, bud-- wrote:
On 3/25/2012 8:23 AM, Peter wrote:
On 3/24/2012 5:26 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?

I bought the house I'm currently living in in 1987. It was built in 1970
and has aluminum wiring. At the time of sale I required the seller to
swap out every wall receptacle and switch with COALAR units and the work
to be done by a licensed electrician.

A minor problem is that electricians do not necessarily know what the
actual problems and fixes are.

If you are interested you can read:
http://www.kinginnovation.com/pdfs/R...Fire070706.pdf
(also posted elsewhere). You will probably know more than electricians.
The advice is based on extensive research on aluminum connections.

Trivia note, the "R" in CO/ALR is "revised".


Every house in my subdivision was built at the same time with the same
wiring. Neither me nor any of my neighbors (to my knowledge) has had any
problems related to the aluminum wiring. We all have circuit breaker
panels.

I used to take off the face plates every year and check to see if the
wire loops were loosening under the screw heads but gave up that
exercise after about 3 years when none were noted to have become loose.

I'm well aware of the supposed risks associated with aluminum wiring and
I would have preferred to have copper. However, my experience has not
been bad. I suspect that if the homeowner respects the amperage ratings
of each breaker circuit and avoids overloads, they will not have
problems. Copper is more forgiving of overloads due to lower resistance
and therefore less heating and attendant expansion/contraction at
connections.

Resistance is not a factor. Aluminum wires have a similar resistance to
copper since they are larger - #12 aluminum on a 15A circuit, #10 on a 20A.


Bud, are you familiar with copper clad aluminum? I first saw it when I
worked for an electrical supplier in the early 1970's during a copper
shortage. The company was selling a lot of aluminum Romex and then we
started getting in copper clad aluminum Romex. One day the darnedest
thing showed up from another supplier, copper clad thermostat wire in
18 AWG. I discovered it when I picked up the reel and it darn near flew
out of my hands because it was so light. If you've ever picked up a
hollow display auto battery, you know what I mean. I hadn't seen copper
clad aluminum for years until recently when I got an Email from a
network component supplier for 24 AWG copper clad Cat5 network cable.
I just called my buddy at Inline Electric and he's never heard of copper
clad aluminum Romex so I assume it hasn't made a comeback in the
local electrical supply chain. But dang, copper is getting expensive! o_O

TDD