On Thu, 29 Oct 2015 15:56:11 -0400, Tekkie®
wrote:

posted for all of us...



Just had an ESA-SAFE inspection on my 40 year old house so I can
change insurance providers The Ontario Electrical Safety Authority
does the inspection (at a cost of almost $400 canadian) and it is a
pretty extensive inspection. The house passed with flying colours,
condition-wise - but to pass I need to GFI protect 2 counter-top
"splits", 2 bathroom outlets, and 2 outdoor outlets that also need to
have "in-use" weatherproof housings installed.

The kitchen "splits" mean 2 Square D QO 215GFI breakers.
The outdoors will be pretty simple - just a simple pigtail to new GFI
outlets. The bathrooms are a bit more fun as the outlets are in ganged
boxes with a switch, and both have 1 12/3 and 2 12/2 cables coming
into the boxes, with 4 #12 conductors in one wire nut - on both line
and neutral.

The existing nuts are not AL approved, so need to be replaced. I
wanted to use Alumiconns - but they are not available up here
(although they ARE approved). The other decent alternative is the
Marrette ACS65 wire nut. So far none of my local electrical
wholesalers have the 65s in stock - only the too-small 63s

I have a few more to check tomorrow -
How do the "real" electricians do this kind of job when their
suppliers don't carry the required materials????

Do they "fudge" it like the original electrician (when AL specific
stuff didn't exist) and hope the inspector doesn't see it, or split
the connection into 3 and fill the box with smaller connections?????

Finding electrical components up here is starting to remind me of
Zambia and Burkina Faso - to get 5 parts you need to hit 10 suppliers
- on a GOOD day.

Call the companies up and ask for the jobbers and dealers or ask for
samples. They may just send them through the mail. I had a company do that
to me. In fact I got a bag of 25 of each of the connectors I inquired about.
I still have 80% left because the sparkys around here use what they have
always used and they ain't changin' now. The ones I have will not work for
you. Do you have Scotchlocks available?

Scotchloks are not approved for aluminum up here. The ireal twisties
are, but I won't use them.

I ended up finding a box of the ACS65s at Westburne this morning.
Smallest box? 100. Cost? ^$59.71 plus GST - total $67.48
I won't be running out of them for a while!!! A friend is going to
have to do the same thing on his house, so he'll make use of a few,

Get in touch with John Grabowski or Greg Fretwell they know the scoop and
will help. I like to volunteer people...