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aluminum wiring
My house has aluminum wiring. New Years day, the lights in 3 rooms were
flickering badly and there was an awful smell in the utility room where the circuit breaker box is. I noticed smoke coming from one of the top breakers so I switched it off. Later, the lights were still flickering and I noticed the smell again and saw a breaker at the bottom was actually sizzling so I turned off the main breaker. No breakers ever tripped. The electrician came the next day and pulled out the bottom breaker and said it had been on fire on the inside and what I was smelling was melting plastic. He said it was really old, and he had not seen a blue breaker in years. I told him to replace all of the breakers then, and he said the rest looked good. (he didn't pull them all out, he said he could tell they were newer.) I have had 4 replaced since I have lived here, (3 years) so maybe the previous owner had some replaced. Not sure. Anyway, a week later, my daughter pointed out an electrical outlet that looked lightening was in it... would this be arcing? This was a Saturday night, so I turned off the power and pulled the outlet out and put wire caps on each wire. But then I had no power to most of the outlets in the house, so I assume they are connected. I went to Lowe's and bought a new receptacle. The man there said it may or may not be a bad outlet, that it could be the aluminum wire was loose, especially since we had a really cold spell followed by record breaking warm weather. He said that if it was his house, he would "piggy back" it...use copper wire and wire nuts to keep the aluminum and copper together, then make all the attachments to the outlets with copper. He showed me how to do it and I could do it myself, but is this the right thing to do? If I wouldn't have been here, I am 100% my house would have burned down. I asked about having all the aluminum wire ripped out and replaced by copper, but was told that was totally unfeasible, that I should just move if I was that afraid of aluminum wiring. I was also told to pull each outlet once a year and tighten the screws, which I think is pretty high maintenance. Thanks for all your help! I worry every time I leave the house now! Suzi |
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