![]() Depending on the home’s size, age and ease of access to old wiring, you should plan to spend $10,000 or more for this repair. This solution is just what it sounds like: a complete replacement of the aluminum wiring in the house with traditional copper wiring. To eliminate potential hazards caused by aluminum wiring in your home, a licensed electrician may opt to use any of these approved solutions: Complete House Rewiring ![]() The report stated that connections with aluminum wiring were 55 times more likely to become a fire hazard than those with copper wiring. The Consumer Product Safety Commission, or CPSC, first alerted homeowners to problems in 1977. If your home was constructed during this time span, you should have the wiring inspected by a licensed electrician. Additionally, many outlets, switches, lighting, fans and other electrical items are incompatible with aluminum wiring, causing connections to corrode. This occurs due to the properties of aluminum, which can move and crack over time causing arcing and overheating. However, aluminum quickly became associated with an increased risk of house fires. During this time, 14,159 residential dwellings were built in Escambia County with aluminum wiring, 2,808 in Santa Rosa County, 6,941 in Okaloosa County and 1,770 in Walton County for a total of 25,678 in the Northwest Florida region alone. Copper prices remained high until the mid-1970s, so builders outfitted more than two million houses in the United States with cheaper aluminum wiring. A shortage of copper caused prices to skyrocket right when our nation’s building boom began. Wiring houses with aluminum became popular in the early 1960s. Aluminum Wiring HistoryĪluminum wiring dates back to the late 1880s when electrical utilities first began stringing transmission lines across cities and towns. Insurance companies may threaten to cancel homeowner’s insurance or raise premiums on homes wired with aluminum. ![]() Though replacing the aluminum with copper is not technically required by law, most sellers must address the situation before anyone will even look at buying their house. A lug system whose lugs are, amusingly, made of aluminum.Homeowners looking to sell a house built between 19 often come up against an expensive obstacle: When building the house, the electricians used aluminum wiring.Įven when properly installed, aging aluminum wires can pose an increased fire hazard. Certainly the most likely place for installs to deviate from spec (especially homeowner installs) is torque.ĬPSC is correct that not every connection type is available in CO-ALR. ![]() But all they say on the matter is "in real world conditions", which sounds to me like admission that they do work in spec conditions. Certainly it would be more persuasive if they could point to some rate of house fires from CO-ALR failures. Regardless, NEC permits CO-ALR, so clearly the NFPA agrees (that's National Fire Prevention Association).Īll we have against them is CPSC's opinion, since they have not provided any provenance to whatever testing they have done if any. NEC 2017 requires use of a torque screwdriver, so to complete the compliance, set torques correctly. UL's testing presumes the end user will follow the instructions. They listed these items as safe for use in that modality, as captured in the product's labeling and instructions, which are part of the listing. That's not my opinion, it's Underwriter's Laboratories. If your goal is compliance with a gold standard so you are lawsuit-proof, then CO-ALR receptacles will suffice. The main failure mode of aluminum wire is arcing as a result of corrosion, and that's what AFCI breakers detect. If your goal is safety, install AFCI breakers.
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