[Shop-talk] Aluminum and copper wiring

[Jim Stone]

Thanks Donald.  That article was very enlightening.  I gotten my sister-in-law to at least install more smoke detectors in her house as a stopgap measure.  And she is going to talk to an electrician about installing pigtails on the existing wiring.  It “helped" that a townhouse in the neighborhood caught fire while we were. While they aren’t saying it was electrical, the fire department said the fire started in the wall between two units, which can’t be much else.  The entire development where they live was built during the aluminum wiring era, so they aren’t the only ones with this problem.  

Jim

> On Apr 24, 2018, at 8:56 PM, Donald H Locker <dhlocker at comcast.net> wrote:
> 
> I found this link useful, but had already deleted Jim's original post - I hope replying to a reply is satisfactory.
> 
> Upshot - connecting old Al to Cu is dicey at best.
> 
> <https://diy.stackexchange.com/questions/74916/can-i-connect-copper-wire-to-aluminum-wire <https://diy.stackexchange.com/questions/74916/can-i-connect-copper-wire-to-aluminum-wire>>
> 
> Donald.
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> On 2018-04-24 10:14 AM, Al Fuller wrote:
>> Jim - I don’t know what will solve the CU to AL issue, but something you said did strike me:  If it were my sister, I would not under any circumstances leave outdoor wiring without a ground!  In fact, I would likely be looking at whether the circuit has a GFI...
>> Just sayin!
>> Al Fuller
>> al at bighealey dot org
>> '65 BJ-8
>> '85 Rx-7
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Shop-talk [mailto:shop-talk-bounces at autox.team.net] On Behalf Of Jim Stone
>> Sent: Monday, April 23, 2018 1:34 PM
>> To: Shop Talk <shop-talk at Autox.Team.Net>
>> Subject: [Shop-talk] Aluminum and copper wiring
>> Hi guys.  I am currently visiting my sister-in-law and offered to install a light switch for her; she has dusk-to-dawn outdoor lights that were installed by a handyman and wired without a switch.  She’d like to be able to turn them off, which is normally a pretty simple job.  However, her house was built in the early 70’s and has mostly aluminum wiring.  I just opened up the box where the handyman spliced in the circuit for the lights and he used a standard outlet made for copper wiring, not a CO/ALR rated one.  Aluminum going in; copper coming out.  No sign of arcing, fortunately, but I will do it right.  The current outlet has a copper ground wire and an aluminum one connected together to the ground screw.
>> I know using a CO/ALR outlet allows me to connect the (copper) light circuit to the original (aluminum) circuit, but I am not sure about how to do the ground wires.  I assume it is less critical with a ground wire than a hot one, but still…. I suppose I could simply not ground the lights or the new switch, but I am wondering if there is a better solution.
>> Thanks,
>> Jim
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