The title pretty much says it all. Would aluminum wiring be used in any new construction?
IANA Electrician, but I’m pretty sure that current building codes require copper wire.
Also, aluminum wire used to be quite a bit cheaper than copper wire. That’s no longer true.
Demand for aluminum is higher nowdays (a lot from beverage cans), so the price has gone up a bit. And volume of production has driven the price of copper wire down to very close to the price of aluminum wire – sometimes even cheaper.
And electricians find it much easier to only work with one type of wire, less inventory to keep on hand, etc. Also they don’t have to worry about the difficulties of making a CU-AL connection, with the extra work & parts that requires.
The only real reason for aluminum wire was that it was cheaper. No the price difference is so minor it’s not worth doing. About the only place you might still see aluminum wire used is for Service Entrance wiring from the street into a building.
My house was built in the mid 70’s when there was a shortage of copper and aluminum wiring in the house was pretty common.
I was fortunate. My house has all copper wire except for in 2 places. -----The wiring to the stove and the wiring to the electric furnace.
Haven’t used the electric furnace in 29 years ------found the electric bills too high to justify it. Use excellent quality space heaters instead.
The stove though I have used for 30 years. Should I be worried? Should I replace that wire with copper?
( I did check the air handler electrical supply to make sure the goop they were supposed to use where aluminum wiring from house was connected to copper wire of the unit--------it was there.)
Assume they were just as careful with the wiring to the stove.
But, if recommended, I have no problem running copper wiring to the stove.
In most houses aluminum is used for 40 amp and larger circuits, such as range/oven/stove, central air, heat pumps, electric forced air heat, sub-panels, and the main service entrance cable. So long as aluminum conductors are properly treated with anti-oxidant, terminated in lugs approved for aluminum, and torqued properly, they’re safe. Of all the services I’ve done in the last 15 years, only one customer requested copper.
Thanks for the info. I feel much better now.
I figured aluminum wiring was safe if done properly. The main lead to the house from the power company is aluminum after all.
I have never noticed any overheating at the connection of that aluminum wire to the stove/oven outlet box--------so I guess they done it good.
If you still have concerns about the aluminum wiring another potential fix (as opposed to complete replacement) is to have an electrician install copper wires to bridge the connections between the aluminum wires and the devices that they are currently connected to. I cannot remember the technical term for the “bridges” though.
I think you are refering to ‘pigtailing’, which IIRC was the suggestion many moons ago, but it hasn’t proven to be better.
Basically pigtailing what just using a wirenut to connect the Al wire to a short piece of Cu wire that connected to the outlet or switch or whatever.