Lights Flickering

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greg y

Member
A freind of mine called and said in his home his lights keep flickering , i know he has alum. wiring in the house . Just wanted to see what some of ya,ll think of something like this to what the problem might be or has anyone seen this before.
 

benaround

Senior Member
Location
Arizona
A freind of mine called and said in his home his lights keep flickering , i know he has alum. wiring in the house . Just wanted to see what some of ya,ll think of something like this to what the problem might be or has anyone seen this before.

Flickering, to me, means a bad connection somewhere and should not be ignored.
 

greg y

Member
Thats what i was thinking heading there in the morning to help him, already fixed 1 problem, the alum. wire was burned and the light was not working probaly should go through the whole hose and pigtail everything out to copper, he will not want the house rewired with copper.
 

Jim W in Tampa

Senior Member
Location
Tampa Florida
Thats what i was thinking heading there in the morning to help him, already fixed 1 problem, the alum. wire was burned and the light was not working probaly should go through the whole hose and pigtail everything out to copper, he will not want the house rewired with copper.

Just what approved method do you plan on using ? Wire nuts are not safe or legal
 

physis

Senior Member
A freind of mine called and said in his home his lights keep flickering , i know he has alum. wiring in the house . Just wanted to see what some of ya,ll think of something like this to what the problem might be or has anyone seen this before.

I wouldn't be happy until I had found what's causing the lights to "flicker".

It certainly could be a bad sign.

And there are particular wirenuts that come pregooped with stuff for splicing aluminum and aluminum to copper, I very much encourage using them. Aluminum wiring can very much be a fire hazard. Especially when it's already known that there are bad connections.
 

Jim W in Tampa

Senior Member
Location
Tampa Florida
I wouldn't be happy until I had found what's causing the lights to "flicker".

It certainly could be a bad sign.

And there are particular wirenuts that come pregooped with stuff for splicing aluminum and aluminum to copper, I very much encourage using them. Aluminum wiring can very much be a fire hazard. Especially when it's already known that there are bad connections.

It's sad that the people got stuck with such a costly mistake. Now after almost 40 years i would assume most have had many service calls or rewired.
 

cadpoint

Senior Member
Location
Durham, NC
Just what approved method do you plan on using ? Wire nuts are not safe or legal

Can you expand on your statement! I don't work as a service technican, but I don't exactly understand your statement based on what physis said, either ?

And there are particular wirenuts that come pregooped with stuff for splicing aluminum and aluminum to copper, I very much encourage using them. Aluminum wiring can very much be a fire hazard. Especially when it's already known that there are bad connections.

I thought any product that is in our field is UL listed and or approved, (not to get into the exact verbage-here), but thinking about a house wiring and exactly what your saying is just not adding up...!
 

greg y

Member
Will probaly do the wire nuts with de-ox in them for it to pigtail or see if he will rewire the home with copper romex will be tough but a lot safer. Will post back up and let ya,ll know what was found.
 

greg y

Member
Yes that is the one i know this a serious problem and it really has me bothered but that is the wirenuts i was going to use , Thanks .
 

physis

Senior Member
There are "specific" splicing methods listed for use with this nasty 10 and 12 AWG wiring that has a very real history of burning buildings down.

I'll see if I can locate a source.
 

physis

Senior Member
I thought any product that is in our field is UL listed and or approved, (not to get into the exact verbage-here), but thinking about a house wiring and exactly what your saying is just not adding up...!

personally, I don't like UL listings. They'll list almost anybody who pays them enough. And I have seen far too much UL listed unsafe junk.

In this case a typical wire nut is not listed for aluminum wiring applications.

You have to be careful to not presume that a UL stamp means that the thing-a-ma-bob is approved for everything in the universe, cause it isn't true.
 
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physis

Senior Member
Here's the image of the wire nuts your talking about using:

19-twister_al-cu_thumbnail.jpg


and this is the correct approach.
 

rhamblin

Senior Member
personally, I don't like UL listings. They'll list almost anybody who pays them enough. And I have seen far too much UL listed unsafe junk.

In this case a typical wire nut is not listed for aluminum wiring applications.

You have to be careful to not presume that a UL stamp means that the thing-a-ma-bob is approved for everything in the universe, cause it isn't true.

What exactly have you found that was UL listed that was not safe? I have seen plenty of products listed for one purpose but misused (creating an unsafe situation). I assume that is what you mean?

I assume that UL is an independent testing facility and that they would follow the listing of the manufacturers product to the "T" and test from that. Are you saying this isn't true.
 

rhamblin

Senior Member
There are "specific" splicing methods listed for use with this nasty 10 and 12 AWG wiring that has a very real history of burning buildings down.

I'll see if I can locate a source.

I see you found a picture above for the wirenuts that are rated for splicing aluminum and copper connections. Does anyone know off hand if it would be legal and code compliant to use a standard wirenut with an antioxidant like "Noalox". I suppose you would have to look at the listing and labeling for the individual wirenut.
 

rhamblin

Senior Member
A freind of mine called and said in his home his lights keep flickering , i know he has alum. wiring in the house . Just wanted to see what some of ya,ll think of something like this to what the problem might be or has anyone seen this before.

I had a friend call me once stating that his washing machine would only work intermittently, and asked if I could check it out. I told him that I was not an appliance repair technician but I would check out what I know.

When I got to his house I first checked the breaker panel. It turns out that someone previously ran a copper wire from the breaker to what appeared to be a supplemental OCPD, and ran aluminum wire from that out to the receptacle. When I saw the aluminum wire I remembered what a friend in the electrical trade told me once about aluminum wire, it will expand and contract alot with varying temperature changes.

Long story short the lugs on this supplemental OCPD were loose because the wire had expanded and contracted so much. You may want to check out any mechanical connections such as the breaker panel.
 

jim dungar

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Wisconsin
Occupation
PE (Retired) - Power Systems
Does anyone know off hand if it would be legal and code compliant to use a standard wirenut with an antioxidant like "Noalox". I suppose you would have to look at the listing and labeling for the individual wirenut.

Do not use a standard wire nut, they are not designed for the expansion/contraction differences between copper and aluminum.
Relatively few wirenuts are listed for this purpose.

It is most likely that manufacturers build and design to national consensus standards, like UL rather than to their own proprietary standards. When a manufacturer finds a 'better' way of doing something, they work at changing the national standard.
 

physis

Senior Member
Yaw need to check out 110.14

I'm having a hard time beleiving that this concept is largely unknown.
 

rhamblin

Senior Member
Yaw need to check out 110.14

I'm having a hard time beleiving that this concept is largely unknown.

Yeah you were correct, which is what I was thinking. 110.14 states that the connection device needs to be rated for the use, when joining dissimilar metals together.

I don't do alot of residential wiring and have never come accross an entire house wired in aluminum. I usually work in industrial applications running conduit as raceways, (i.e. aluminum, galvanized), in those applications whenever, we combine dissimilar metals we use noalox or similar antioxidant.

Thank-you for pointing out 110.14, although we all probably know the jist of that code, we sometimes forget where it is. I am going through the master exam prep book, and can use all the help I can get.
 
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