Anthony Cox
Member
- Location
- North Carolina
There was a time when I was great with electrical. I am still great with photography.
Not long ago, I notice a burnt out electical outlet at a friend's home, and offered to fix it for him.
I removed the cover plate, and found most of the insulation burnt off of the aluminum wires. The duplex recepticle was charcoal, and crumbled into 2 pieces. The wires attached to the side of the recepticle were still screwed on tight, but hanging free from the recepticle itself. It feed two other outlets, one of which was powering a lamp, the other a large running fan to cool the room. I didn't bring my camera that day...
I did what I learned over a decade ago, cleaned and pigtailed copper wires onto the aluminum wires, put in a new aluminum approved recepticle and wallplate. It is working fine, and I know that it is now much safer now, than before I worked on it.
The I checked the lastest on the internet, and find, dag nabbit, pigtailing aluminum to copper wires is no longer considered safe. You have to use this special purple wire nuts with anti-oxident that cost about $2.50 each.
No, wait, that is no longer considered safe either. An "certified" electrician who passed a class in how to use a Tyco crimping tool now has to do it. How I regret selling my Tyco stock!
No, wait, now Alcop has some screw down connectors you can use, for about $4.00 each.
There is a thing called care, and I know, that the connections I did, are far safer than before I did them. But I am going to make sure he has an electrician fix them correctly, umm, if anyone really knows what is correct for aluminum wires this year.
I then looked for a GFCI recepticle rated for aluminum wires, to protect his bathrooms, and low and behold, nobody makes a GFCI for aluminum wires.
My next project, was my aluminum wired clubhouse. I noticed that the light switches in the greatroom, which control well over 1,000 watts of light each, has a wallplate that gets noticably warm to the touch when the lights have been own for about 30 minutes... Hmmm, a warning sign.
This time, I have my newest camera and decades of photography skills.
It was not nearly as bad as the burnt out outlet, but there were several interesting stupid things, improper, and just plain wrong things done in that box.
I have, some really really fantastic digital photographs of simple stupid things wanna-be electricians do, which I will gladly provide for electrical books as long as I get credit for the photographs.
I can't wait to turn my camera to the other outlets, like that non-GFCI outlet and light switch that doesn't turn anything on or off switch just above the kitchen sink...
Happy Fathers Day Dad!
Not long ago, I notice a burnt out electical outlet at a friend's home, and offered to fix it for him.
I removed the cover plate, and found most of the insulation burnt off of the aluminum wires. The duplex recepticle was charcoal, and crumbled into 2 pieces. The wires attached to the side of the recepticle were still screwed on tight, but hanging free from the recepticle itself. It feed two other outlets, one of which was powering a lamp, the other a large running fan to cool the room. I didn't bring my camera that day...
I did what I learned over a decade ago, cleaned and pigtailed copper wires onto the aluminum wires, put in a new aluminum approved recepticle and wallplate. It is working fine, and I know that it is now much safer now, than before I worked on it.
The I checked the lastest on the internet, and find, dag nabbit, pigtailing aluminum to copper wires is no longer considered safe. You have to use this special purple wire nuts with anti-oxident that cost about $2.50 each.
No, wait, that is no longer considered safe either. An "certified" electrician who passed a class in how to use a Tyco crimping tool now has to do it. How I regret selling my Tyco stock!
No, wait, now Alcop has some screw down connectors you can use, for about $4.00 each.
There is a thing called care, and I know, that the connections I did, are far safer than before I did them. But I am going to make sure he has an electrician fix them correctly, umm, if anyone really knows what is correct for aluminum wires this year.
I then looked for a GFCI recepticle rated for aluminum wires, to protect his bathrooms, and low and behold, nobody makes a GFCI for aluminum wires.
My next project, was my aluminum wired clubhouse. I noticed that the light switches in the greatroom, which control well over 1,000 watts of light each, has a wallplate that gets noticably warm to the touch when the lights have been own for about 30 minutes... Hmmm, a warning sign.
This time, I have my newest camera and decades of photography skills.
It was not nearly as bad as the burnt out outlet, but there were several interesting stupid things, improper, and just plain wrong things done in that box.
I have, some really really fantastic digital photographs of simple stupid things wanna-be electricians do, which I will gladly provide for electrical books as long as I get credit for the photographs.
I can't wait to turn my camera to the other outlets, like that non-GFCI outlet and light switch that doesn't turn anything on or off switch just above the kitchen sink...
Happy Fathers Day Dad!