grgarber
Member
- Location
- Dayton, OH
Scenario: Existing residential apartment complex was completely wired with aluminium wire and aluminium/copper non-tamper resistant devices. Insurance is requiring all aluminium connections (even connections that are being made to the aluminium/copper devices) to be replaced with a pigtail with an aluminium to copper wire nut. Building is old enough that the existing load centers are non-arc fault protected.
Question A: If I pull out the existing devices, disconnect the device, install a copper pigtail and reinstall the existing device back in place, does that constitute modifying the circuit and thus requiring me to bring the circuit up to the latest code including but not limited to installing a new tamper-resistant device? What are the requirements that would force me to bring the said circuit up to code? I believe the arc-fault exemption in 210.2(B) would exempt me from adding arc-fault protection. This would exemption would not allow me to add an exhaust hood to the existing circuit without updating the circuit.
Question B: Due to the replacement of all aluminium connections, we are required to install pigtails in load center as well. Am I allowed to splice all of these conductors inside of the load center? Similar to Question A, would this constitute modify the circuit and requiring me to bringing the circuit up to code?
Question C: If we replaced the existing load centers with new load centers with arc-fault "combination" breakers, would they sufficiently protect against overheating from aluminium wiring issues? Maybe a cheaper option than going through entire unit and rewiring all devices.
Thank you for all the help in advance! They have an "consulting engineer" helping them on this project, but I don't think they are thinking through this 100%.
Question A: If I pull out the existing devices, disconnect the device, install a copper pigtail and reinstall the existing device back in place, does that constitute modifying the circuit and thus requiring me to bring the circuit up to the latest code including but not limited to installing a new tamper-resistant device? What are the requirements that would force me to bring the said circuit up to code? I believe the arc-fault exemption in 210.2(B) would exempt me from adding arc-fault protection. This would exemption would not allow me to add an exhaust hood to the existing circuit without updating the circuit.
Question B: Due to the replacement of all aluminium connections, we are required to install pigtails in load center as well. Am I allowed to splice all of these conductors inside of the load center? Similar to Question A, would this constitute modify the circuit and requiring me to bringing the circuit up to code?
Question C: If we replaced the existing load centers with new load centers with arc-fault "combination" breakers, would they sufficiently protect against overheating from aluminium wiring issues? Maybe a cheaper option than going through entire unit and rewiring all devices.
Thank you for all the help in advance! They have an "consulting engineer" helping them on this project, but I don't think they are thinking through this 100%.