NM Cable or conduit for feeders on 80 unit apartment complex?

[Fulthrotl]

After meeting with the GC, they want SER cable.

When you say "hypressed on lugs", are you talking about the lugs you crimp on the aluminum wire and they have posts that go under the lugs on the gear?

yeah, a swaged fitting with either a bolt hole, two bolt holes, or a finger lug.
it eliminates the whole issue of aluminum wire under a binding screw. it can't loosen up.

 

[Fulthrotl]

Why would you even consider using compresion lugs for a residential application? Standard residential loadcenters and meterstacks don't have compression options. You would have to use commercial panelboards and multi-meter switchgear. The cost increase for this equiptment would be more that just pulling copper feeders.

As long as the standard mechanical lugs are torqued properly they should perform equaly as well with copper or aluminum conductors.

my experience has been that aluminum conductors under a
swaged fitting, including a finger lug to enable use on breakers
with setscrews, can't come loose. i've seen a fair amount of
aluminum feeders end up with loose setscrew lugs after a while.

assuming that a loadcenter is able to accept a setscrew lug,
why would it not be able to accept a crimped lug with the
same size hole as the setscrew lug? i'm puzzled here.

 

[mjf]

After meeting with the GC, they want SER cable.

When you say "hypressed on lugs", are you talking about the lugs you crimp on the aluminum wire and they have posts that go under the lugs on the gear?

Get that in writing, signed!