Old house with AL wire and AFCI reqs....

[wrobotronic]

Hi all..
I am inspecting an addition on an old house. The homeowner moved his main panel approximately 20' from its old location on the outside of the house, and this is now inside the house. All of his circuits in the old part of the house were were put into a jbox in the attic and extensions were made from said jbox to the new panel. The old circuits are aluminum. So, here are my issues: will these splices affect the new AFCI breakers the HO will be installing? If so what can I advise him to do? Then, at the splice points, the new breakers need to be sized to the AL conductors correct? So a #12Cu spliced with a #12 Al conductor should be on a 15a breaker... And because of this does the rest of the old part of the house need to brought into GFCI compliance along with the AFCI reqs? I hope I have explained this adequately enough. Please let me know if any clarification is needed. Thank you everyone...

 

[ActionDave]

Hi all..
I am inspecting an addition on an old house. The homeowner moved his main panel approximately 20' from its old location on the outside of the house, and this is now inside the house. All of his circuits in the old part of the house were were put into a jbox in the attic and extensions were made from said jbox to the new panel. The old circuits are aluminum.

So, here are my issues: will these splices affect the new AFCI breakers the HO will be installing? If so what can I advise him to do?

Splicing is a natural part of wiring. There is nothing in a proper splice that would affect an AFCI. A bigger issue is the transition from Cu to Al. I have used the purple wire nuts but I heard a rumour that they are only for Al to Al.

Then, at the splice points, the new breakers need to be sized to the AL conductors correct? So a #12Cu spliced with a #12 Al conductor should be on a 15a breaker...

Yes.

And because of this does the rest of the old part of the house need to brought into GFCI compliance along with the AFCI reqs?

No, as far as NEC. Some local building codes may require an upgrade for remodels.

I hope I have explained this adequately enough. Please let me know if any clarification is needed. Thank you everyone...

You explained it well. It would be nice if you hit enter once in a while to break up the text in posts. It makes them easier to read.

 

[peter d]

I have used the purple wire nuts but I heard a rumour that they are only for Al to Al.

They are listed for AL to CU connections only, not AL to AL for whatever reason.

 

[al hildenbrand]

I have used the purple wire nuts but I heard a rumour that they are only for Al to Al.

Dave, the Ideal 65 Purple Twister ( click here for Ideal's catalog page ) is an Al / Cu connector.

Click here for a PDF letter from Ideal summarizing all of the compliances of the Ideal 65.

Wrobotronic, I agree with Dave's summary of answers to your questions.

The added branch circuit length in this one situation, upon relocation of the circuit breaker panel, invokes the AFCI requirement of 210.12; but there is no such NEC based GFCI upgrade rule for the same existing branch circuits.

 

[ActionDave]

I'm glad to know I was misremembering about the purple wire nuts.