parallel Al wires with Cu pigtails

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petersonra

petersonra

Senior Member
Location
Northern illinois
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engineer
Would this be legal?

I can't see any obvious reason it would not.

What I am thinking is suppose one runs parallel Al conductors to a device and finds that at the device the connectors are not rated for Al wire. is there any reason the Al wires can't have Cu pigtails installed at the Cu only connectors?
 
ken44 said:
Im confused as to why you would be running parallel wires to a device? What device are you speaking of?
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In this case, I was thinking of a CB. I had to change out the lugs on a 1600A CB from Al/Cu lugs to Cu only lugs due to a delivery issue, and just wondered what would happen if the contractor ran Al, which he probably will. I had pretty much convinced myself he could pigtail Cu onto the end of the Al wires to terminate it, but thought it might be an interesting question.

I just do not deal with Al wire very much, although I usually try to get lugs that are Al/Cu to make it easier on the EC.

Given the cost of the larger size lugs, I am reconsidering whether it makes sense to supply connectors for the EC anyway. What do you guys prefer? I am not really a huge fan of mechanical connectors for large wires. I sort of prefer the crimp on style. I think they are a better connection, and I can get crimp on terminals that allow the use of finer stranded wire, which makes it a lot easier to route bigger wires inside a panel.

A few hundred bucks never used to matter much. It seems these days that it is often the difference between getting an order or not getting it. For a lot of these projects an extra $500 for lugs is about the margin we seem to be losing the projects over.
 
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