Aluminum To Copper Wire Connectors:

An aluminum wired house means the whole house was wired with aluminum, instead of copper. When a house has aluminum to copper connections, this is when these two dissimilar metals connect between a device, such as an outlet, switch, lighting fixture…The issue comes when copper is added from the device to the aluminum wiring in the house. When these two metals connect, it is the very important the method that is used to make your house safe. Electricians will use aluminum to copper wire connectors and silver diox.

Be careful! It sounds simple, but it is not. An electrical contractors specialize in some areas. Make sure you hire an electrical contractor and the electrician doing the work is very experienced in aluminum wiring to copper connections. It could cost you a lot to fix the problem and then you find out later that it was done wrong.

Here is a list of things that you need to make sure the electrician is doing it right:

1. Pick an electrical contractor that is licensed. You can check this through DORA.com. It will state the highest level of the license & verify that license is current. Also, it will show if an offense, up to a year, if the State of Colorado repomend for.

2. Make sure electrical contractor insurance is up to date. If there licenses aren’t up to date, then their insurance will not be.

3. Interview the electrician, that deals with historical, remodeled homes with different metals. Electricians deal with many different avenues. You want the electrical company to have a service base to encounter a variety.

4. Figure out what methods, the electrical company is going to use for the aluminum and copper.

5. Make sure that you check with your homeowner insurance company what they approved. Right now, even though the materials are U. L. listed, city approved, state approved, and the electrical company doing the work is approved, some insurances are not allowing certain methods. We believe that it is due to the electrical contractors doing the method incorrectly.

6. When the contractor comes for an estimate, he should be able to explain about the method he is doing, but leave out “how to do it” technique. He should be able to explain what and how he is doing, but keep it in lamon terms for you.

7. If your insurance won’t accept, he should have an alternative way to meet their terms.

8. You don’t have to re-wire your whole home. Though this is is the best way, but drywall will have to be pulled completely out and rewired in copper. Due to the NEC code newer standards, which changes every 3 years, for example: arc-fault breakers required in a residential home in every general and lighting circuit, plus the number of outlets along the floor line measurement and possibly a panel change out. These examples of NEC code changes will be required due to copper rewiring of the home, as of now.

Don’t forget Peterson Electric, LLC is an experienced electrician with aluminum to copper wiring in houses. Contact us!