Any homes with aluminum wiring may need to have their wiring completely replaced. Aluminum wiring is not necessarily dangerous, and it isn’t the most inefficient type of wiring that you could have in your home. However, at the very least, you will have difficulty finding an insurance company willing to write a policy for a home with aluminum wiring.
If you’ve found yourself in a difficult situation with your aluminum wiring, call Savior Home Services today, and we can help you decide on the best course of action to take.
Aluminum wiring was very popular during the sixties and seventies, though even by the late seventies some homes were already using copper. If your home still has aluminum wiring, the safest thing to do is have it completely replaced. Our electricians can help, and we’ll always make sure your home’s electricity is not only fully functional, but completely safe as well.
Why Aluminum Wiring is a Safety Concern
- Aluminum will oxidize very easily—it can develop a significant amount of rust within a day. This increases the resistance of aluminum wiring, and that can lead to the receptacle overheating.
- Aluminum is softer and more malleable than copper wiring, which makes it much more prone to damage.
- Aluminum expands as its temperature increases—this is called thermal expansion—which means that it can change shape at the terminal screws, which can cause it to come loose or disconnect.
Aluminum Wiring Inspections
Remember: even if you have aluminum wiring in your home, you won’t necessarily need to replace all of it. Our electricians can inspect your home and its wiring to determine whether you need any, all, or part of it replaced. Aluminum wiring does fail more frequently than copper at connection points, but it’s still safe for use for power distribution, even in newer homes.
Aluminum wiring does become a serious problem when it’s used for branch circuit wiring. Branch circuit wires are the wires that feed into your switches, plugs, and lighting, though aluminum wiring is still commonly used for larger feeders that provide energy to things like AC systems. If you’re unsure about whether or not your home needs to have it s wiring replaced, call our electricians today with any questions, or to schedule an electrical safety inspection.
Partial Home Aluminum Wiring Replacement
In most homes, you won’t need to have all of your wiring replaced, even if it’s all aluminum. But even if you only need to have parts of your home rewired, you do need to take care of the problem as quickly as possible.
Aluminum wiring replacements typically take around one week to complete. Our electricians know that this can be a huge interruption of your home life, so we’ll work to get the job done as quickly as possible. However, we’ll never let speed get in the way of quality workmanship.
