{"id":453,"date":"2019-10-14T11:00:01","date_gmt":"2019-10-14T15:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.schererelectric.com\/blog\/?p=453"},"modified":"2019-10-11T12:21:55","modified_gmt":"2019-10-11T16:21:55","slug":"aluminum-wiring-home-what-you-should-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.schererelectric.com\/blog\/electrical\/aluminum-wiring-home-what-you-should-know\/","title":{"rendered":"Aluminum Wiring in Your Home: What You Should Know"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The demands placed on residential electrical systems are higher than they were only ten years ago, and significantly higher than thirty years ago. With more appliances and charging stations than ever before plugged into a house\u2019s electrical system, it makes sense to upgrade older wiring. Our Buffalo, NY electricians<\/a> handle electrical wiring and rewiring for homes. Whatever amount of new wiring you may need for your older house, we can take care of the job. We also make upgrades to outlets and electrical panels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this post, we\u2019re going to address a specific rewiring concern,\nwhich is aluminum wiring found in many older homes. Is aluminum wiring dangerous\nand does it need to be replaced?<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Aluminum Age<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The standard metal used in residential wiring is copper,\nwhich is highly conductive and effective. But in the mid-\u201860s the price of\ncopper rose, and electricians looked for an alternative. They picked aluminum\nas a replacement. Aluminum is also a highly conductive metal (it\u2019s why you see\nit used in baking and cooking), although not as effective a conductor as\ncopper. The installers who put aluminum wires in homes made up for the difference\nby making these wires larger than copper wires: 12 gauge for aluminum and 14 gauge\nfor copper. (In wiring measurements, the smaller gauge number is the larger\nwire.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Copper Age Returns<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Problems with aluminum wiring started to emerge soon after\nthe changeover. The wires were often overheating, lights in homes flickered,\nand insulation burned along the wires. When electricians investigate these\nissues, they found the problem was at connection points, often behind outlets\nand light switches. Because aluminum wiring expands more when it heats up, it\nwas causing \u201cwire creep\u201d: the wires coming loose from under terminal screws. The\ncorrosion that formed along aluminum was also a barrier toward electrical flow.\nBy 1972, the allow of aluminum wiring was changed to reduce these problems.\nCopper prices had fallen as well, and copper wires returned as the most popular\nmetal for residential electrical systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do You Need Rewiring for Aluminum?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This is the big question we\u2019ve build up to. If you live in a\nhouse built between 1965 and 1972, or which had extensive electrical work done\nduring that time, you probably have aluminum wiring somewhere. Do you need to\nschedule a whole-house rewiring as soon as possible?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not necessarily\u2014although we strongly recommend calling our\nelectricians to examine the electrical system. As long as there aren\u2019t problems\nat connections, aluminum wiring is as safe as copper wiring. An electrical inspection\nchecks on all the connections to find where there may be concerns. Rather than remove\nthe aluminum wires, the electricians can install special connectors that remove\nthe potential danger of the wires. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you have any concerns about your household electrical system or you have noticed flickering lights and warm light switches, arrange with our electricians for an electrical audit. We\u2019ll find out what changes need to be done and if your household will benefit from rewiring. Leave the work to us\u2014we offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scherer Electric is Western New York\u2019s Favorite Electrician. Schedule rewiring service<\/a> with our professionals today.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re going to address a specific rewiring concern, which is aluminum wiring found in many older homes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[87],"tags":[91,99],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.schererelectric.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.schererelectric.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.schererelectric.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.schererelectric.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.schererelectric.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.schererelectric.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":455,"href":"https:\/\/www.schererelectric.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453\/revisions\/455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.schererelectric.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.schererelectric.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.schererelectric.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}