If your home (or a home you’re looking to buy or sell) has aluminum wiring, this could pose a hidden risk to the home that could most importantly affect the safety of those in the home, but also the value and insurability of the home. While copper is most common for wiring modern homes, the shortage and resulting high cost of copper in the 1960s caused aluminum wiring to be commonly used to wire electric in homes from around the mid 1960s through the early 1970s. So, what’s the big deal with aluminum wiring? Is your home safe? Read on to learn more.
Is Aluminum Wiring in a House Unsafe?
The short answer is that connections with aluminum wiring are less safe than copper, and have been known to cause many home fires. In fact, the Denver Fire Department’s Fire Prevention and Investigation Division released a report stating that there are, on average, around 800,000 home fires a year, 75,000 of which start from the home’s electric system, and many of those 75k fires can be traced back to electrical circuits that are wired with aluminum.
The issue doesn’t actually lie with the aluminum itself, however, which safely conducts electricity. The safety concern actually arises due to the connections. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission also released a report touching on the dangers of aluminum branch circuit wiring showing that “homes built before 1972, and wired with aluminum, are 55 times more likely to have one or more wire connections at outlets reach ‘Fire Hazard Conditions’ than homes wired with copper.” The aluminum wire connections can overheat, sometimes leading to a fire which could be deadly to anyone in the home.
If you’ve noticed any signs of overheating such as burning plastic or visual signs of overheating on or around your outlets, you should get a professional electrician out immediately to inspect your home’s electrical system. If you’ve otherwise become aware of aluminum wiring in your home’s electrical system (if your home was built between 1965 and 1972, you may want to check), we recommend calling in a professional ASAP to take a look at your system and recommend the best course of action. Speaking of best course of action – what should you do if your home has aluminum wiring?
Repairing or Replacing Aluminum Wiring
If you’ve discovered that your home’s electrical system is utilizing aluminum wiring, there are a couple options that can be considered. The one thing you definitely don’t want to do is simply ignore it – as stated above, aluminum wire connections in your electrical system can be a major fire risk. On top of that, it can often be difficult to get homeowners insurance if your house has aluminum wiring since it poses such a known risk of home damage – for the same reasons, selling a house with aluminum wiring can also be difficult.
So, what are the options?
- Completely replacing aluminum wiring. Far and away, a total rewiring of your home with copper wire is the safest and best solution, and the one that most electricians will recommend. This means replacing all aluminum wiring – running fresh copper wiring from your electrical panel to every place in your home that needs electric including power outlets, light switches, etc. As you can imagine, this is a big job that involves getting down to the roots of your home’s electrical system setup. As such, it’s not a particularly cheap option – you’ll likely see estimates for such work in the ballpark of $15,000 to $40,000, though it obviously depends largely on factors such as the size of your home, the complexity of your electrical system and more.
- Replacing only the connections (AKA pigtailing). This option is less thorough and simpler, thereby making it more affordable. The strategy with this option is essentially to leave the majority of the aluminum wiring in place, only replacing it with copper where it actually connects with outlets and switches so that the connections themselves are copper, which eliminates the main issue. Since this only involves an electrician needing access to the connection points rather than the entire wiring system, it means a much less intrusive job (whereas a full replacement could mean needing to get into walls and ceilings). There are several approaches to this method, though what is deemed acceptable differs from region to region, so it’s important to speak with a local electrician to see what is acceptable in your jurisdiction. Most areas and expert organizations recommend COPALUM (copper aluminum) connectors when doing pigtail repair of aluminum wiring. That said, while pigtailing is the most common choice for fixing a home wired with aluminum, complete replacement remains the most recommended solution.
No matter the option you think is best suited to your situation, either one should be carried out by a licensed and trained master electrician. Dealing with aluminum wiring in a home in Denver? Get in touch with us today for an inspection, recommendations and an estimate.