Keep Your Appliances Safe by Using Aluminium Cables
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the aluminium cables were very popular and used widely. But after that, it was not in use for quite a long time. If you observe, you will find many houses built with aluminium wiring today as well. But of late, it has again come back and is in use again for wiring of some appliances. But still, people are not confident of its use and hence, are still apprehensive while using it. You, as a user, should understand that the issues, if any, have been found in the way the connections are made and not in the cable itself.
The use of aluminium is done with different types of electrical appliances and equipment with connection points having a terminal point made of copper. This is a fundamental mistake and being a user, it will help you to know that these two metals - copper and aluminium do not get along well together. There is a possibility of galvanic corrosion causing the connections to become unstable with time. This is because these metals have different expansion/ contraction time that leads to loosening of connections. The possible results will be - arcing, oxidation, and accumulation of more heat. The worst case can lead to sparking also.
While these issues continue to persist it older wiring but there have been many innovations made for handling the new appliances. The dual rated connectors have been introduced that can handle copper and aluminium. Another innovation has been the improvement in the properties of metal by adding a small percentage of other metals to improve performance. This combination helps in the controlled cold flow and creep. These have certainly been very helpful but they do require continuous maintenance and monitoring of appliances.
It is advisable to take assistance of electricians but there are a few steps that you can take as precautions:
There is a practice of obtaining a permit from the authorities that can be extremely beneficial. This ensures that a local electrical inspection comes for inspection on regular basis and hence, this can result in discovering any type of discrepancyin wiring. It will cost you to get a permit but when compared with the expected benefits, the costs are certainly very less. Think about it!