Copper plated aluminum

[czarcone]

I've seen solid conductor aluminum branch circuit wiring several times & passed on the usual warnings, but today I found several branch circuits wired with copper plated aluminum. What's the consensus regarding connections and/or historical performance?

[Chad Fabry]

I've never seen it installed and my gut reaction to copper plated aluminum is that it's no good because copper and aluminum don't really like each other galvanically. My gut reaction is apparently wrong.

A few months ago I looked up some research on the product and it appears to be much more reliable than aluminum with few or no problems related to oxidation.

The wire must be sized as though it were aluminum only and the copper/aluminum bimetallic connectors should be employed.

A quick story..My cousin who is a hard working entrepreneurial type noticed that along one of our local rail lines there were miles of wire formally used for a telegraph system. His idea was to salvage the wire, burn off the insulation and sell it for scrap. He spent weeks taking it all down and days tending a fire to burn the insulation and was pretty smug to discover that he'd collected several tons.

Turns out the wire was copper plated steel and he netted a cool 37 dollars for his efforts.

[Bobby Ryon]

Chad:

Your cousin ended up a little better than this.....

When I used to work for one of the local fire departments, we got a call one summer afternoon to a reported house fire. A neighbor saw "thick black smoke" and called 911. Upon arrival, the first unit reported only smoke from the chimney and cancelled the rest of the response. Inside were two teens that heard there was big money in scrap copper. They had stolen several spools of cable from construction sites and were burning the insulation off in the fireplace.

I think all they netted out of their operation was restitution and the opportunity to pick up trash along the highway for a few weekends.

[czarcone]

Thanks Chad