Nickle Copper Clad and Aluminum Wires

[Ben H]

1: Had a home this morning that has what I believe is nickle/copper clad branch wire on a few circuits. The reason I think this is 1) built in 1941 2)Cloth(ish) jacket on the wire.

I was hoping someone could clarify what style jacket was used on Aluminum wiring? I was thinking it was never that braided cloth like stuff? No?

2: What do you guys do when you're uncertain about "that silver looking wire in the panel"...I have not made a call about the wire/breaker size due to the fact I'm not 100% sure of what metal I'm looking at[:-bigeyes

[Robert Jones]

Hey Ben,

Do you have a pic? Is it a grey/silver jacket? Could possibly be NM.

[msteger]

All of the solid conductor AL Romex wiring I've seen had a plastic outer sheathing like like modern copper Romex. You would see "AL" printed on the jacket. Base upon what you describe, I don't think it's Aluminum wiring.

[plummen]

is it knob/tube wiring?

[Neal Lewis]

If the house was built in 1941 with a cloth jacket, it's not aluminum. The date range that aluminum was used for branch circuits is not even close to 1941.

[Ben H]

It's not K&T. The house had a 3 wire service, 100-amp panel. All but three breakers had copper wire.

I'm leaning heavly toward clad... if you look closely you can see a nick in the bottom wire that shows a tiny bit of copper shinning through. But the other two do not.

Do the same rules apply to clad, 14g to 15amp / 12g 20amp ? If so looks to me I've got 14g wire on 20 amp breakers.

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[hausdok]

Yes,

TC copper and, yes, over-fused wiring.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[Ben H]

Good deal, thanks guys!