page_title: Aluminum building wiring
section_title: Modern building construction
hierarchical_section_title: Aluminum building wiring / Modern building construction
caption_attribution_description: English: Heavy duty outdoor electrical wire.
context_page_description: Aluminum building wiring is a type of electrical wiring for residential construction or houses that uses aluminum electrical conductors. Aluminum provides a better conductivity to weight ratio than copper, and therefore is also used for wiring power grids, including overhead power transmission lines and local power distribution lines, as well as for power wiring of some airplanes. Utility companies have used aluminum wire for electrical transmission in power grids since around the late 1800s to the early 1900s. It has cost and weight advantages over copper wires. Aluminum wire in power transmission and distribution applications is still the preferred material today.
  In North American residential construction, aluminum wire was used for wiring entire houses for a short time from the 1960s to the mid-1970s during a period of high copper prices. Electrical devices at the time were not designed with the particular properties of the aluminum wire being used in mind, and there were some issues related to the properties of the wire itself, making the installations with aluminum wire much more susceptible to problems.
context_section_description: Aluminum building wiring for modern construction is manufactured with AA-8000 series aluminum alloy (sometimes referred to as "new technology" aluminum wiring) as specified by the industry standards such as the National Electrical Code (NEC).  The use of larger gauge stranded aluminum wire (larger than #8 AWG) is fairly common in much of North America for modern residential construction.  Aluminum wire is used in residential applications for lower voltage service feeders from the utility to the building.  This is installed with materials and methods as specified by the local electrical utility companies.  Also, larger aluminum stranded building wire made with AA-8000 series alloy of aluminum is used for electrical services (e.g. service entrance conductors from the utility connection to the service breaker panel) and for larger branch circuits such as for sub-panels, ranges, clothes dryers and air-conditioning units.
  In the United States, solid aluminum wires made with AA-8000 series aluminum alloy are allowed for 15-A or 20-A branch circuit wiring according to the National Electrical Code.  The terminations need to be rated for aluminum wire, which can be problematic.  This is particularly a problem with wire to wire connections made with twist-on connectors.  As of 2017 most twist-on connectors for typical smaller branch circuit wire sizes, even those designed to connect copper to aluminum wiring, are not rated for aluminum-to-aluminum connections, with one exception being the Marette #63 or #65 used in Canada but not approved by UL for use in the United States.  Also, the size of the aluminum wire needs to be larger compared to copper wire used for the same circuit due to the increased resistance of the aluminum alloys.  For example, a 15-A branch circuit supplying standard lighting fixtures can be installed with either #14 AWG copper building wire or #12 AWG aluminum building wire according to the NEC.  However, smaller solid aluminum branch circuit wiring is almost never used for residential construction in North America.
caption: Larger electrical cable that has stranded aluminum wires with an outer sheath used for service entrance feeders from a meter to a panel
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