Hi, I've got two new appliances (range hood fan/light and bathroom exhaust fan). Both are installed but not wired. My house is older, build in 1940s and the previous appliances were wired using the existing copper wiring which runs through the house. I'd like to electrically install these new appliances but am concerned about connecting the new appliance wiring (aluminum wiring i think?) to the copper wiring in the house.Is it safe to pigtail these two wires together? Or is there a better, more safe method?Thanks
The appliance wiring is not aluminum, tinned (annealed) copper. It is safe to connect to the copper building wire. Theoretically if you scrape the wire you could skin the tin off and see the copper, but never been able to successfully accomplish that. If you really are worried it using an antioxidant will not hurt anything, but really it won't help. If you look at the cord you will find various letters, if you look up those letters on the net you will find that some have rubber. Rubber is corrosive to copper so the wire is covered in tin.
You might find a holy war of electricians on this topic but to simplify. It is not safe to connect copper to aluminum wiring when the aluminum is SOLID core. Many new fixtures come with a silver colored wiring that is STRANDED and these are connected to copper wires as general practice without any problems.
Yes, that is the method that is used. Both are fairly easy to hook up. EDIT: @ 'Intelligent' Pickle: That link is talking about solid aluminum HOUSE wiring being integrated with solid copper wire. The OP has normal solid COPPER wiring in the house. The aluminum wires are on the fan/light, and range hood. From my several years experience as a plumber and ELECTRICIAN, those wires are stranded, not solid. The tapered threads inside a normal wire nut will make a good connection and hold those wires until doomsday. EDIT: Yes, I edited my answer for clarification, and to educate you in reality. You edited your post just to shout a childish insult. It appears that you don't take correction well. Good luck with that as you grow up. @ dtstellwagen: I have seen new fixtures that are wired with stranded aluminum wire.
Most building wire is copper, UL wouldn't allow dangerous cords to be used with normal wire.
