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Pretty Mouth

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Evening all.

I've been working on an early 70's house the last 2 days - 1st fix for a lighting alteration, plus minor remedial work on the ring. I decommissioned the old lights and switches, ran the new cables, then connected into the existing wiring with wagoboxes. Stripping the sheath from the old cable by pulling the cpc with my snips, i couldn't work out why I kept nipping the end off the cpc. Closer inspection revealed why - I was working with copperclad aluminium twin and earth, the first time I have come across it.

Too late to go back at this point, I finished the lighting, then did the work on the ring. A wall had been removed between the kitchen and lounge, so 2 sockets hanging in mid air had to be decommissioned - for this I used wagoboxes with wago221's.

The circuits tested out fine continuity wise. IR was on the low side but I hadn't unplugged everything at that point, so will have to have a closer look at that tomorrow. The lighting T+E was 1mm, and the ring was wired in 4mm. No evidence of any problems.

How problematic is this stuff? I gather that it's not as bad as pure aluminium cables (have come across these before), but how important is it that circuits with copperclad aluminium are rewired? My clients have the plasterer booked in for Saturday, then the kitchen is being replaced shortly after that. They aren't wealthy people, so both time and budget is limited.
 
The 1.0 will actually be 1.5. It can be very problematic at connections because it is so brittle, the fact it is copperclad doesn't change this as that is just a corrosion inhibitor. In the UK you are not likely to find accessories suitable for the connection of those conductors, tunnel type terminals just fracture/break them. What I have done in the past is Wago them to copper conductors.
 
The 1.0 will actually be 1.5. It can be very problematic at connections because it is so brittle, the fact it is copperclad doesn't change this as that is just a corrosion inhibitor. In the UK you are not likely to find accessories suitable for the connection of those conductors, tunnel type terminals just fracture/break them. What I have done in the past is Wago them to copper conductors.
@westward10 , thanks for the reply. You're right, I have just checked some photos I took of the lighting cable, and the CPC is noticeably smaller than the live conductors.

Wagoing them to copper sounds like a good plan, pigtailing i believe it is called. Thanks again
 
I'll second that advice RE: wagos. I've not worked with the copper clad stuff but have had the misfortune to work on some all aluminium cable and it's shocking stuff to work with, broke it three or four time just getting the socket back on it's box.
 
@westward10 , thanks for the reply. You're right, I have just checked some photos I took of the lighting cable, and the CPC is noticeably smaller than the live conductors.

Wagoing them to copper sounds like a good plan, pigtailing i believe it is called. Thanks again

‘pigtailing’ is an Americanism where by they wind together 2 or more cores together then all twisted together with a seperate a single core. Usually all shoved in a fire nut.
they do this as their receptacle screws only accept a single fish hooked core around it. you could do exactly the same thing with lever wagos to avoid all the twisted metal.
 
Thanks for all the replies, as always they are greatly appreciated.

@SparkyChick , I've worked on all aluminium cable too, this doesn't seem to be as bad as I remember that stuff being. Perhaps because the lighting is wired in 1.5mm rather than the 1mm pure ali, and the 4mm ring conductors are stranded rather than solid. Had to be quite carefull stripping the ends of the 4mm conductors, I found gently ringing and slitting the insulation with a stanley blade, the peeling it off worked best.
 
I believe the sockets may be the ones specifically designed for alu cables

Indeed they are. FWIW I have some sockets in the collection but very little cable. If anyone pulls out any ali or copperclad ali I will give you more than the scrapman for it.
 
There is an estate near me that was built around 1970 a lot of the properties have their final ring circuits wired in aluminium and copper clad alu cables. I know of several that are still in use and in reasonable condition. All have sockets with terminals as you have pictured and are beginning to look dated! Absolute tw@stard to work with, I have had to wago to copper cable on occasion when the conductor was too short due to it snapping on me or me snapping it!
 
Just looks like normal copper to me.

I hope you sorted that stray live core on the single socket.
Indeed, at a glance it's hard to tell them apart. You have to look closely at the cut ends for the aluminium. Clues are the size - 4mm stranded on a ring final, and, in this case at least, the accessories. They're softer than copper, more brittle too.
 
Indeed they are. FWIW I have some sockets in the collection but very little cable. If anyone pulls out any ali or copperclad ali I will give you more than the scrapman for it.
I have a couple of meters of the 4mm T+E copperclad in the garage that I took from the job in the OP. Volex branded IIRC. Not much I'm afraid, but you're welcome to it if you want, just PM me your address.
 
There is an estate near me that was built around 1970 a lot of the properties have their final ring circuits wired in aluminium and copper clad alu cables. I know of several that are still in use and in reasonable condition. All have sockets with terminals as you have pictured and are beginning to look dated! Absolute tw@stard to work with, I have had to wago to copper cable on occasion when the conductor was too short due to it snapping on me or me snapping it!

Have now added Tw@stard to the list along with knobskull.
 
Indeed they are. FWIW I have some sockets in the collection but very little cable. If anyone pulls out any ali or copperclad ali I will give you more than the scrapman for it.

I pulled a load out of a flat opposite Lords at the weekend. I didn't think of keeping it
 

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