Electrical – the right way to join aluminum house wiring to aluminum fixture wiring?

aluminum-wiringelectrical

My home is 1970s construction with aluminum wiring. I have recently upgraded several fixtures in my bathroom and basement. These fixtures have all been internally wired with stranded aluminum wiring. The directions for these fixtures make no mention of special care needed for joining aluminum to copper. About half of the fixtures have shipped with some sort of crimp connector to join to the house wiring, the remainder have shipped with bog standard wire nuts. These fixtures are all LED lights. I expect them to be fairly low draw.

I am well aware of the risks of AL wiring when adding fixtures and outlets. CO/ALR receptacles triple the cost of simple work in my home. I am well aware of the risks and needs of joining aluminum wiring to fixtures made for copper.

Do I need to take any special precautions when wiring aluminum to aluminum for these new fixtures?

Do AL to AL connections pose any risks distinct from AL to CU connections?

Best Answer

I guarantee it's not aluminum wire on the fixtures. I see fixtures with multistrand tinned wire all the time.

Install AFCI breakers in your panel. These detect arcing from bad connections, which is the crux of the problem with aluminum. Killing yourself to replace every Al-Cu splice in the house doesn't make much sense when you can just detect the root problem.

Then you can use any listed method, such as the generally-regarded-as-poor purple wirenuts, or the excellent Alumiconns.