I have a house built in the 70s with aluminum wiring. I am well aware of the specific risks and needs when working with this wiring in my home.
There was work done in the house by the previous owner where aluminum rated fixtures were not used. There are original fixtures in the house which are simply worn (loose plugs) and ugly (faded off white plastic).
I am planning a project to simply replace the outlets and switches in the house en masse. What additional safety precautions or test procedures should I consider when doing a whole-house job like this?
For example, should I simply shut off the mains and do ALL of the fixtures then test everything at once or do it room-by-room?
Is there an example plan that an electrician would use to plan wiring or re-wiring a house?
At this time the project only encompasses switches and outlets. Getting into other fixtures and replacing wire nuts or terminals with 'alumiconn' connectors will be a separate effort.
I have ruled out rewiring the home. I feel that the risk of aluminum wiring is sufficiently mitigated by using proper fixtures and connections. Using proper fixtures is significantly less expensive than a full rewire.
As I have done other projects I have replaced the fixtures that I touch. For example I repainted a room and replaced its fixtures with correct, aluminum rated, outlets. I am comfortable with verifying that circuits are cold, correctly connecting new fixtures, and testing those fixtures.
Best Answer
My SOP is to do switches or outlets one by one, in the sequence I find convenient. I turn off the one circuit it's on.
And then I handle it as if it's energized. (Electrocution requires a path through your body, so you are particularly in danger if your body is also in contact with some other wire or object such as a pipe that is grounded) that would complete the circuit.) So aside from never touching a line conductor, I also make sure my body is touching no other thing, so even if I do bump an energized conductor, nothing happens. I'm not advocating working on energized equipment. I'm saying "belt and suspenders".
I discuss with everyone else in the house about what I'm doing, so they won't be messing with breakers or coming up and touching me and potentially "completing a circuit".
For identifying circuits, a few dollar-store night lights are convenient.
I don't get too formal with my work planning. I leave a marking behind saying "I've been there", piece of masking tape, etc.
As far as aluminum, there's "good" and "bad" aluminum. During postwar reconstruction (or in the US, a housing boom) there was a worldwide copper shortage, so they hastily made household wiring out of the AA-1300 alloys intended for transmission lines. Good conductor, but very bad mechanical characteristics at terminations. Aside from metal interactions, the stuff creeps, so it will "unspring" the force of a firm clamp. The industry fixed this in 1972 with a new alloy, AA-8000 series, specifically made for household wiring, marketed as such, so brazenly marked as such. These are legal today for new work. (NEC 310.14).
If it is not marked, it is a 1300 alloy.
Given the timing, your home might be using the new stuff so it's worth looking. If it is AA-8000 series, I would not rewire, just use parts or pigtails listed for CO-ALR. (Copper-Aluminum Revised; the old CU-AL standard proved insufficient.) There's a lot of scaremongering about aluminum wire, but it is only true for the 1300 series. Nonetheless, you'll take a hit on resale value even with 8000 for 8 AWG and smaller wire. AA-8000 is ok for the big stuff, 4 AWG and up.
With several million homes out there with the bad stuff, there are solutions to fix the termination problems - typically a pigtail, a special splice made to bind the 1300 series to a short length of copper for connection to the fixture proper. I would evaluate those.