Aluminum wiring in a Central Texas home

Possibly, if the house was built between 1965 and the mid 1970s, and probably not otherwise. Aluminum branch circuit wiring went into homes across the country in those years, and the problem with it is the connections, which can overheat without warning. Here is which Central Texas homes are likely to have it, how to tell, and what the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission counts as a permanent fix.

Which Central Texas homes have aluminum wiring?

Homes wired between 1965 and the mid 1970s, plus additions and new circuits added in those years. The CPSC's Publication 516, Repairing Aluminum Wiring, explains that a copper shortage in the mid 1960s pushed builders from using aluminum only on large circuits such as ranges and dryers to using it on ordinary 15 and 20 amp branch circuits, and that homes built before 1965 are unlikely to have it.

In Austin that window is a real share of the housing stock: the Census Bureau's 2020 to 2024 American Community Survey counts 97,670 of the city's 483,071 housing units as built in the 1960s and 1970s, roughly 20 percent. Leander and Cedar Park were mostly built later, so out here it usually comes up with an older farmhouse, a 1970s addition, or an older house in Round Rock or Georgetown.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020 to 2024, Table B25034.

Why is aluminum branch wiring a problem?

The connections, not the wire itself. The CPSC describes deterioration at aluminum wire connections that raises resistance to the current, and the damage is cumulative, so a connection that ran warm for years can eventually run hot enough to ignite what is around it. A national survey by the Franklin Research Institute for CPSC found that homes built before 1972 and wired with aluminum were 55 times more likely than copper-wired homes to have at least one outlet connection reach fire hazard conditions, defined as a cover plate screw at 149 degrees Celsius, 300 Fahrenheit, sparks, or charred material. That survey dates from the 1970s and covered only outlet connections; it remains the basis of CPSC's guidance.

How can you tell if your house has it?

Read the cable jacket in the attic or garage, without opening anything. CPSC says almost all of the aluminum went in as plastic-sheathed cable that looks like ordinary copper Romex, with Al or Aluminum printed or embossed on the jacket every few feet; a flashlight held at a low angle makes the marking readable. A jacket that also says CU-clad or Copper-clad is copper-coated aluminum, which CPSC's repair guidance does not cover. If you cannot find a legible marking, CPSC's instruction is to have a qualified electrician make the determination, not to pull a device out of the wall to look.

A Texas home inspection will also flag it. The Texas Real Estate Commission's Standards of Practice, 22 TAC 535.229, require an inspector to report the type of branch circuit conductors and to report as deficient the absence of appropriate connections, such as copper/aluminum approved devices, where aluminum branch conductors are found in the panel.

What are the warning signs?

Usually none, which is the reason to find out on purpose. CPSC states that failing aluminum connections seldom give easily detected warning signs and have been reported to overheat without any prior indication. When there are signs, they are a receptacle or switch face plate that is hot to the touch, flickering lights, a circuit that has stopped working, or the smell of burning plastic at an outlet or switch. CPSC's instruction for any of those, in its own capitals, is to have a qualified electrician determine the cause and not to try it yourself. Stop using an outlet that is warm or smells, and do not wait for the breaker: it responds to too much current, and a hot connection is not necessarily drawing more.

What counts as a permanent fix?

Three methods, and CPSC accepts nothing else. The first is complete replacement of the aluminum branch circuits with copper, which CPSC calls the best method available while noting that for many homes it is impractical or prohibitively expensive. The second is the COPALUM repair: a short copper pigtail is joined to each aluminum conductor with a crimp connector that a dedicated tool compresses with upwards of 10,000 pounds of force, a cold weld with more than a quarter century of field experience, installed only by manufacturer-trained electricians. The third, where COPALUM is not available, is the AlumiConn setscrew connector, which CPSC calls the next best alternative: good in initial tests, too new to have COPALUM's long-term record.

Whichever method is used, the repair covers every aluminum connection in the house: outlets, switches, dimmers, fixtures, junction boxes, and hardwired appliances such as dishwashers and air conditioning equipment. A house where only the reachable outlets were done is partly repaired.

What does not fix it?

The two shortcuts most often offered. Pigtailing with ordinary twist-on wire connectors is the first: in CPSC-sponsored laboratory and life tests, substantial numbers of those connectors overheated severely, and some twist-on repairs may fail more often than the original connections did. Swapping in CO/ALR receptacles and switches is the second: they do better with aluminum than standard devices, but they failed in laboratory tests under normal-use conditions, and no CO/ALR option exists for hardwired appliances or ceiling fixtures, so CPSC calls them at best an incomplete repair. Either is acceptable only as an emergency, temporary repair, with the complete repair to follow as soon as possible.

Who should do the work?

A licensed electrician, for the inspection and for every connection. The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation states that anyone who performs electrical work in the state of Texas must be licensed, and that an electrical contractor must hold or employ a master electrician. Any contractor can be checked in TDLR's license database. JTX Electrical is licensed under TECL #37015.

If you own a 1960s or 1970s house in Austin, Round Rock or Georgetown, or an older property around Leander, Cedar Park or Liberty Hill, and nobody has confirmed what the wiring is, our electrical services cover the inspection, the connection-by-connection repair and, where it is the right answer, whole-home rewiring. Call 512-663-7134. If it turns out to be copper, we will say so.

← All articles