last night the kitchen overhead light went out. so i bought some new ones. 60 watts. replaced with a new one and turned the overhead light back on. the light when out again. aluminum wireing. bad word i know. just a suggestion please. the bracker box is cool to the touch
there is nothing wrong with Aluminum wiring. It is what the power companies use, for weight and cost. The only difference with AL wiring this the guy that installs it. You should be trained to use it. I was many moons ago. Check the connections in the box. Probably got hot and the wiring is brittle. You may need to splice it with a short piece of wire to get the wiring long enough to do you job. Tighten the connections in your breaker box and do not worry. I have used AL for years and nothing has burned down. That is all that was used in the late 60's and 70's when the price for copper was over a dollar a pound.
How long did it burn? My guess is it was just a bad lamp.
Just remember not to splice copper into the aluminum. Always use aluminum wiring if that's what you already have. The different metals expand and contract at different rates and any connection between different metals will loosen over time and probably short out. This is one of the big reasons folks shy away from using aluminum.....many fires have been caused by those shorts (hence the high number of fires in older trailer homes). It's good stuff if you know what you are doing, but trouble if you don't.
I bought a pack of six Sylvania lamps once: one lasted a week, two went "pop" as soon as the power was switched on.
MB
On 02/11/04 07:19 pm Joseph Meehan put fingers to keyboard and launched the following message into cyberspace:
Have you done a check of the voltage? Are the lamps showing up extra bright? If not then I would suspect that you have a poor contact at the base of the lamp. While that could be related to the aluminum wiring, it could also just be a bad (burnt) contact or connection which is heating up too fast.
"Copalum" crimp connectors are used to splice copper and aluminum wires safely.
The ideal thing to do would be to splice copper clad aluminum wire to it, but finding some may not be easy.
As for the bulb problem. You need to test some stuff to determine the problem. First, test the original bulb in a known to be working socket. Then test the new one that went out. If either or both bulbs are still good, you have a bad switch, bad fixture, or wiring or breaker problem. If rhe bulbs are actually bad you just bought a bad bulb.... replace it and get on with life. If another bulb burns out within a few seconds, you atr getting 220 to that fixture due to a bad neutral, If this is the case, call an rlectrician. If the light flickers, suspect the switch first.
The other option is that your wife is tired of cooking and doing dishes, and she hired someone to screw up the light so she can get out of the kitchen. If the bedroom light also burns out suddenly, she needs sex. Give it to her and the lights will mysteriously be fixed the next day.
U.S. Department of Homerepair Insecurity
I hope you sued them. Thats a bucks worth of bulbs, and $3000 labor to install them, ($1000 per bulb), and what about pain and suffering from lack of lighting, and the injury you incurred when you tripped over the dog, causing you $50,000 in medical bills, another $250,000 because of mental anguish, and another $12,000 for vet bills for the dog, plus $20,000 for dog counseling to releive dog stress.
And dont forget the $3.00 worth of gas to go buy more bulbs, and the costly car collision that you had on the way to the store that cost you &17,500 for car repair, and another $80,000 for medical care, and another $100,000 for more mental anguish. Of course, all this hospitalization caused you to lose your job, and cost you 10 years lost income, which amounts to $1,000,000.
Your total law suit is for ....... A whole lot, darn near one and one half million dollars. I cant add it up, because my calculator dont go that high....
U.S. Department of Homerepair Insecurity
thanks for the good ideals, i feel that repair is needed. a splice was made in the attic by someone, to install a ceiling fan, a fews years ago. a ideal i didn't like. last summer the fan stop working. next the garage outlets stop working. then the kitchen overhead light bubs problems, now the front outside is acting up, i believe that the switch, from my past telephome days, repair or wire replacement is needed. finding the right person at the right price, may be the the real problem. i most allways buy new when somethings brakes. fix is another bad word around here. the house was build 73-74. where would be a good place to start looking for repair?
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