Home Insurance and Aluminum Wiring

My home was built in 1970 and I have aluminum wiring in my walls.  Is this safe?

Many homes built in the late 1960’s to late 1970’s had aluminum wiring and components originally installed.  This practice has been discontinued, and modern building codes specify copper wiring and components.  Aluminum wiring is not necessarily unsafe in “all-aluminum” environments where aluminum components are used throughout; the major problem with aluminum is that over time, homeowners and contractors often replace screws, outlets, switches and other components with copper.  When an electrical current is passed through an aluminum wire with copper components, the points where the aluminum and copper touch tend to become very hot, posing a considerable risk of fire.

As a result, many insurance companies will not insure homes with known aluminum wiring in use.

We recommend you take precautions of other electrical situations that might affect your New Jersey Home Insurance premiums such as knob and tube wiring or other electrical fire hazards.