From: feren	Date: October 13th, 2005 10:05 pm (UTC)		(Link)

First, the wall box is not properly mounted to a wall stud -- it's just sort of floating in space. That's bad. Second, the way things are wired up in there (snarled, shamelessly mixing pure copper with copper clad aluminum, twist caps three sizes too large)? It removes my faith in a higher power.

	From: yotogi	Date: October 13th, 2005 10:06 pm (UTC)		(Link)

To say nothing of the fire marshal.

	From: feren	Date: October 13th, 2005 10:10 pm (UTC)		(Link)

If my father ever sees that I wager he'll give birth to three boxes of kittens and invent a new language based entirely on vulgarities. Simultaneously.

	From: captain18	Date: October 13th, 2005 10:25 pm (UTC)		(Link)

You'll be charmed to know that my grandparents' house originally had an honest-to-goodness cigar box for a fuse box.

	From: yotogi	Date: October 13th, 2005 11:41 pm (UTC)		(Link)

When my brother got his house his grandfather and I spent most of an afternoon replacing the house wiring. All 1950s knob-and-tube stuff. It horrifies me that there was a time when that shit was state of the art.

	From: rustitobuck	Date: October 14th, 2005 12:02 am (UTC)		(Link)

When my ex-wife moved into her house, a friend helped rewire some of it. Some of it was done right, although due to the age it had threaded iron pipe for conduit.

The light on the stairs to the attic was wired in with a length of air-conditioner extension cord, though.

And when the friend removed one of those decorative covers from a disused ceiling box, there was a flash and the breaker popped. On inspection he found that when he removed it, the hot wire, which had not been cut, capped, or taped, had contacted the brass cover and had welded itself to the metal.

So this isn't so bad.

Anything aluminum in the wiring, even copper-clad...scary.

	From: captain18	Date: October 14th, 2005 05:06 am (UTC)		(Link)

I know the aluminum wiring thing was due to the rising cost of copper at the time, but still, why did anyone think it was a Good Idea?

From: tetragon	Date: October 15th, 2005 05:22 am (UTC)		(Link)

There isnt anything wrong with aluminium as a conductor. Its has almost as good electrical conduction as copper, is both lighter and stronger, and the effects of oxidization are not too bad. (Just requires a little preparation, as does copper.)

It probably has to do with the cost and economics of the manufacture, if they were already having to cut corners in the first place.

	From: feren	Date: November 5th, 2005 07:11 pm (UTC)		(Link)

[There isnt anything wrong with aluminium as a conductor.]

It turns brittle in a ridiculously short time and has caused far more fires from overheating than copper has. That's reason enough for me to hate it.