ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Aluminum Wire For Landscape Lighting

Nothing wrong with aluminum, just as long as you have your Noalox handy.

I think this thread is getting way off-topic

the use of AL for large-size feeders has been debated many times on this forum. We don't need to get into it here.

for the underground LV stuff I think it would not work at all, considering the connectors usually tap the insulation of the wire, and AL turns to white powder real qick with even a small hole in it I don't think an installation in this manner would survive more than a couple weeks

just MHO
-Will

Wow, I am surprised at all of the bad vibes about using aluminum. Our POCOs here use 100% aluminum, all the way down to #6 for street lights.

The key in using aluminum is installing it properly. If the backfill is clean and the splices/terminations are done correctly, it works. That's just it......Getting it installed correctly.

No direct burial cable is safe from dig-ups. Most failures result from nicks (planting a bush for example). The cable gets a nick from a shovel but nobody says anything and just tapes it (if anything) and buries it. Even copper DB will fail if nicked.

I get the impression that you are looking at some long runs or you wouldn't have asked the question. You can't get aluminum any smaller than #6 anyway, but I would imagine that you'd need that size or more. You certainly can't use the standard tap connectors usually used in LV lighting. You would need to use dual-rated terminals, preferrably Hypress type that provide a copper-equivalent termination. By the time you invest in the terminals and the tooling, you might not be saving any money by using aluminum.

On a good note, aluminum wire fails much more quickly when it has been damaged than copper when direct-buried. Usually, troubleshooting to locate the fault is pretty simple. I did my time servicing an apartment complex that used 100% aluminum that had been nicked and damaged since the day it was installed. I must say that it's predictable.

[This message has been edited by EV607797 (edited 12-18-2006).]

[This message has been edited by EV607797 (edited 12-18-2006).]