ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area When did they quit using fuse boxes n US residence

I agree I have not seen NM aluminum wire since the days of leisure suits but if someone made it in NM-b, you could use it.
The strange thing is, a few years ago, there was a guy from Alcan running a road show telling inspectors what wonderful stuff aluminum wire was, explaining the AA alloy and such.
I thought at the time that they might be trying to rehabilitate the product in a climate of nose bleed copper prices.
I suppose the AFCI would cut into the chances of using fuses but we do have the "device" AFCI don't we? I am sure I saw it in the code somewhere

Greg,

I had one customer who had a 40 circuit 200 amp service panel. The main was fuses (Not breakers) but the branch circuits were all circuit breakers. He had trouble once where all the breakers tripped, but the fuses didn't blow. I think I even posted this question a dozen years ago. I never found out the problem, I always thought it was the POCO problem. I think the transformer outside was sending in a higher shot of voltage that would trip breakers but not blow fuses. After 2 or 3 service calls from me, and 1 or 2 from the POCO and a new transformer, the problem just disappeared.

Apparently small-gauge aluminum wire was outlawed in Austria and Germany recently, but for larger feeders (60 amps and up) aluminum is used all the time.