Wired a new subpanel in my garage and went with Aluminum over Copper

I was putting in a 100A subpanel for my garage workshop and had to decide between copper and aluminum for the feed. Copper was gonna run me like $450 for the 50ft run, but aluminum was only around $120. I ended up going with aluminum since I could use the extra cash for more outlets and lighting. Just made sure to use Noalox on all the connections and torque everything to spec. It's been 2 months now and no issues at all. Anyone else use aluminum feeders for their garage or shop builds?

3 comments

3 Comments

davis.olivia3d ago

Wow, only $120 for aluminum vs $450 for copper? That's a massive difference, I can't believe copper is that expensive now! I've always heard people swear by copper but honestly at those prices aluminum makes a lot of sense for a garage. Good call on the Noalox and torque specs, that's probably why it's been working great for you.

lewis.brian3d ago

yeah olivia, the price gap is wild. but heres the thing nobody brings up - copper wire is way heavier. if you're running a long stretch in your garage, that 450 bucks includes dealing with something that's a pain to wrestle around. aluminum is light enough you can practically unspool it with one hand. plus copper theft is real, i've seen guys lose whole runs overnight. aluminum isnt worth scrapping so its safer to leave unfinished.

beth_park3d ago

Man, tell me about it. My neighbor ran copper for his shed and woke up to just the stubs.