Copper-Aluminum GEC

[Robert J. OConnor]

Originally Posted by kwood

I know the name of that one. The one I am talking about has a separating shim in the middle that is used for two different size GEC's

You might be thinking about a Burndy "Tritap Servit" universal split bolt connector made for all combinations of copper and aluminum connections ... that looks like this ...

Originally Posted by kwood

The reason is I seem to not be able to wrap my head around the confusion as the wire # system. I have talked to electricians and they can't figure out why they did it this way either.
Is there a reason?

The American Wire Gauge (AWG) system has been used in the US and CAN since around 1857. This gauge system originated in the number of drawing operations used to produce a given gauge of wire. Very fine wire (for example, 30 gauge) requires more passes through the drawing dies to make it thinner than 0 gauge (1/0) wire. When larger wire was needed they went to 00 gauge (2/0), 000 gauge (3/0) and 0000 gauge (4/0) in increasing size. Above that is "kcmil" or thousands of circular mils, which relates to wire area.

Hope that helps ...

[Robert J. OConnor]

RM ... nice graphics to explain the differences. I always liked the Mike Holt figures, and his guide books with those diagrams are excellent ...

[KEVIN WOOD]

Thanks Robert:

That is the one I was looking for.

[Robert Meier]

Originally Posted by roconnor

RM ... nice graphics to explain the differences. I always liked the Mike Holt figures, and his guide books with those diagrams are excellent ...

Yes, he has some excellent stuff. His graphics really help to simplify some rather confusing code language. He has a bunch of free stuff available here:

http://www.mikeholt.com/freegraphics.php?id=gvb