Most of what I am saying has to do with the US, I have no idea what happens in other countries. From what I can tell, this is the background information that is true about aluminum use in the US.
- In the 1960s they started using 1350 alloy aluminum wire, had problems with creep/cold flow, oxidation, strength, and thermal expansion - 1350 would oxidize to make high resistance connections, thermally expand and creep to make low surface area connections, and was a weak material to work with - Revised CO/ALR devices with indium plated terminals can usually be used with 1350 because the indium metal seals tightly to prevent corrosion, but doesn't solve the other problems (expansion, creep, strength). - After that fiasco, 8000-series aluminum alloys were used for aluminum wire. Stronger, less creep, less oxidation. With anti-oxidant compounds this works A-OK, problem pretty much solved. - Aluminum terminal blocks and bus bars use 6101 or 6061 (most of the time, for the ones that weren't recalled), more structurally optimized, not as oxidation resistant but often tin plated.
So we solved aluminum wire, but it never really returned to low-amerage branch circuit wiring in houses. Smallest aluminum you typically see is 4AWG for 50A circuits, but even there 6AWG copper is still used a lot. These installations of aluminum cable must use an anti-oxidant compound on all terminations, and they all much be rated for use with aluminum.
Now if you are gonna have to do that for every termination, using aluminum for branch circuit wiring would suck. But that isn't always true, as copper clad aluminum wire exists. You can get CCA wire in sizes as small as 12AWG for 15A circuits, and of course it is cheaper and lighter than the 14AWG copper counterpart.
This wire uses 8000-series aluminum alloy, and is coated in copper to prevent oxidation. No anti-oxidant needed. Almost all terminations rated for Cu are rated for Cu-clad Al. But the thermal expansion issue still persists, and some say the cold flow issue was not entirely eliminated with 8000-series alloys.
What do you think? Will aluminum catch on for residential again? Or is this another disaster?
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