Re: Shortage of Copper
Originally Posted by
Besoeker
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I post on a US electrical forum. They tend to favour aluminium for cabling. It isn't as good a conductor, lower conductivity, but it evidently cheaper for them.
We put high current (40kA) rectifiers in an anodising plant here. The bars feeding the tanks were aluminium, I assume on cost grounds.
Apparently Aluminium is a better conductor than copper, but due to its problem with oxidization and co efficient qualities it's not suitable for cabling.
The estate where I live has just had all the roads dug up to remove the old oxidized Aluminium cables and replace them with copper ones. Power was failing in one house after the other before they decided to replace the lot.
The trouble was that the streets were supplied by a three phase supply, alternating from one house to the other. When the power failed it was drawing power from one of the other phases and damaging some appliances due to the surge. Perhaps it was the neutral side that failed...