In the past, low range voltage wire and cable made of aluminium were widely used for house wiring, after a while, people learned how troublesome these cables can be.
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Why were these cables even installed in the first place and why are these cables troublesome will be answered in the following context.
The term "aluminum building wire" refers to a specific kind of electrical wiring that is used in residential buildings or homes and that makes use of electrical conductors made of aluminum.
Aluminum has a higher conductivity to weight ratio than copper does, and as a result, it is utilized in the wiring of power grids, such as overhead power transmission lines and local power distribution lines.
It is also used in the electrical wiring of some airplanes.
Aluminum wire has been utilized by utility companies for the purpose of electrical transmission in power grids since somewhere between the late 1800s and the early 1900s.
Copper wires can't compete with it when it comes to price or weight.
Aluminum wire continues to be the material of choice for applications involving the transmission and distribution of electrical power.
For a brief period of time during the 1960s and 1970s, aluminum wire was substituted for copper wire in home construction across North America.
This switch occurred during a time when copper costs were relatively high.
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At the time, electrical devices (outlets, switches, lighting, fans, etc.) were not designed with the specific properties of the aluminum wire that was being used in mind.
Additionally, there were some issues related to the properties of the wire itself, which caused the installations with aluminum wire to be significantly more prone to experiencing issues.
In order to lessen the severity of the issues, updated production standards have been devised for both the wire and the devices.
A potential risk of fire exists in preexisting homes that have aluminum wiring of an older generation installed in branch circuits.
What is Aluminum Wiring? Aluminum wire has been put to use as an electrical conductor for a significant amount of time, particularly by electrical utilities related to power transmission lines that were put into use not long after the beginning of the construction of modern power distribution systems in the late 1880s.
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These lines were put into use shortly after the beginning of the use of aluminum wire as an electrical conductor.
Copper wire must have a bigger wire gauge in order to carry the same amount of current as aluminum wire does, yet aluminum wire is still less expensive than copper wire for a specific application.
Aluminum has a density that is only 30.5% of that of copper, but aluminum alloys that are used for electrical conductors are only approximately 61% as conductive as copper of the same cross-section size.
As a result, the amount of current that can be carried by one pound of aluminum is equivalent to that of two pounds of copper.
Due to the fact that the price of copper is approximately three times that of aluminum by weight (approximately USD $3/lb vs.
USD $1/lb as of 2017), the price of aluminum wires with the same conductivity as copper wires is one-sixth the price of copper wire.
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The lighter weight of aluminum wires in particular makes these electrical conductors well suited for use in power distribution systems by electrical utilities.
This is because supporting towers or structures only need to support half the weight of wires to carry the same current as they would with heavier wires.
When there was a housing construction boom in North America in the early 1960s and the price of copper spiked, aluminum structure wire was manufactured using utility grade AA-1350 aluminum alloy in sizes small sufficient to be used for lower load branch circuits in homes.
