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On 20 Feb 2004 04:55:30 GMT, obull (CCred68046)
wrote:

If you do a Google search on "metal + conductivity chart" you will see that
aluminum is one of the better conductors of electricity. The reason they
stopped using it in houses is because of heat cycle failure in circuits that
are switched off and on. In this type of application they will become loose
which will cause even more heat and can pose a serious fire threat. In

And there's more heat in the first place to cause the heat cycle failure
since aluminum has almost twice the resistance as copper. Thus, it's
not such a great conductor.

applications where the electricity is constantly on it is perfectly suitable
and used in many high voltage applications.

That's because it's a "good" conductor, not a great one. And it's other
properties besides conductivity (light weight) make it more ideal than
copper for high voltage applications. You can rest assured that if
copper were as light as aluminum, they would be using that instead.
Utilities don't like loosing all that energy to wasted heat if they
don't have to.

Ask at alt.engineering.electrical if you have any doubts.

No doubts here.

Steve