hwy17
Anti-Solar Enthusiast
I am enthusiastic about the expanded use of aluminum conductors as we face increasing copper scarcity.
Copper's superior conductivity and flexibility is great, but I believe we should and will begin saving those benefits for where they are necessary, in mobile applications.
We currently co-opt our DC wiring from other mobile applications, welding and marine, where the wires will be subjected to constant movement. But our application is not, it's a stationary installation that needs to be flexible once for installation and will otherwise remain static. Space and weight are not a constraint. It's definitely a good application for aluminum wire.
But does anyone have any idea of what aluminum product already exists that could serve it? I am only really finding THHN and XHHW in 4/0 AL and neither are really as pretty as welding wire. Am I missing any other wire types? When Will got some photos of Tesla charger install in progress they had some nice looking fat aluminum wires in their equipment.
Copper's superior conductivity and flexibility is great, but I believe we should and will begin saving those benefits for where they are necessary, in mobile applications.
We currently co-opt our DC wiring from other mobile applications, welding and marine, where the wires will be subjected to constant movement. But our application is not, it's a stationary installation that needs to be flexible once for installation and will otherwise remain static. Space and weight are not a constraint. It's definitely a good application for aluminum wire.
But does anyone have any idea of what aluminum product already exists that could serve it? I am only really finding THHN and XHHW in 4/0 AL and neither are really as pretty as welding wire. Am I missing any other wire types? When Will got some photos of Tesla charger install in progress they had some nice looking fat aluminum wires in their equipment.