Aluminum wire is a type of wiring used in houses, power grids, and airplanes. Aluminum provides a much better conductivity to weight ratio than copper, and therefore is used in power wiring of some aircraft.
Utility companies have used aluminum wire for transmission of electricity within their power grids since the early 1900s. It has cost and weight advantages over copper wires. Aluminum wire in transmission and distribution applications is still the preferred material today.
In North American residential construction, aluminum wire was used to wire entire houses for a short time from the late 1960s to the late 1970s during a period of high copper prices. Wiring devices (outlets, switches, fans, etc.) at the time were not designed with the particular properties of aluminum wire in mind and there were problems with the properties of the wire itself. Older wiring devices not originally rated for aluminum wiring present a fire hazard. Revised manufacturing standards for wiring devices were required.
Read more about Aluminum Wire: Increased Copper Prices, ACM Wire, Problems With Aluminum Wires, Upgrading or Repairing Aluminum-wired Homes
Famous quotes containing the words aluminum and/or wire:
“With two sons born eighteen months apart, I operated mainly on automatic pilot through the ceaseless activity of their early childhood. I remember opening the refrigerator late one night and finding a roll of aluminum foil next to a pair of small red tennies. Certain that I was responsible for the refrigerated shoes, I quickly closed the door and ran upstairs to make sure I had put the babies in their cribs instead of the linen closet.”
—Mary Kay Blakely (20th century)
“God, I am caught in a snare!
I know not what fine wire is round my throat;
I only know I let him finger there
My pulse of life, and let him nose like a stoat
Who sniffs with joy before he drinks the blood.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)