"s p o n i x" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 25 Oct 2005 18:10:55 +0100, Andy Wade
wrote:

Chris Bacon wrote:

So: "Because "stranded" aluminium wiring wasn't used in
situations like the OP mentions, or in such small sizes,

I think you'll find it was used for small sizes for a while, from the
late 60s to early 70s.

afaik Rhodesia stopped the export of copper. As 99% of the UKs copper
came from Rhodesia at the time aluminium was used for wiring instead.


There was a brief period when unofficial aluminium conductor cable in
domestic sizes was on sale. This had serious corrosion heating problems with
terminations and for a while copperclad aluminium was being sold. The copper
coating overcame the corrosion problem but suffered from creep due to the
softer underlying metal and it fell from favour.
Aluminium is approved for use even now but only in larger sizes where the
conductors are big enough to have some mechanical strength and suitable
terminating techniques can be applied