" wrote:

Stretch wrote:
Steel wire would have a much higher resistance than copper. That makes
it unsuitable for electrc use in general. Also, you are more likely to
get corrosion at the connections (rust) than with copper.

Stretch

Greetings Stretch,

I mainly want the steel wire for low-power applications such as
doorbells and security systems so I can easily compensate for the
increased resistance with increased wire size. The reason I want to
use the steel wire instead of the tiny copper wires currently in use is
to increase their physical strength, reducing damage, reducing costs to
repair said damage. I could always use a large enough copper wire but
that would be cost prohibitive. For instance, if I currently use an 18
awg cu wire and wanted to increase strength I could substitute a 12 awg
steel wire or a 10 awg cu wire (cu is not as strong as steel). I
didn't do the math with the example above but you get the point. I
would probably use something like noalox on the connectors to combat
potential rust.

I really can't imagine that physical damage that would break Cu wouldn't
also tear up steel wire as well unless it is also of significant size.
What sort of thing are you finding being done?