I have also seen (in the USA) copper clad aluminum building wire. It was sold for a while in the 1970's and a little later when copper prices were high compared to aluminum. This was before we had much experience with the down-side of aluminum wire. I have not seen any in the markets for a long time, and I believe that much of it has been intentionally removed from buildings.
In general, where you have an installation which has good and capable maintenance workers, then copper clad aluminum can be worth considering. Particularly so, when you are limiting its use to things like bus bars as mentioned in the previous post. Aluminum which has been tin plated is a fairly common bus bar material, including in residential and some commercial electrical distribution panel boards. The problem with this is when the thin tin plating gets scratched or accidentally (as by inexperienced or untrained workers) removed. Then, you can have MAJOR problems.
Another place where I will still use aluminum wiring is in large feeder wires, where I can hydraulically crimp a good lug on the cable and properly terminate it on a bus bar or tab, or properly prep the end and terminate it in a lug.
It can be used anywhere one wants to make a transition from aluminum to copper in an outdoor application or any other application in which galvanic and other forms of corrosion must be prevented. In addition to cladding, larger copper-aluminum bus connections and transitions are often created by friction welding which results in a molecular bond between the two.
Copper-Clad Aluminum Alloy
Re: Copper-Clad Aluminum Alloy
