this post was submitted on 10 Sep 2024
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Was about to say
How is aluminum non-conductive? It's literally used as a lighter and cheaper alternative to copper in wires
to my knowledge, the only place they use aluminum as a conductor is in overhead external transmission lines, because you can wrap them around a steel or fiberglass/carbon fiber core (due to the skin effect this incurs minimal losses) while increasing strength and reducing weight (with the composites at least)
the secondary reason is because you can just use more aluminum, since it's not nearly as dense as copper, and also allows you to string farther, since again, not nearly as dense.
most aluminum wiring is actually cladded in copper, it's called CCA for what should be fairly obvious reasons.
Also i believe the oxide coating of aluminum isn't conductive? The bare material itself is, but once it oxidizes it's probably not a good conductor, this is why we use shit like gold plated contacts. Copper also oxidizes as well, but it's not nearly as bad.
Sure, aluminum as the sole conductor is rare, but as you said, there is CCA, which is ridiculously common. CCA is mostly aluminum to save cost but is still 60ish% as conductive as copper.