Aluminum is pushing copper in the field of electrical wiring. Its properties have improved over the years, and the price is lower than that of copper, sometimes by half.
Representatives of the Aluminum Association are predicting an early "revolution", and not just anywhere, but in housing construction. This will provide multibillion-dollar savings to one of the leading sectors of the Russian economy, experts of the Association believe.
In their opinion, the prerequisites for this are the useful properties of aluminum alloys of the 8th series - cable products made from them are different manufacturability and safety, easily withstands voltage and temperature surges and fully meets the requirements of modern construction standards. This allowed the Ministry of Construction to officially approve the use of new alloys in housing construction.
“Now there is a demand for the replacement of cable products with copper conductors for similar ones with conductors made of aluminum alloys, including the innovative alloy of the 8th series. The trend is noticeable in various areas: both in housing construction and in projects in the oil and gas industry. This is due to the possibility of reducing the cost of projects by 50%. The high volatility of the copper price makes it difficult to implement projects in the medium and long term. The problem is solved by using aluminum with its relatively stable pricing,” says Pavel Moryakov, General Director of the Moskabelmet Group.
“In the USSR, the main disadvantage of aluminum was the problem of brittleness, creep, and a decrease in the mechanical strength of the conductive core during periodic overheating in the wiring of residential buildings. But today this problem no longer exists thanks to the development of new aluminum alloys,” said Oleg Selivanov, General Director of the Bogoslovsky Cable Plant.
The builders themselves agree with him: “I will act as a destroyer of myths. Copper VBShV 4×120 and aluminum alloy cable AsVBSHV 4×150 have the same electrical, strength and mechanical characteristics. Modern aluminum cables, including series 8 alloy, meet all the requirements of modern construction. Otherwise, the Ministry of Construction would not allow the use of electrical wiring with conductive cores made of series 8 aluminum alloys in housing construction,” says Vladimir Volkov, founder of the construction Oggion company.
It should be noted that already in a number of housing projects in St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, the Moscow region and other regions, electrical wiring is almost completely made of aluminum alloys.
The cost of an aluminum cable is 40% lower than that of a copper cable, and among cables of large cross sections the difference is up to 60%. The mass of cables with aluminum conductors is 20-50% less than the mass of copper cables when choosing conductors with the same bandwidth. So the use of aluminum wiring will ensure the completion of houses already under construction on time and without a sharp jump in prices: Aluminum Association estimates that winged metal reduces the cost of ongoing wiring projects half.
As Mikhail Rudyk, an expert of the Aluminum Association, notes, the undoubted advantages of a cable made of 8-series alloys include improved plasticity characteristics, stability of contact connections, protection against counterfeiting and reduction in cable weight up to 30%.
“And, of course, one cannot fail to note the possibility of budget savings of up to 50% when switching from copper cable products to cables made of 8 series alloys,” the expert emphasized.
