Copper vs Aluminum buss bars

[Mr. Slate 10+ year member]

i use alum, i have used copper tho...basically what i have read is alum is 99.7% as conductive as copper... and aluminum is super light and doesnt rust like copper...

so weigh your options... i just made my copper bus bars tonight... 1 inch wide 3/4 tall and 5 feet long.

Copper rusts?

 

[rival904 10+ year member]

Even when 2 diff metals are connected with current flowing through them(forgot the technical term).

IE - Alum buss bar with copper ring terminals.

 

[rival904 10+ year member]

Copper rusts?

Oxidizes. Not quite rust. But neither happen at a fast enough rate for us to notice anyways

 

[Street DreamsCC 10+ year member]

Yea, but lets say you measure your voltage loss from the front to the back, and its 2V, add another wire and the voltage loss becomes 1V. So adding resistance = gaining more usable voltage?

IE - two parallel 0 gauge cables will halve the resistance of a single 0 gauge cable (of the same length).

Your not adding resistance, where do you figure that? You want to add resistance take that 0ga wire and put in 8ga wire instead.

you take a alum. bar you hook up power at one end then hook up your amp to the other end.

Now you want MORE power to get to your amp, you double it. Now you got 2x the surface area to pull the current.

Same as if you were using wire. You add more and you can draw more current. Not hard concept to understand really.

As for the difference if I remember correctly, TeamSouthrnBass was close, it was in the 90% of copper. I know it was up there cause when I compared before we did all the thick blocks for my Astro.

 

[slam 5,000+ posts]

copper is prettier //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/fyi.gif.9f1f679348da7204ce960cfc74bca8e0.gif

 

[galacticmonkey 5,000+ posts]

Yea, but lets say you measure your voltage loss from the front to the back, and its 2V, add another wire and the voltage loss becomes 1V.
So adding resistance = gaining more usable voltage?

IE - two parallel 0 gauge cables will halve the resistance of a single 0 gauge cable (of the same length).

Wire has some resistance, but adding more runs doesnt mean more resistence. There is more wire for it to flow, so the more runs, the better the flow.

Also, if you can afford copper, go copper. Cheapest way is if you can buy some copper pipe from Home Depot or Lowes and hammer it flat, then just drill holes in it. Not pretty, but it makes some nice busbars for cheap.

If youre really ballin, get some platinum busbars. Its way more conductive than aluminum, copper, or even gold. Shit would be redic. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/fyi.gif.9f1f679348da7204ce960cfc74bca8e0.gif

 

[rival904 10+ year member]

I see where your coming from on the doubling the wire coming into the amp.

But your telling me if you check the resisitence from one end of the wire to the other, and its lets say 2ohms, and then add another wire, it wont go up, only down?

 

[rival904 10+ year member]

Ok, I tested this out.

I took 2 1ft sections of remote wire, measured the first run, came out to .6ohms.

Added the 2nd wire, still stayed at .6ohms.

So no increase and no decrease.

 

[galacticmonkey 5,000+ posts]

No. Imagine if you had to transport a fluid like water from the front to back of your car.

If you had a pipe the size of 4ga, it would flow at X rate. If you had a pipe the size of 0ga, it would flow a little faster. Keep in mind there is a little resistance in the pipe. There is drag between the water and pipe itself, but going to a bigger pipe still adds more flow (ampacity). Now imagine adding 3 more 0ga size pipes. If you had 4 0ga size pipes, there techincally is more wall for the water to have friction against, but overall the flow would be much better.

 

[Street DreamsCC 10+ year member]

Ok, I tested this out.
I took 2 1ft sections of remote wire, measured the first run, came out to .6ohms.

Added the 2nd wire, still stayed at .6ohms.

So no increase and no decrease.

now take a remote wire 4ft long and see what it is........

you doubled the wire so now more current can flow between the 2 wires

 

[rival904 10+ year member]

I agree with the current flows better with more wire argument, if it didnt work like that then Im selling all my 0ga for 8ga.

I will try it with 12ft sections, how about that?

 

[galacticmonkey 5,000+ posts]

Try making one alot longer. Then do another thats just as long and see if doubling the long run decreases resistance.

 

[galacticmonkey 5,000+ posts]

Also resistance and ampacity are two totally different things.

 

[rival904 10+ year member]

Ok, I did it with 6ft section because I already had 2 6ft sections cut for some reason, same thing, both .6ohms.

 

[slim2fattycake 10+ year member]

Your not adding resistance, where do you figure that? You want to add resistance take that 0ga wire and put in 8ga wire instead.
you take a alum. bar you hook up power at one end then hook up your amp to the other end.

Now you want MORE power to get to your amp, you double it. Now you got 2x the surface area to pull the current.

Same as if you were using wire. You add more and you can draw more current. Not hard concept to understand really.

As for the difference if I remember correctly, TeamSouthrnBass was close, it was in the 90% of copper. I know it was up there cause when I compared before we did all the thick blocks for my Astro.

90% is way off. http://www.stormcopper.com/design/Copper-Conductor-Physical-Electrical-Properties.htm

That site and the site I had posted before shows alum. to be about 50-60 % conductive as copper depending on the alloy.