need some wire

October 26, 2012 4:07 PM

I need to conduct a bit of heat. I only have aluminum wire on hand.

I need to conduct a bit of heat to a very small (1/4") drain to keep it from freezing closed. Do I need to go get copper wire or can I use the aluminum wire I have. Nothing awful will happen if the aluminum does not work too well.

posted by wandering_not_lost to home & garden (9 answers total)

Well, copper is about twice as thermally conductive as aluminum (at room temperature), but they are both metals, and metals are quite good and conducting thermal energy. I think the more important thing will be how well you're connecting the wire to the drain. Aluminum passivates quite readily, which could significantly reduce the conductivity.
posted by blurker at 4:14 PM on October 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

What is the drain pipe made of?
posted by ryanrs at 4:36 PM on October 26, 2012

plastic
posted by wandering_not_lost at 5:00 PM on October 26, 2012

What's the heat source?
posted by jon1270 at 5:53 PM on October 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

Aluminum is still a pretty good conductor of heat, so give it a try. I'd put some kind of insulating sleeve on the wire between the heat source and the drain so that it doesn't lose all the heat on the way.
posted by hattifattener at 7:01 PM on October 26, 2012

I think transferring the heat from the wire to the plastic pipe is your main obstacle.
posted by scose at 7:04 PM on October 26, 2012

jon1270 has it right - For this scale, your source matters more than your destination.

If a 100W light bulb (a common small-scale heat source, if that sounds weird), you might do better with aluminum foil wrapped in styrofoam than anything you'd normally consider heat-conductive. If a "real" pipe-heater, put it in the right place and thermal conductivity doesn't much matter.
posted by pla at 7:11 PM on October 26, 2012

OK, I'm having a hard time visualizing what you're trying to do. Can you be more specific about you plans, or maybe link to something similar?
posted by ryanrs at 7:42 PM on October 26, 2012

Are you running the wire inside the pipe or outside? As a point of reference electric heat trace on the outside plastic pipe is commonly rated at about 5W/m. This is usually sufficient for pipe wrapped in layer or two of foil backed fiberglass pipe wrap down to about -20C. The heat trace (basically a fancy extension cord) is secured to the pipe with special heat resistant tape.
posted by Mitheral at 1:55 AM on October 27, 2012