Xref: utzoo sci.electronics:20656 sci.energy:5125 Newsgroups: sci.electronics,sci.energy Path: utzoo!henry From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) Subject: Re: Gold saves energy. Message-ID: <1991Jun5.163512.1314@zoo.toronto.edu> Date: Wed, 5 Jun 1991 16:35:12 GMT References: Organization: U of Toronto Zoology In article sehari@iastate.edu (Sehari Babak) writes: >Having this in mind, I am curious that haw much energy would we save. If >we gold plate all Al wires that is used for transportation of the energy? Uh, what makes you think gold plating will save energy? The only effect of a thin layer of gold plating on the surface, aside from making the cables pretty :-), will be to make them a bit more corrosion-resistant. Corrosion is not normally a serious problem anyway. To improve the conductivity of the cables, you're going to have to replace the bulk material, not just add a plated surface. P.S. Silver would be a better choice than gold for bulk conductivity. -- "We're thinking about upgrading from | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology SunOS 4.1.1 to SunOS 3.5." | henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry