https://www.bryantelectricservice.com/aluminum-vs-copper-wiring/
gisd O
Aluminum wiring? I remember the island from the 60’s. There weren’t many people or houses there in those years. Lahaina might have been 2,000 people and it was more of a cane/pineapple village than anything one could call a town. Anything that was already there probably was copper-wired but anything that far back has most likely been patched/rebuilt/repaired, etc.
Aluminum worked its way into house construction from about 1970. Most everything that’s there is newer than that including the HECO lines and so is likely aluminum. The historic buildings still there have been built/rebuilt/repaired to the 9’s or they would be gone. Building in Hawaii is expensive so, yeah, going on-the-cheap is how it’s done. I remember copper being about 2X alum. Now it’s more like 10X.
Curiously, Charles Lindberg is buried on the Island. He understood the effects of wet/dry seasons and drainage, etc. He had his own in-ground crypt built using native stone lining so that it would always drain and keep his carcus preserved, maybe for the next millineum. He died there but never said what he had in mind. Don’t know if the fires affected the grove around his place? AFAIK he’s not buried with Hawaiian royalty.