Sound differences between Copper and Aluminum Bus Bar Electrical Panels

Then what?

 This is not a DIY situation where a home owner should stick his fingers inside an electrical panel to attempt solving a hot spot, or worse, an arcing problem.

For the price of a 1 hour service call to an electrical contractor, that has the proper test equipment, not only will the electrician find any possible hot spots in the panel, the trained/qualified electrician will know how to fix the problem . He/she will determine exactly what is causing the hot spot, and or arcing problem and fix, repair, or replace a breaker/s that is causing the problem.

Just one example that could be the cause.  The contact in a breaker could be faulty and slightly arcing under a normal connected load. (An occasional higher connected load, like a portable vacuum cleaner, the arcing could/would be considerably greater. (Typically a 12 amp load.)  The heat being created could/will be transferred to the female contact clamping device that plugs-on to the bus tie of the panel bus. Heat over time can cause the contact clamping device to loose its' ability to keep a good positive holding pressure against both sides of the bus breaker connecting tie. Poor contact pressure can/will produce heat in the poor connection. Now there are two heat generating sources.

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I'm not sure what your whole point is. I don't see why I couldn't figure that out or fix it. I'm hardly afraid of 120 volts. I installed all kinds of smart switches on live wiring at my friend's place back in January. A $5 AM pocket radio would find that fault more effectively that a $1000 IR camera. That problem doesn't warrant the most technologically advanced diagnosis and analysis possible. "Hey! Arching breakers! Guess I'm going to Home Depot tomorrow!" Problem solved. 

I'm coming to the conclusion that if the incoming utility power lines to the meter is aluminum and the main power lines from the meter outside to the panel is aluminum, then changing the panel from an aluminum bus bar to copper would have minimal effect.  I've already treated my entire panel including breakers, bus bar, grounds, incoming utility, and panel mains with TC from PerfectPathTechnologies.  I already mentioned what is in my system besides cyrotreated Virtual Dynamics romex feeding two 20 amp dedicated lines.  A new panel will require four Arc Fault GFI breakers which I'm told degrades the sound quality.

You ever wonder why utility companies don't use bus bars at substations?