Busbars are generally used to transmit and distribute current to a distribution board in buildings. The existence of harmonic current has been known to increase heat generation in the bus duct system. The heat generation commonly causes power losses at the conductor. In this study, a three dimensional (3D) Finite Element Method (FEM) by COMSOL Multiphysics software was utilized for predicting the heat distribution and average temperature for each material and their compliance with BS159:1992 Standard. The dimension of the busbar in this work is 1.5×0.125×20. Current source begins from 410 A and varies from 0% until 50% of Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) with an interval of 5%. The results depict that the temperature varies between each material. Silver demonstrates the lowest operating temperature at an ideal current (0% THDi), and minimum temperature rise after the existence of harmonic component in the current source and iron depicts otherwise result. In Overall, copper proved to be the best material for busbar due to the reasonable price; the low operating temperature at ideal current; and less increment of temperature after the presence of harmonics in the current source.
