Experiments and investigations were carried out on the voltage life of a bar‐coil model with a nickel‐plated copper conductor covered with mica‐alumina composite insulation at a temperature range of 550–850 °C. Diffusion of copper into the insulation layer was observed on the specimens aged for a long period. Insulation with mica paper gave faster diffusion speed and shorter voltage life than insulation with mica flake. The diffusion speed became higher with an increase in temperature. The ac current gradually increased with aging time and increased rapidly just before breakdown. There was the relationship I = aEn (a, n: constants) between ac current I and applied stress E, and n was approximately equal to 1 in the region where thermal unbalance did not occur. Arrhenius's law held in the relationship between ac current and aging time. Therefore, the breakdown mechanism might be that the effective insulation thickness decreased due to copper diffusion into the insulation layer and the ac current increased gradually until thermal breakdown in the last stage. If copper diffuses into the insulation layer, even with no voltage application, the aging time required to decrease the breakdown voltage to a certain level (the voltage life) obeys Arrhenius's law. If the voltage life is dominated by diffusion into the insulation layer, the activation energy for voltage life in the aging test becomes twice that for diffusion, both with and without voltage application. © 1999 Scripta Technica, Electr Eng Jpn, 129(4): 24–31, 1999