Download Sources of Electricity

Sources of Electricity
The electricity figures everywhere in our life. It lights up our homes,
cooks our food, powers our computers, television sets, Mobile Phone,
Video Games, Wrist Watch, Calculator and other electrical and electronic
devices. The Electricity is one of the most common form of energy used
at home and industries.
There are several devices in our house operated by electricity. We
have had learned about them in earlier Unit. It’s really amazing to know
that many things we use in our day to day life need electricity to work.
The dependency on electricity is increasing with development.
The electrical energy can be achieved by converting one form
energy into electricity. The electricity can be produced by different form of
energies such as Chemical energy, Mechanical energy, Heat (thermal)
energy, Wind energy, Solar energy etc.
The common sources of electric supply are
1.
Domestic Electric Supply
2.
Cell and batteries
3.
Electric Generator
4.
Inverters
5.
Solar cells/ Panels
How Electricity Gets To Your Home
Whenever you press a switch to glow the bulb or plug in a cord to
work with connected electrical appliance. The electricity travels a long
way to come to your
house.
The Electricity
is being produced or
generated at “Power
Plant”
situated
hundreds
of
kilometer away from
your
house
with
huge
machines
called “Generator”.
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Sources of Electricity
This electricity travels to your house with the help of wires. All the
poles and wires you see along the highway and in front of your house
carry the electricity to your house. This network of wires and poles is
called the electrical transmission and distribution system.
The cable connecting pole near to your house, carries the electricity
to your house from Pole. This cable gets connected with the energy
meter.
A network of wires and safety devices distributes this electricity in
different parts and rooms of house.
Here’s how the electricity gets to your house:
Electricity is made at a power plant by
huge generators. Most power plants use
coal, but some use natural gas, water or
even wind.
The current is sent through transformers
to increase the voltage to push the power
long distances.
The electrical charge goes through highvoltage transmission lines that stretch
across the country.
It reaches a substation, where the
voltage is lowered so it can be sent on
smaller power lines.
It travels through distribution lines to
your neighborhood, where smaller poletop transformers reduce the voltage again
to take the power safe to use in our
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Sources of Electricity
homes.
It connects to your house through the
service drop and passes through a
energy meter that measures how much
electricity our family uses.
The electricity goes to the service panel
or distribution board in your basement
or garage, where safety devices (Circuit
breakers or fuses) protect the wires inside
your house from being overloaded.
The electricity travels through wires inside
the walls to the sockets and switches
all over your house.
Important facts of Domestic Electricity
●
The electricity is a form of energy.
●
Electricity is the most widely used form of energy.
●
The electricity travels at the speed of light, which is 300000 Km. per
second.
●
Normally the electricity needs a path of conductor to travel from one place
to another.
●
The substance through which electricity cannot travel are called insulator.
●
The electricity is very dangerous. Never touch the electrical devices or
supply line without safety precautions.
●
The Domestic electric supply is of Alternating Current nature.
●
The Voltage rating of Domestic electricity in India is 220 Volt.
●
The frequency of Domestic electricity in India is 50 Hertz.
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Sources of Electricity
Cell and Batteries
The Cell is a device which converts chemical energy into electrical energy. There
are different forms and sizes of cell. The cell supplies small amount of
electromotive force usually 1.5 Volts.
The cells are main source of energy for the small
electronic toys and games. Every home uses some kind
of cell to energize some electrical or electronic
appliances.
The combination of two or more cells is
known as battery. The cells are combined
together in a specific method to provide higher
amount of electromotive force or higher current
rating. We can combine two or more cells to get
our requirement or we can purchase specific
packed batteries for our use. Here a picture of
cell phone battery is shown.
Check your electronic toys, games or wrist watch you will find cell working as
power station providing energy to work.
Electric Generator
The electric generator is a portable power station it uses fossil fuel to work. The
electric generator uses fossil fuel such as Petrol, Diesel or Kerosene to produce
”Mechanical Energy” by burning of it and after that converts mechanical energy
into electrical energy by the electric generator.
Portable Electric
Generator
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Sources of Electricity
There are a lot of advantages to owning an electric generator. When the
electricity goes out, there is a great chance that you will not have the ability to
use your computer, use the internet, make phone calls, recharge your cell
phone, or watch TV. An electric generator can provide you with the power you
need during a blackout. When buying an electric generator, it's significant to
think about the amount of watts it is able of providing.
There are different types and sizes of electric generators. The heavy electric
generators use in industries, Mall’s, Hospitals etc. to energize big electrical
machines such as “Lift”, “Elevator”, “Centralized Air Conditioners” etc.
Portable Electric generator set are being used in our homes and shops. You
might had seen them.
Invertors
The Invertors are specific kind of electrical machines the Invertors performs two
kinds of functions
1. When there is domestic electric supply the recharge the connected battery
and
2. When there is power failure it retrieves stored energy from connected
batteries and supplies electrical energy to the connected electrical
appliance.
You can find the invertors in home, shops, Banks etc
which works as backup supply source. The invertors are
being more popular due to uninterrupted, silent and
pollution free source of electrical energy.
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Sources of Electricity
Solar Cells
Nowadays solar Cells and panels are becoming more popular used as source of
electrical energy. The solar cells and panels use sun light (Solar Energy) to
produce electricity.
Solar Lamp are portable source of lights which uses
sun light to charge the connected battery.
When it is dark and light is required you can turn it
on using ON/ OFF switch.
To meet out the increasing demand of electrical
energy Solar panels are used to convert Sun Light
(Solar Energy) in to electrical energy. Basically the
Solar Panels is arrangement of number of solar cell.
During day time it charges the connected battery and
when it is dark it take energy form battery to glow
the Lamp.
You can find solar panel lighting systems in Parks,
Street lights etc.
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