If electricity is electrons, do appliances ”consume” electrons ? Or do the electrons only ”go through” the appliance, then back to the grid? Wouldn’t that cause a build-up in the grid?
Thanks in advance!
In: Technology
Great question, and as you can see by the lack of responses, largely misunderstood.
The energy in the appliance is not caused by electrons, despite what everyome believes. Electricity needs a circuit to work an appliance. Without the circuit, there’s no power.
Bizarrely, that’s because it’s the magnetic field, created by this circuit, that gives the power to the appliance. The electrons go around and around the circuit. The magnetic field creates the power.
The electrons do lose energy as they go around and need to be “topped up” at the plant, and as more appliances are turned on, the capacity for more power is turned up. It’s not in a superconducting state thatbit conserves all power. It dissipates power as it travels.
I’m no expert, i just asked this question a while ago myself and went looking. Not sure I can add more detail.
No the electrons don’t vanish, they just loose energy.
It’s basically the same way, as a river flowing from a high mountain to the sea below. You can put a water wheel in the river to draw energy from the river and do stuff. But the water wheel don’t use up any water. The amount of water flowing in and the amount flowing out is the same.
For electricity it’s the same. The electrons flow from high potential (the mountain) to a low potential (the sea) and while flowing down the give up energy, which can be used to power devices.
Electric current is electrons in motion. It goes around and around in a circuit, like a bike chain, all the while transferring energy from the power plant to your gadgets.
Adding on to the rest of what everyone said, some of the energy is also lost in heat. This is why older appliances use more power while newer ones use less and can achieve the same result (or better). With that being said, I realize that I am explaining more about efficiency and how the energy is used vs “where it goes”.
[5 REASONS YOU SHOULD REPLACE YOUR OLD APPLIANCES](https://www.smallfootprintfamily.com/old-appliance-energy-consumption#:~:text=So%2C%20if%20you’ve%20got,the%20old%20appliances%20at%20once.)
[Veritasium](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bHIhgxav9LY&pp=ygUWdmVyaXRhc2l1bSBlbGVjdHJpY2l0eQ%3D%3D) has a good video about this
Electrons are like delivery trucks for electricity. They carry some energy to the user, drop it off there, then go back to the warehouse for more.
The electrons basically slow down as they do work in the device, they are still present in the same numbers it is their motion which is the energy. Think of it like children climbing up one of those huge slides, children are the electrons the steps going up are the electricity giving the electron potential energy and when they slide down they have kinetic energy.
Electricity is more like wind blowing a sail, or water turning a mill wheel. There’s a lot of it, some of it does work when we harness it to do something and loses a little of its energy in the process, but it doesn’t actually get used up.
Think of it as a conveyer belt the motor is the battery/power source. The belt is essentially the wires and, more specifically, electrons, and the roller at the other end is the item being powered. The motor moves the belt or the electrons The belt is not consumed, but the energy from the movement of the belt is. This is the electrons moving between individual atoms in wires
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