I have heard that electricity comes directly from powerplants to our homes. No storage or battery of any kind. If I turn on an extra light, how does the powerplant adjust for such a small change in the demand? Does that mean every other device that is turned on and getting electricity from this powerplant gets a little less energy to compensate for my light?
In: 24
To address your query on turning on a light. You’ve got constant voltage running into every home but the amperage going into every home can and does vary slightly. If you have an electric burner you should notice that it’ll take longer for your hot plate to heat up and bring a pot of water to the boil during peaks times like 6 to 8 pm versus if you doing the same during a time of low demand like midnight. Devices like phones or TVs or light bulbs draw an absolute negligible amount of power when compared with any heating elements and normally any variance in available amps would not in anyway be noticeable in the operation of these devices.
So you turning on a light means that your sister drying her hair in the room next door and your neighbor busy cooking food are going to take a fraction of millisecond longer to get their tasks done.
Edit add: You can think of it in comparison to water pipes where the voltage is the thickness of the pipes and the amperage is the water pressure.
Latest Answers