What is exactly happening when AC power is being converted to DC energy?
In: Technology
There’s a few steps
Usually the first step is an AC/AC transformer which reduces the voltage closer to the final voltage.
Then some one-way valves (diodes or rectifiers) are wired in such a way as to change the electrons from moving both ways to moving one way only. However it’s still pulsing on and off.
Then there is usually a filter which smooths out the pulsing. This usually consists of one or more capacitors, which are kind of like batteries, or an electron-balloon.
Finally there is usually a regulator which acts like an automatically adjusting variable resistor designed to maintain a constant output voltage. This is much more important for electronics than, say, a fan.
Some of the fancier regulators (switching regulators) actually convert the DC back to AC and then back to DC again; this is more efficient, because instead of acting like a variable resistor, it’s merely turning on and off very fast, which has the same effect, but without heating up the resistor. (although it can heat up the switching transistors)
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