5 Basic Electricity

Electricity
- Power is a form of energy. It is the flow of electrons. All matter is made up of atoms, and an atom has a center, called a nucleus. The nucleus contains positively charged particles called protons and uncharged particles called neutrons.
- is a general term that encompasses a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning and static electricity, but in addition, less familiar concepts, such as the electromagnetic field and electromagnetic induction.

Sources of Electricity
- renewable and
- non renewable energy

• Non-renewable sources of energy can be divided into two types: fossil fuels and oil and gas
  

Fossil fuels

- Sources of electricity include fossil fuels are found within the rocks of the Earth's surface.

Oil and natural gas

Sources of electricity include oil and gas are chemicals made from molecules containing just carbon and hydrogen.

POWER GENERATED
- An electric generator is a device for converting mechanical energy into electrical energy. The process is based on the relationship between magnetism and power. When a wire or any other electrically conductive material moves across a magnetic field, an electric current occurs in the wire. The large generators used by the electric utility industry have a stationary conductor. A magnet attached to the end of a rotating shaft is positioned inside a stationary conducting ring that is wrapped with a long, continuous piece of wire. When the magnet rotates, it induces a small electric current in each section of wire as it passes. Each section of wire constitutes a small, separate electric conductor. All the small currents of individual sections add up to one current of considerable size. This current is used for electric power.

GENERATING SOURCES

• Geothermal power comes from heat energy buried beneath the surface of the earth.
• Solar power is derived from the energy of the sun. However, the sun's energy is not available full-time and it is widely scattered. The processes used to produce power using the sun's energy have historically been more expensive than using conventional fossil fuels.
• Wind power is derived from the conversion of the energy contained in wind into power. Wind power, like the sun, is rapidly growing source of power, and is used for less than 1% of the nation's power. A wind turbine is similar to a typical wind mill.
  
• Biomass includes wood, municipal solid waste (garbage), and agricultural waste, such as corn cobs and wheat straw. These are some other energy sources for producing power. These sources replace fossil fuels in the boiler.

Power Measured

• Power is measured in units of power called watts. It was named to honor James Watt, the inventor of the steam engine. One watt is a very small amount of power. It would require nearly 750 watts to equal one horsepower. A kilowatt represents 1,000 watts. A kilowatt-hour (kWh) is equal to the energy of 1,000 watts working for one hour. The amount of power a power plant generates or a customer uses over a period of time is measured in kilowatthours (kWh). Kilowatthours are determined by multiplying the number of kW's required by the number of hours of use. For example, if you use a 40-watt light bulb 5 hours a day, you have used 200 watts of power, or .2 kilowatthours of electrical energy..
  

Basic Electricity
- is described in many ways. When an electric circuit flows through a conductor, a magnetic field (or "flux") develops around the conductor.

Basic Electrical Theory
There are four basic electrical quantities that we need to know:

• Current
• Potential Difference (Voltage)
• Power
• Resistance

Electrical Current
Current is a flow of charge. Each electron carries a charge of 1.6 × 10-19 coulombs. This is far too small to be any use, so we consider electricity to flow in packets called coulombs. When there is a flow of 1 coulomb per second, a current of 1 amp is flowing. Current is measured in amperes, or amps (A).

Potential Difference
Potential difference is often referred to as voltage. There are several ways of defining voltage; the correct physics definition is energy per unit charge, in other words, how big a job of work each lump of charge can do.

Power in a Circuit
Power in a circuit can be worked out using the simple relationship:

Power (W) = Voltage (V) × Current (A)

Electrical Resistance
This is the opposition to the flow of an electric current.