SESSION 2

Electrical circuits

What are circuits?

Circuits are a closed path for electricity.

Every electrical appliance in your home,
whether it is battery operated or you
plug it in, is a circuit.

Simple Recall

Parts if a circuit

Types of Circuit

There are two main types electrical

circuits, Parallel and Series.

Types of Circuit
Series Circuit

The circuit only has one

path. All of the loads are
connected side by side
on one path.
If there is a break in the
path of electricity the
entire circuit will not
work.

Parallel Circuit

There are several paths

for electricity to flow
through. Each load usually
has it's own branch.

A break in one branch will

not affect the other
branches or appliances.

The resistance increases

as each load is added.
(R1+R1+R1= R3)
The voltage ( potential
energy that each electron
has when it leaves the cell)
stays the same.
The current will be the
same in all parts of the
circuit. It decreases as
more loads are added.

The resistance decreases as

the loads increase.
The voltage ( potential energy
that each electron has when it
leaves the cell) stays the same.
The more paths a circuit has
the more current it demands
from the power source. So if
one light bulb is hooked up to
each of 2 paths, they will both
shine brightly.

Series Circuit

Parallel Circuit

Typical electrical wiring in the

household

Parallel Wiring

The wiring for most homes is parallel,

meaning several devices are powered
on a single circuit.
Both the hot and neutral wires run
through the various housing boxes along
the route and branch off to individual
fixtures and receptacles.

Switch Wiring

Switches, which are installed on hot wires,

allow or disallow the flow of current to a light
or other device.
A knife-blade switch (shown at right) illustrates
the position of the switch when it completes a
circuit, allowing electricity to power a device.
The illustration below it shows the position of
the switch when it interrupts the flow of
current from the hot bus bar, disallowing the
flow of electricity.

Series Wiring

This type of wiring is rarely used

because it operates the same as oldstyle Christmas lightswhen one light
burned out, none would illuminate.
Series wiring routes the hot wire through
several devices and then joins the
neutral wire, which leads back to the
source.

ACTUAL
APPLICATION IN
HOUSEHOLD.
EX. CHRISTMAS
LIGHTS

Activity: Direction using a computer

simulation. Draw the ff:

1.Draw a series circuit with one light bulb and

one cell.
2.Draw a combined parallel and series circuit
with 3 light bulbs and one cell. If light bulb A is
off, B and C will not work. If A is on and B is on
the circuit will work. If A and C are on, the circuit
will work.
3. Draw a series circuit with two light bulbs, one
battery and two switches. If switch A is on and B
isn't, the circuit will work. If both are off, the
circuit won't work.

Follow up Q & A

In a situation that there are bulbs

connected in the household, which of
the following saves more energy?
A. LED bulb 10 watts
B. Incandescent Bulb 10 watts
C. CFL bulb 10 watts
D. Fluorescent bulb 10 watts

Benefits of CFLs

Save Energy
CFLs use roughly 1/4 as much energy as
incandescent bulbs. This means that you
can light a 60 watt fixture using as little as
13 watts of electricity. Lighting accounts for
about 15% of total residential energy
consumption in the U.S., and 23% of
commercial consumption, so making some
updates can really reduce your energy
consumption in a meaningful way.

Save Money
As mentioned above, CFLs can save a
significant amount of energy. This also
translates into some serious cost
savings as well. The EPA estimates that
the average CFL pays for itself in just 6
months.

Save the Environment

The U.S. is the largest consumer of electricity, and
roughly 70% of that electricity is generated using fossil
fuels (natural gas, coal, petroleum). Only 7% is generated
from renewable sources such as hydroelectric, wind, and
solar. This means that your decision to reduce
consumption in your home or business has a real impact
on the environment. It only takes one CFL in each
American household to save enough energy to light more
than 3 million homes for a year, save about $700 million in
annual energy costs, and prevent 9 billion pounds of
greenhouse gas emissions per year, equivalent to the
emissions of about 800,000 cars.

Get More Light

One secondary benefit of CFLs that people
dont often realize is that they can be an
excellent solution to a too little light problem.
If you arent getting enough light out of your
60 watt fixture, for example, you can switch to
a 23 watt CFL. This will give you the
equivalent of 100 watts in light output without
exceeding the maximum wattage of your
lamp, which can be dangerous.

LED: Is It Right For You?

LEDs are most well known for their extremely long life and
energy efficiency. LED useful life is based on the number
of operating hours until the LED is emitting 70% of its
initial light output. Top quality LEDs in well-designed
fixtures are expected to have a useful life of 30,000 to
50,000 hours, significantly higher than the 1,000 hours for
a typical incandescent bulb and 8,000 to 10,000 hours for
a comparable CFL. LEDs usually dont burn out like
incandescent bulbs do. Instead, they get progressively
dimmer over time. This can be helpful in critical lighting
areas. They also tend to use less than one-sixth as much
energy as their incandescent or halogen counterparts,
and 2-3 times less than most CFLs.

Environmentally, the reduction in electricity

consumption translates into a reduction in
greenhouse gas emissions. In addition,
LEDs have an advantage in that they dont
contain mercury like CFLs do. Reducing
harmful emissions (including mercury)
from power generation, and eliminating the
chance of it getting into the waste stream
when the bulb is disposed is very good
news for the environment.

The primary concerns

Up-front cost and quality assurance. Although
the prices of LED replacement bulbs have
dropped consistently, they are still generally
much higher than comparable CFLs. This
higher initial cost means that theyre generally
not the best way to achieve an optimal balance
between ROI (return on investment) and energy
savingsyet.
http://www.bulbs.com/learning/ledright2.aspx

THANK YOU FOR

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