(IJCH) At 57 y/o, Learning About Electricity From Scratch! (What Is A Watt, Really?)
(IJCH) At 57 y/o, Learning About Electricity From Scratch!
(What Is A Watt, Really?)
From the Author:
Salutations.
I am JaiChai.
And if I haven't had the pleasure of meeting you before, I'm delighted to make your acquaintance now.
I invite you to interact with everyone, learn, and have as much fun as possible!
For my returning online friends, "It's always great to see you again!"
Learning About Electricity From Scratch (at 57 y/o)!
I admit it. I am a dummy about electricity.
I mean, all of my life, I kinda took it for granted and never had much need to delve further into the subject.
In the U.S., I never had to worry about those tiny little labels on the charger blocks of my devices or the cryptic diagrams on the back of my household appliances.
It was simple. Go to the store. Buy it. Bring it home and just "Plug and Play".
In those rare cases when the device didn't work, it was no problem returning it for another one - as long as I had the original receipt, of course.
But in Asia, electrical devices are so unpredictable (translated: Shoddy Chinese Rejects) that employees have to test every electrical device before the customer goes to the checkout counter.
Warranty? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Warranties?!
And the warranty policies in Asia are a total joke, ranging from 3 days to two weeks only!
If the warranty is honored at all, the device must be shipped to a "qualified repair facility"; meaning: the customer is without his/her device for at least three months!
Most of us "impatient foreigners" end up foregoing the frustration and buying a new device.
OK. Enough bitching about the prevalence of bull$hit warranties all over Asia.
(Heavy Sigh)
Let's get to the subject of this post: The Watt.
What Is A "Watt", Really?!
Why did I research the "Watt"?
Simple.
Before this post, the only thing I knew about Watts was that if I used "High-Watt Rating" appliances like my aircon, hot water heater, stove, or clothes' iron a lot, my monthly electricity bill inevitably becomes enormous!
So what is a "Watt", really?!
One definition for "Watt" from the web is:
The SI unit of power, equivalent to one joule per second, corresponding to the power in an electric circuit in which the potential difference is one volt and the current one ampere.
WTF?
Damn! I would have to look up almost every other word in that definition!
Here's the definition of "Watt" for "Electricity Dummies" (like me):
Power is measured in units called watts (abbreviated W). The definition of one watt is simple: One watt is the amount of work done by a circuit in which one ampere of current is driven by one volt.
(Phew!)
At least I can wrap my Dummy Brain around that one - mostly (albeit, I don't know what a circuit, ampere or volt is - yet).
I keep searching for something, a definition for "Watt" that us "non-genius, non-engineers, non-rocket scientists" can fu@kin' understand!
But then...
Hallelujah! A Definition for "Watt" That I Can Understand!.,..
Watts Are Like Miles-Per-Hour (MPH)
Starting with a 60-watt lightbulb:
Power is a measure of the rate at which energy flows, and in electrical systems it is measured in watts (W).
Watts are basically the miles-per-hour measurement of the electrical world--they tell you how fast the electrons are speeding down the highway.
A 60-watt lightbulb will consume electricity at a rate of 60 watts.
A laborer working through the day will put out 75 watts of power.
A medium-sized car might consume 100,000 watts. (One horsepower is equivalent to 750 watts, so that's a 286-hp car.)
A small gasoline generator puts out 2,000 watts; the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant puts out 650 megawatts, or 650,000,000 watts.
So What Is A "Watt Hour Rating"?
RE: Watt Hours
I remember an ex-pat friend of mine saying that, "It's the "Watt Hour Rating" that determines how much 'juice' that damn thing sucks out of the wall per hour."
(He was a retired electrical engineer, so I kinda took his advice about that stuff as gospel.)
So what the Hell is a "Watt Hour"?!
In a nutshell, watt-hours measure amounts of energy for a specific period of time, and watts measure rates of power at a moment in time.
A common analogy for watts and watt-hours is speed and distance.
Speed is a rate of how fast you drive at an instant in time (watts); distance is the length, or amount that you drive over a period of time (watt-hours).
For example, if you drive at a constant rate of 60 miles per hour for one hour, then you will have traveled 60 miles.
Similarly, if a 60 W light bulb is on for one hour, then that light bulb will have used 60 Wh of energy. If left on for two hours, then the 60 W light bulb will have used 120Wh of energy.
So there you have it.
The reason my electric bill skyrockets when I use appliances with a "High Watt-Hour Rating" is simply because:
They need a lot of Watts (MPH - speed in the current) in order to operate.
Consequently, their Watt Hour Rating is high; meaning: over the course of one hour, they suck up a lot of electricity!.
Imagine that?
My next posts about electricity will be my attempts to understand stuff like volts, amperes, electrical formulas and calculations, simple circuits, etc.
Hope you'll join me as I continue my "Learning About Electricity" journey.
By JaiChai
Believing that school was too boring, he dropped out of High School early; only to earn an AA, BS and MBA in less than 4 years much later in life – while working full-time as a Navy/Marine Corps Medic.
In spite of a fear of heights and deep water, he performed high altitude, free-fall parachute jumps and hazardous diving ops in deep, open ocean water.
After 24 years of active duty, he retired in Asia.
Since then, he's been a full-time, single papa and actively pursuing his varied passions (Writing, Disruptive Technology, Computer Science and Cryptocurrency - plus more hobbies too boring or bizarre for most folk).
He lives on an island paradise with his teenage daughter, log term girlfriend and two dogs.
"Power House Creatives - Superlative Member Support and the Supreme Welcome Party for all new Steemians!" - JaiChai
(More articles by JaiChai can be found on the Busy.org website. Use this link to visit Busy.org. Better yet, come join the Busy.org community!)
