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Level 3 Diploma in Electrical Installations (Buildings and Structures) Unit 302 Handout 1

302: Principles of electrical science

Handout 1: Resistance in an ac circuit
Learning outcome
The learner will:
2. Understand how different electrical properties can affect electrical circuits, systems and
equipment.
Assessment criteria
The learner can:
2.1 explain the relationship between resistance, inductance, capacitance and impedance
currents.

Resistance in an ac circuit
When a pure resistance is connected across an
alternating current supply (ac), the current that will
flow through it, at any instant in time, is governed by
Ohm’s Law.
I = V/R at any moment in time during the cycle.
What this means is that the current waveform for a
purely resistive circuit is exactly the same shape as
the wave form for the emf applied to that circuit and
is in phase with it, as is shown by the diagram
below.

The phasor diagram that represents this waveform is as shown below:

The current in the circuit can be found by using the expression I = V/R, where I and V are the
RMS. values of current and emf respectively.

In a purely resistive circuit, the current through the resistor is unaffected by the
frequency of the supply and is therefore in phase with the voltage.

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Level 3 Diploma in Electrical Installations (Buildings and Structures) Unit 302 Handout 1

The power consumed by a resistor connected across an ac supply can be found by using the
formula:
𝐏 = 𝐕. 𝐈. 𝐜𝐨𝐬 𝛟
The cosine of the angle will be the cosine of zero (0)degrees, since there is no phase angle
(difference between V & I).
𝐂𝐨𝐬 𝛟 = 𝟏
 𝐏 = 𝐕. 𝐈. 𝐜𝐨𝐬 𝛟
 𝐏 = 𝐕. 𝐈. 𝟏
 𝐏 = 𝐕. 𝐈 (𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚 𝐩𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐜𝐢𝐫𝐜𝐮𝐢𝐭)

It can be seen from the wave shape that a resistor consumes power on both halves of the wave.
This is because in applying the formula P = Vmax × Imax in the first half cycle, both V & I are positive
values, which give a positive answer. In the next half cycle both V & I are negative values, which
also gives a positive answer.

© 2018 City and Guilds of London Institute. All rights reserved. Page 2 of 2