HOUSEHOLD

ELCTRICITY

Cells and batteries 

• provide an electrical current which always flows
around the circuit in the same direct, this is called
direct current (dc).
 THREE PIN PLUG
The three pin plug contains;
• The blue neutral wire which is held at
around 0 volts.
• The green/yellow earth wire.
• The brown live wire which alternates
between +230 volts and -230 volts.
• The fuse (left hand side on diagram).
• The cable grip, at the bottom of the
plug to hold wires in securely.
Fuses
• Fuse sizes are 3A, 5A and 13A (an electric
cooker can have a 30A fuse). If the
amount of current flowing through the
fuse gets bigger than the fuse rating the
wire inside the fuse gets hot and melts
which disconnects the live wire from the
appliance.
• Fuses are cheap but operate more slowly
than circuit breakers.
 Circuit Breaker
-operate much faster than fuses but they are much more
expensive.

There are two types of CIRCUIT BREAKER;

• Residual Current Circuit Breakers (RCCB’s) which
operate by detecting a difference in the current
between the live and neutral wires.
• Earth Leakage Circuit Breakers (ELCB’s) which
detect when current flows through the Earth wire.
Effect of current
in the human
body
 Current (mA) Effect

none
0-0.5
Threshold of feeling
0.5-2.0
Pain, muscular contraction
2-10
Difficulty in breathing
10-15
Muscular freeze (cannot release or
16-20 let go)
Respiratory paralysis
20-100
Ventricular fibrillation; fatal
100-3 A unless resuscitation is done
immediately
Death
Above 3 A