Electricity Terms You Know

Volt

A unit of electromotive force. It is the amount of force required to drive a steady current of one ampere through a resistance of one ohm. Electrical systems of most homes and office have 120 volts.

Voltage of a Circuit

The electric pressure of a circuit, measured in volts. Usually a nominal rating, based on the maximum normal effective difference of potential between any two conductors of the circuit.

Electric Utility

Any person or state agency with a monopoly franchise (including any municipality), which sells electric energy to end-use customers; this term includes the Tennessee valley Authority, but does not include other Federal power marketing agency (from EPAct).

Electricity

A property of the basic particles of matter. A form of energy having magnetic, radiant and chemical effects. Electric current is created by a flow of charged particles (electrons).

Energy

The capacity for doing work. Forms of energy include: thermal, mechanical, electrical and chemical. Energy may be transformed from one form into another.

Transformer

A device, which through electromagnetic induction but without the use of moving parts, transforms alternating or intermittent electric energy in one circuit into energy of similar type in another circuit, commonly with altered values of voltage and current.

Solar Energy

Heat and light radiated from the sun.

Substation

A facility that steps up or steps down the voltage in utility power lines. Voltage is stepped up where power is sent through long-distance transmission lines. it is stepped down where the power is to enter local distribution lines.

Fossil Fuel

Oil, coal, natural gas or their by-products. Fuel that was formed in the earth in prehistoric times from remains of living-cell organisms.

Nuclear Energy

Power obtained by splitting heavy atoms (fission) or joining light atoms (fusion). A nuclear energy plant uses a controlled atomic chain reaction to produce heat. The heat is used to make steam run conventional turbine generators.

Hydroelectric Power

Electricity produced by falling water that turns a turbine generator. Also referred to as HYDRO.

Circuit

One complete run of a set of electric conductors from a power source to various electrical devices (appliances, lights, etc.) and back to the same power source.

Combustion Burning

Rapid oxidation, with the release of energy in the form of heat and light.

Meter

A device for measuring levels and volumes of a customer's gas and electricity use.

Transmission

Transporting bulk power over long distances.

Kilovolt (kv)

One-thousand volts (1,000). Distribution lines in residential areas usually are 12 kv (12,000 volts).

Kilowatt (kW)

One thousand (1,000) watts. A unit of measure of the amount of electricity needed to operate given equipment. On a hot summer afternoon a typical home, with central air conditioning and other equipment in use, might have a demand of four kW each hour.

Kilowatt-Hour (kWh)

The most commonly-used unit of measure telling the amount of electricity consumed over time. It means one kilowatt

Thermostat

An automatic control device designed to be responsive to temperature and typically used to maintain set temperatures by cycling the HVAC system.

Edison, Thomas Alva

The "father" of the American energy industry, Thomas Edison was an American inventor who was born in 1847 and died in 1931. He patented a total of 1,093 inventions - more than any other person in American history. Among the most important were the incandescent electric light bulb (1879), the phonograph (1877) and the movie projector (1893).

Conduction

The transfer of heat energy through a material (solid, liquid or gas) by the motion of adjacent atoms and molecules without gross displacement of the particles.

Conductivity (k)

The quantity of heat that will flow through one square foot of homogeneous material, one inch thick, in one hour, when there is a temperature difference of one degree Fahrenheit between its surfaces.