WEBVTT - Power Strips, UPS and Toschi Station 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.039 --> 0:00:14.760 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host 0:00:14.880 --> 0:00:18.079 Jonathan Strickland, Diamond executive producer with I Heart Radio and 0:00:18.120 --> 0:00:22.840 I love all things tech, and today's episode is inspired 0:00:23.000 --> 0:00:28.160 by a listener suggestion. Nick Sandor asked on Twitter, remember 0:00:28.360 --> 0:00:30.880 the handle for the show is tech Stuff. H s 0:00:31.080 --> 0:00:35.240 w if I had done an episode on uninterruptible power 0:00:35.280 --> 0:00:40.120 supplies a k a. UPS, but not the UPS that 0:00:40.200 --> 0:00:43.760 delivers packages, and also asked if I had maybe covered 0:00:43.800 --> 0:00:48.000 surge protectors. So today we're going to expand that request 0:00:48.040 --> 0:00:50.760 a little bit and talk about those and some circuit 0:00:50.840 --> 0:00:54.640 breakers and fuses and power strips in general, and vampire power. 0:00:55.040 --> 0:00:58.920 You know, I vant the suck your vaults. Wow. Okay, 0:00:58.960 --> 0:01:03.680 that that sounded way less wrong in my head, but 0:01:03.840 --> 0:01:09.959 let's dive in. First, let's talk about electricity and circuits 0:01:10.000 --> 0:01:13.959 in general, including topics like voltage and current, because I 0:01:14.000 --> 0:01:17.320 find that these concepts can be pretty easy for people 0:01:17.400 --> 0:01:20.600 to mix up if they're not working with them regularly 0:01:20.720 --> 0:01:25.199 or studying physics. So we use voltage to describe the 0:01:25.280 --> 0:01:30.040 electric potential between two different points. Uh, if the electric 0:01:30.080 --> 0:01:33.640 potential zero, if there's no difference between them. There's no voltage, 0:01:33.680 --> 0:01:39.240 there's no there to make an electric current flow between 0:01:39.560 --> 0:01:42.800 the two points, So everyone's just kind of cool and 0:01:42.880 --> 0:01:46.199 hanging out where there are. And we're gonna use water 0:01:46.360 --> 0:01:49.320 as sort of an analogy to talk about electricity quite 0:01:49.320 --> 0:01:52.360 a bit in this episode. So in this case, imagine 0:01:52.440 --> 0:01:57.360 you've got two clear beakers of water, and these beakers 0:01:57.720 --> 0:02:01.880 have a little spigot at their base, right, So though 0:02:01.960 --> 0:02:05.000 the water level is above where the spigot is, and 0:02:05.880 --> 0:02:08.080 you've got the exact same amount of water in each speaker, 0:02:08.440 --> 0:02:11.240 they're on a level table, so they're on the exact 0:02:11.280 --> 0:02:13.920 same elevation with each other. There's no tilt or anything, 0:02:14.600 --> 0:02:18.880 and you've got a clear tube connecting the end of 0:02:18.960 --> 0:02:22.880 one spigot to the other spigot. Well, now that we've 0:02:22.919 --> 0:02:25.360 got these two beakers their level, they have the exact 0:02:25.400 --> 0:02:27.520 same amount of water in them. If we open those 0:02:27.520 --> 0:02:30.280 spigots up, we're not going to expect to see water 0:02:30.360 --> 0:02:34.120 flow from one to the other. Right there, pretty much 0:02:34.120 --> 0:02:38.440 gonna stay in equilibrium because the water levels are the same. 0:02:38.480 --> 0:02:43.040 There's no pressure there to move the water around. Two 0:02:43.040 --> 0:02:46.720 points with zero electric potential are pretty much the same 0:02:46.840 --> 0:02:50.800 sort of thing as these two beakers. All right, but 0:02:50.919 --> 0:02:54.680 let's say we close the spigots on each beaker. Now 0:02:55.000 --> 0:02:57.320 water is still trapped in the tube as well, it 0:02:57.400 --> 0:03:01.560 can't go anywhere. And then we lift beaker one and 0:03:01.639 --> 0:03:04.240 we placed it on top of a small stack of books, 0:03:04.600 --> 0:03:08.200 So now it's at a higher elevation compared to beaker 0:03:08.280 --> 0:03:10.680 number two. Beaker number two is still on the surface 0:03:10.680 --> 0:03:13.760 of the table. Now, if we open up the two spigots, 0:03:14.040 --> 0:03:17.680 what happens, Well, water from beaker one will start to 0:03:17.919 --> 0:03:22.120 flow to beaker two. We will reach an equilibrium. Again, 0:03:22.560 --> 0:03:25.880 but that's not really important for our understanding of voltage. 0:03:26.160 --> 0:03:28.240 The point is, at the moment we open the figots, 0:03:28.240 --> 0:03:30.880 the water will flow from beaker one to beaker two. 0:03:31.120 --> 0:03:34.760 With voltage, a difference in potential will cause a current 0:03:34.880 --> 0:03:38.680 of electricity to flow from one point to the other. Now, 0:03:39.320 --> 0:03:43.680 because Ben Franklin made a fifty fifty shot and got 0:03:43.720 --> 0:03:48.120 it wrong, we describe current as moving from a positive 0:03:48.280 --> 0:03:52.800 charge to a negative charge. That positive moves to negative, 0:03:53.240 --> 0:03:58.320 and we frequently describe electricity as a flow of electrons. 0:03:58.840 --> 0:04:02.240 That's being a little simplistic, but it serves our purposes. 0:04:02.920 --> 0:04:08.000 But electrons are negatively charged particles, so the electron flow 0:04:08.520 --> 0:04:14.080 goes from negative to positive. Because remember opposite charges attract 0:04:14.360 --> 0:04:18.320 and like charges repel one another. So the electrons move 0:04:18.520 --> 0:04:21.679 from a point of higher negative charge to a point 0:04:21.720 --> 0:04:25.440 of higher positive charge. So while we describe current as 0:04:25.480 --> 0:04:29.880 positive charge moving toward negative, the actual electron flow is 0:04:29.960 --> 0:04:36.359 negative towards positive. Yes, it is confusing. No, that's not 0:04:36.400 --> 0:04:38.520 going to be the end of where things are confusing 0:04:38.520 --> 0:04:42.000 in this episode, but stick with me. It's all understandable. 0:04:42.920 --> 0:04:48.320 So the greater the difference in that negative and positive charge, 0:04:48.720 --> 0:04:51.720 the greater the voltage. And you can think of voltage 0:04:52.080 --> 0:04:55.440 as water pressure. If we're talking about that system we 0:04:55.440 --> 0:04:58.520 were mentioning before, if we were to pour a lot 0:04:58.600 --> 0:05:02.760 more water into beaker one, filling it up all the 0:05:02.839 --> 0:05:05.679 way before we open up the spigots, you know, beager 0:05:05.760 --> 0:05:08.640 ones at that higher elevation as well, we would actually 0:05:08.680 --> 0:05:12.640 also be increasing the water pressure of the system in general, 0:05:12.760 --> 0:05:16.479 and so we would see more pressure pushing the water 0:05:16.640 --> 0:05:20.680 through to beaker number two. We see the same sort 0:05:20.680 --> 0:05:24.240 of thing with electrical systems, and we measure this pressure 0:05:24.800 --> 0:05:28.360 or voltage in volts, so you know, that's easy, and 0:05:28.400 --> 0:05:32.680 that pressure metaphor also tells us how much work a 0:05:32.800 --> 0:05:36.360 circuit can do. You know what kind of load can 0:05:36.400 --> 0:05:41.240 you put on that circuit. Higher voltages can do harder work, 0:05:41.800 --> 0:05:45.760 and a typical double A alkaline battery can offer up 0:05:45.800 --> 0:05:49.120 one point five volts, which is a relatively small amount 0:05:49.360 --> 0:05:53.280 In the United States. A wall outlet pushes out one 0:05:53.800 --> 0:05:57.120 twenty volts, which is why you can run heavy appliances 0:05:57.560 --> 0:06:01.039 using power from the wall, but a single double A 0:06:01.080 --> 0:06:06.800 battery just won't cut it. Current is different. Current is 0:06:06.839 --> 0:06:10.440 the rate at which electric charge flows past a specific 0:06:10.520 --> 0:06:14.240 point within a circuit. This is the rate of flow 0:06:14.480 --> 0:06:17.640 of electric charge, as opposed to voltage, which we can 0:06:17.680 --> 0:06:21.719 think of as the energy per unit of charge. So 0:06:21.839 --> 0:06:26.360 current describes how much electricity is flowing, even though that's 0:06:26.360 --> 0:06:30.520 a little misleading, and voltage describes how much omph that 0:06:30.600 --> 0:06:36.479 electricity has. We measure current in apps. Current needs voltage 0:06:36.520 --> 0:06:39.400 to flow. If you don't have voltage, you don't have pressure, 0:06:39.680 --> 0:06:42.719 you don't have current. It would be like our two 0:06:42.720 --> 0:06:44.960 beakers that are side by side with that same level 0:06:45.000 --> 0:06:47.840 of water. There would be no flow there either. Materials 0:06:47.880 --> 0:06:52.160 that allow current to flow more easily are called conductors, 0:06:52.520 --> 0:06:56.120 whereas materials that have high resistance to current flowing through 0:06:56.200 --> 0:07:01.520 them are insulators. Now, pretty much every thing has some 0:07:01.640 --> 0:07:07.120 level of electrical resistance, even the best conductors, at least 0:07:07.160 --> 0:07:10.000 in conditions that most of us are familiar with. Now, 0:07:10.040 --> 0:07:14.920 if you habitually cool down conductors to near absolute zero, 0:07:15.000 --> 0:07:17.160 then you might be used to working with stuff that 0:07:17.200 --> 0:07:21.040 has no electrical resistance a k a. Super conductors. But 0:07:21.120 --> 0:07:24.440 for practical purposes, it's something we have to deal with 0:07:24.520 --> 0:07:29.280 electrical resistance, and I also have to define circuits. So 0:07:29.320 --> 0:07:32.800 a circuit is essentially a closed loop pathway that electricity 0:07:32.840 --> 0:07:36.080 can follow. If you open any of that path, if 0:07:36.120 --> 0:07:39.720 you break the line of that pathway, the electricity can 0:07:39.760 --> 0:07:42.640 no longer flow through. And it's kind of like if 0:07:42.680 --> 0:07:46.040 you were driving along a track. Let's say it's a 0:07:46.240 --> 0:07:50.880 circular track, you know, like NASCAR racing, but part of 0:07:50.920 --> 0:07:54.080 that track is actually underwater and you can't go through 0:07:54.120 --> 0:07:57.280 that part. Well, you would start your race and then 0:07:57.320 --> 0:07:59.160 you would hit this part where the water was and 0:07:59.200 --> 0:08:01.840 you would have to pop and you couldn't actually continue. 0:08:02.520 --> 0:08:04.760 Electricity is kind of similar. It has to have that 0:08:05.040 --> 0:08:08.720 unbroken path in order for it to flow. So if 0:08:08.760 --> 0:08:13.400 you break that path, the circuit no longer allows electricity 0:08:13.400 --> 0:08:15.960 to flow. This is the whole basis of switches, right. 0:08:16.000 --> 0:08:18.640 If you have an open switch, it means that you 0:08:18.680 --> 0:08:22.040 have a broken path and the electricity cannot flow through it. 0:08:22.280 --> 0:08:26.239 When you close the switch, you have completed that path 0:08:26.320 --> 0:08:30.320 and now electricity can flow freely. So electricity will only 0:08:30.360 --> 0:08:33.160 flow through a complete circuit. But that also means that 0:08:33.200 --> 0:08:37.960 if you come into contact with a conductor, your body 0:08:38.200 --> 0:08:42.200 could serve the same as a switch in a circuit. 0:08:42.320 --> 0:08:46.040 You could close a circuit when you come into contact 0:08:46.040 --> 0:08:50.280 with a conductor, and electricity will always attempt to return 0:08:50.360 --> 0:08:52.880 to its source, and it will always follow the path 0:08:53.080 --> 0:08:56.080 of least resistance. In a circuit, however, it will take 0:08:56.120 --> 0:09:00.360 all available paths. So if you have let's ay you've 0:09:00.400 --> 0:09:02.679 got a pathway in your circuit, and you divided into 0:09:02.760 --> 0:09:06.800 three different lines, and you have different amounts of resistance 0:09:06.840 --> 0:09:09.200 on each line, most of the current is going to 0:09:09.240 --> 0:09:12.440 pass through the pathway that has the least resistance. You'll 0:09:12.440 --> 0:09:15.160 still get some current going through the other pathways, but 0:09:15.200 --> 0:09:18.640 it will be significantly less. So, if you come into 0:09:18.640 --> 0:09:21.840 contact with a conductor and your body represents an area 0:09:21.920 --> 0:09:25.720 of lower resistance, you're gonna take the brunt of that electricity, 0:09:25.720 --> 0:09:29.079 and that's a that's not a good thing. I'll get 0:09:29.120 --> 0:09:32.920 back into why that's not a good thing just in 0:09:32.920 --> 0:09:35.960 a little bit. But components in a circuit can be 0:09:36.040 --> 0:09:39.559 connected either in series, which means you have one right 0:09:39.600 --> 0:09:42.640 after the other in a sort of single pathway, or 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:45.200 they can be connected in parallel, which means they be 0:09:45.240 --> 0:09:49.840 in side by side individual pathways. When they're connected in series, 0:09:50.320 --> 0:09:53.559 the same amount of current will flow through each component, 0:09:53.640 --> 0:09:57.440 but the voltage drops from one component to the next. 0:09:58.720 --> 0:10:03.079 In parallel, the voltage across each component will remain the same, 0:10:03.640 --> 0:10:08.199 but the total current is divided between each pathway. So 0:10:09.080 --> 0:10:13.760 it's it's an opposite situation from the series approach. Now, 0:10:13.760 --> 0:10:17.600 when it comes to electrical shocks, amperage a gave the 0:10:17.640 --> 0:10:20.640 current is really what we need to worry about, not 0:10:20.720 --> 0:10:25.440 the voltages. You know, something we can ignore. But you 0:10:25.480 --> 0:10:26.960 know you don't want to come into contact with a 0:10:27.040 --> 0:10:31.480 high voltage line. Definitely don't do that. You should never 0:10:31.559 --> 0:10:34.160 go near high voltage lines. Take it from electric six 0:10:34.880 --> 0:10:39.160 danger danger high voltage. But it doesn't take a very 0:10:39.200 --> 0:10:44.360 strong current to do serious damage. At around ten to 0:10:44.480 --> 0:10:48.360 twenty milla amps, and a mill amp is one of 0:10:48.400 --> 0:10:52.520 an amp. You would feel a zap of a shock. 0:10:53.160 --> 0:10:57.600 At between twenty million amps, the current is strong enough 0:10:57.600 --> 0:11:01.600 to deliver a powerful, painful shock and you lose control 0:11:01.840 --> 0:11:06.280 of your muscles. You know, our bodies communicate and operate 0:11:06.280 --> 0:11:11.960 on electrochemical signals, so electricity causes that to really go 0:11:12.080 --> 0:11:14.800 hey wire. So at this level, if you were to 0:11:14.920 --> 0:11:18.200 grab a wire that has between twenty and seventi five 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:21.240 milliamps a current running through it, you wouldn't be able 0:11:21.240 --> 0:11:25.240 to let go. Your hand would seize around that wire. Now, 0:11:25.280 --> 0:11:30.479 at around seventy five milliamps, your heart ventricles are affected 0:11:30.520 --> 0:11:33.920 by this. They start to twitch uncontrollably, and I mean 0:11:33.960 --> 0:11:39.560 that's seriously bad stuff. At one two d milliamps, it's 0:11:39.600 --> 0:11:43.839 incredibly dangerous and a shock is often fatal at that 0:11:43.920 --> 0:11:48.400 amperage above two hundred bill amps. Interestingly, your body's response 0:11:48.440 --> 0:11:51.520 would be to clamp down so hard that you might 0:11:51.559 --> 0:11:56.160 actually survive that shock because your heart is unable to 0:11:56.320 --> 0:12:01.280 fibrillate to have these uncontrollable vibrations because your chest muscle 0:12:01.400 --> 0:12:05.720 squeeze so hard it prevents your heart from fit relating. However, 0:12:06.360 --> 0:12:10.360 you would also suffer really terrible burns and possibly damage 0:12:10.360 --> 0:12:13.320 to your internal organs. So while you could survive that 0:12:13.440 --> 0:12:17.199 kind of a shock, it would really hurt you. You 0:12:17.240 --> 0:12:20.080 would be more likely to survive at that level, however, 0:12:20.240 --> 0:12:23.480 than if you were to encounter a current of between 0:12:23.480 --> 0:12:26.520 one two hundred milli apps that would be more likely 0:12:26.559 --> 0:12:30.640 to be fatal. And when we talk about electricity, we 0:12:30.840 --> 0:12:36.040 often talk about direct current versus alternating current. Direct current 0:12:36.200 --> 0:12:39.640 is the easiest for us to understand. It's very easy 0:12:39.679 --> 0:12:43.760 to draw and understand how this works. Electricity flows in 0:12:43.920 --> 0:12:47.920 one direction only with direct current. It's like a one 0:12:47.960 --> 0:12:51.600 way street. Batteries work this way. So a battery has 0:12:51.640 --> 0:12:55.080 a negative terminal and a positive terminal, and electricity will 0:12:55.120 --> 0:12:58.800 always flow from negative to positive, whereas the current is 0:12:58.840 --> 0:13:01.000 going from positives and i aative, but we've covered that 0:13:01.679 --> 0:13:06.120 with alternating current. However, it's like you're switching which terminal 0:13:06.280 --> 0:13:09.000 is negative and which one is positive, and you're doing 0:13:09.000 --> 0:13:13.800 that many times per second. The voltage actually kind of 0:13:14.000 --> 0:13:16.079 moves in a sort of wave. It hits the peak 0:13:16.120 --> 0:13:19.200 on one side. When terminal one is the most negative 0:13:19.240 --> 0:13:21.080 it can be. In terminal two is the most positive, 0:13:21.080 --> 0:13:24.959 it can be then it moves the other way as 0:13:25.240 --> 0:13:29.360 the two terminals switch. So remember when I said that 0:13:29.400 --> 0:13:33.319 the typical US household gets one volts delivered to outlets. 0:13:33.800 --> 0:13:36.520 That is an alternating current. So in the US the 0:13:36.559 --> 0:13:41.520 current alternates direction sixty times per second, So every sixty 0:13:41.640 --> 0:13:45.240 seconds it goes one volts with the current flowing in 0:13:45.240 --> 0:13:48.679 one direction and flips to one volts going in the 0:13:48.720 --> 0:13:53.080 other direction sixty times a second. Now I say all this, However, 0:13:53.120 --> 0:13:56.600 in reality, there is some variation in the amount of 0:13:56.640 --> 0:13:59.360 voltage coming to various outlets in a home, and it 0:13:59.400 --> 0:14:02.040 can vary to all sorts of stuff, like the gauge 0:14:02.040 --> 0:14:04.520 of wire that was used to wire the house, the 0:14:04.559 --> 0:14:08.400 temperature that the wires are at, the installation on the wires, 0:14:08.760 --> 0:14:12.280 the distance of the house from the transformer on the street. 0:14:12.559 --> 0:14:16.000 But you get the general idea. And moreover, electronics manufacturers 0:14:16.000 --> 0:14:20.600 design products that can tolerate a small deviation from the standard, 0:14:20.880 --> 0:14:23.800 whatever that standard might be in that particular country, and 0:14:23.920 --> 0:14:27.240 different countries do have different standards. I'll be working with 0:14:27.280 --> 0:14:29.800 the U S standard in this episode because I live 0:14:29.800 --> 0:14:33.400 in the US. So the electricity goes over the power 0:14:33.440 --> 0:14:36.720 grid and ultimately gets directed into your house or apartment 0:14:36.840 --> 0:14:40.120 or whatever, which represents a new circuit, which in turn 0:14:40.240 --> 0:14:43.640 is made up of smaller circuits, kind of wheels within wheels, 0:14:43.680 --> 0:14:46.840 as it were. One other thing I should mention our 0:14:47.000 --> 0:14:50.160 what's what's are a unit of power. And if you 0:14:50.240 --> 0:14:53.600 take an electrical circuit and you multiply the voltage across 0:14:53.680 --> 0:14:56.680 that circuit by the amps that are passing through the circuit, 0:14:57.320 --> 0:15:01.560 you get watts. Watts equals volts times amps. Most of 0:15:01.600 --> 0:15:06.960 our stuff actually runs on direct current, not alternating current. 0:15:07.440 --> 0:15:10.760 So these devices that we plug into our walls typically 0:15:10.760 --> 0:15:14.120 have what is called a rectifier. Uh. And if you 0:15:14.240 --> 0:15:17.560 have devices that have a power brick, the power break 0:15:17.640 --> 0:15:21.520 is your rectifier. Typically this converts the alternating current to 0:15:21.840 --> 0:15:24.600 direct current. Usually have a much lower voltage as well. 0:15:24.920 --> 0:15:29.680 You might wonder why we are even using alternating current anyway, 0:15:29.760 --> 0:15:32.440 since most of our stuff is running on d C power, 0:15:32.720 --> 0:15:35.760 wouldn't it make sense to just supply DC power instead 0:15:35.800 --> 0:15:39.280 of having to convert it? Well, it all comes down 0:15:39.320 --> 0:15:44.440 to transmitting electricity over great distances. More than a century ago, 0:15:44.760 --> 0:15:47.480 there was a big debate about which approach was the 0:15:47.520 --> 0:15:50.880 one to use. Thomas Edison wanted to go with direct current, 0:15:51.280 --> 0:15:54.200 which would have required building out lots of power plants 0:15:54.200 --> 0:15:56.960 to be close to the load. That is, you would 0:15:56.960 --> 0:15:58.920 have to add power plants close to the places that 0:15:58.920 --> 0:16:02.560 were actually using the electricity coming from those power plants. 0:16:02.560 --> 0:16:05.320 Because it was really hard to send direct current of 0:16:05.400 --> 0:16:09.920 sufficient voltage longer distances. You would have to have incredibly 0:16:10.000 --> 0:16:12.280 thick cables and you would lose a lot of energy 0:16:12.320 --> 0:16:14.760 in the form of heat waste. If you were really 0:16:14.800 --> 0:16:18.600 pushing the voltage super hard, then the cables would heat 0:16:18.640 --> 0:16:20.760 up to the point where they would just break under 0:16:20.800 --> 0:16:25.920 the stress. So alternating current, which was championed by George Westinghouse, 0:16:26.280 --> 0:16:31.160 could make use of electrical transformers, and with transformers you 0:16:31.160 --> 0:16:35.480 can step up the voltage for long distance transmission, which 0:16:35.520 --> 0:16:38.280 is much more efficient, and then you would have other 0:16:38.360 --> 0:16:41.400 transformers at the other end to step down the voltage 0:16:41.440 --> 0:16:43.840 once it got to wherever you were sending it. A 0:16:43.960 --> 0:16:46.720 C power was more practical at the time and one out, 0:16:46.880 --> 0:16:49.960 but it did mean having to use rectifiers to change 0:16:50.000 --> 0:16:52.400 the A C T D C in order to make 0:16:52.400 --> 0:16:56.480 practical use of it. With most appliances. If you're familiar 0:16:56.680 --> 0:17:02.280 with the basics of circuits, you know about resistors, These 0:17:02.360 --> 0:17:05.760 are elements that have a specific electrical resistance, you know, 0:17:05.760 --> 0:17:08.440 a resistance to the flow of current, and they're used 0:17:08.480 --> 0:17:11.200 to do all sorts of stuff. For example, the filament 0:17:11.280 --> 0:17:15.240 in a light bulb is essentially a resistor which resists 0:17:15.320 --> 0:17:17.720 the flow of current, and as current pushes its way 0:17:17.760 --> 0:17:20.840 through anyway due to having a sufficient amount of voltage, 0:17:21.280 --> 0:17:24.640 some of the electrical energy converts into heat, which heats 0:17:24.680 --> 0:17:28.520 up the filament and ultimately causes it to glow. Well. Essentially, 0:17:28.800 --> 0:17:32.080 all things you plug into a power outlet are acting 0:17:32.160 --> 0:17:35.520 as a type of resistor in the circuit that is 0:17:35.600 --> 0:17:41.240 your home's wiring. The appliance represents a constant resistance. Your 0:17:41.280 --> 0:17:45.080 home is supplied with a constant voltage, so that means 0:17:45.200 --> 0:17:47.560 the current is kept constant as well. Because all of 0:17:47.600 --> 0:17:51.000 these things relate to one another. Now that's a good thing, 0:17:51.119 --> 0:17:53.520 as good old Tom Harris wrote in a house stuff 0:17:53.560 --> 0:17:57.640 works dot com article about circuit breakers. Quote, too much 0:17:57.760 --> 0:18:01.080 charge flowing through a circuit at a particular time would 0:18:01.160 --> 0:18:05.360 heat the appliances, wires, and the building's wiring two unsafe levels, 0:18:05.400 --> 0:18:09.240 possibly causing a fire. End quote. So let's go ahead 0:18:09.240 --> 0:18:11.440 and define a power strip. Now that we've got these 0:18:11.480 --> 0:18:14.760 basics out of the way. A power strip is a 0:18:14.880 --> 0:18:18.720 bunch of outlets that are mounted into a frame of 0:18:18.760 --> 0:18:22.320 some sort. Now, while it might appear that these outlets 0:18:22.359 --> 0:18:24.639 are in a series, like if you have a long, 0:18:24.760 --> 0:18:27.479 thin powder strip, it looks like you've got a series 0:18:27.480 --> 0:18:31.360 of outlets, they're actually wired in parallel. If you were 0:18:31.400 --> 0:18:33.880 to take one of these apart and don't do that, 0:18:34.320 --> 0:18:37.000 but if you were, you would see they're wired and parallel, 0:18:37.080 --> 0:18:39.879 not in series. And if you remember, that means the 0:18:39.960 --> 0:18:43.080 voltage is going to remain the same for every component 0:18:43.119 --> 0:18:47.200 that gets plugged into that strip. That's important because otherwise 0:18:47.480 --> 0:18:50.440 you would have a voltage drop if they were in series. 0:18:50.640 --> 0:18:53.320 As you plugged more components into the strip, the voltage 0:18:53.359 --> 0:18:56.119 would drop further down the series. And if you've got 0:18:56.160 --> 0:18:58.800 a few components that require a hefty amount of voltage, 0:18:59.160 --> 0:19:01.480 you could find yourself out of luck. The devices wouldn't 0:19:01.480 --> 0:19:06.680 receive enough pressure to work. Now, while the voltage will 0:19:06.720 --> 0:19:09.879 remain constant across the components plugged into a power strip, 0:19:10.200 --> 0:19:14.560 and the resistance remains constant per component, adding more components 0:19:14.600 --> 0:19:19.159 means increasing the load of current moving through the power strip. 0:19:19.480 --> 0:19:22.119 So as you plug more stuff into a power strip, 0:19:22.359 --> 0:19:25.240 the power strip has to supply more amperage. If the 0:19:25.280 --> 0:19:28.520 power requirements of the components are super hefty, it could 0:19:28.560 --> 0:19:32.679 mean overloading that specific circuit, which could lead to some 0:19:32.760 --> 0:19:35.879 of those really bad outcomes like an electrical fire. And 0:19:35.960 --> 0:19:39.960 that's where circuit breakers come in. I'll explain them more 0:19:40.000 --> 0:19:51.240 in just a second, but first let's take a quick break. Okay, 0:19:51.520 --> 0:19:55.199 so without circuit breakers or fuses, there would be no 0:19:55.359 --> 0:19:58.960 fail safe to prevent someone from overloading a home electrical 0:19:59.000 --> 0:20:02.000 circuit and causing wires to heat up enough to melt 0:20:02.119 --> 0:20:05.080 or cause a fire. So thankfully we do have these 0:20:05.080 --> 0:20:08.520 elements to help keep us safe as we use electricity. 0:20:09.000 --> 0:20:12.720 Let's start with fuses, because they are pretty simple to understand. 0:20:13.040 --> 0:20:17.120 A fuse has a thin wire inside that's kind of 0:20:17.160 --> 0:20:20.520 like a filament to a light bulb. Fuses are designed 0:20:20.520 --> 0:20:23.960 to handle a certain amount of current within a circuit. 0:20:24.359 --> 0:20:27.960 If the fuse receives more than that allotted amount of 0:20:28.000 --> 0:20:31.120 current based on the type of fuse you're using, then 0:20:31.160 --> 0:20:35.000 the electrical energy that's running through that thin wire will 0:20:35.040 --> 0:20:39.040 cause it to heat up rapidly and it begins to disintegrate. 0:20:39.080 --> 0:20:42.720 It burns through that cuts off the electrical circuit. We 0:20:42.760 --> 0:20:46.919 have now cut off that pathway broken it. But the 0:20:46.960 --> 0:20:49.080 bummer of the sort of approach is that when that 0:20:49.119 --> 0:20:51.640 does happen, you have to replace the fuse. They are 0:20:51.720 --> 0:20:55.960 a one use item. Uh so they do protect your 0:20:56.000 --> 0:20:59.280 home in the case of a increase in current, which 0:20:59.280 --> 0:21:03.239 could be a real problem, but it means also that 0:21:03.320 --> 0:21:05.440 once that does happen, you have to go out and 0:21:05.680 --> 0:21:08.119 replace the fuse and the fuse box. I used to 0:21:08.160 --> 0:21:10.320 live in a house that still had a fuse box 0:21:10.320 --> 0:21:12.280 and occasionally we'd have a fuse go out and that 0:21:12.359 --> 0:21:14.880 was a real hassle. I mean, just finding the right 0:21:14.880 --> 0:21:18.040 fuse to go in the right section was was something 0:21:18.080 --> 0:21:22.520 of a challenge at times. Circuit breakers are way easier 0:21:22.640 --> 0:21:26.159 from an end user standpoint, and it typically involves opening 0:21:26.240 --> 0:21:29.560 up a panel and flicking a switch that has been 0:21:29.800 --> 0:21:33.680 turned off to on. So when you flip the switch 0:21:33.720 --> 0:21:36.199 to on, it completes a circuit. It allows electricity to 0:21:36.200 --> 0:21:39.320 flow through, but if the current running through that circuit 0:21:39.400 --> 0:21:42.960 exceeds a certain amount, it trips the switch, so it 0:21:43.000 --> 0:21:46.000 turns off. And there's actually a couple of different ways 0:21:46.080 --> 0:21:49.000 this can be done, but one of them is using 0:21:49.040 --> 0:21:53.600 an electro magnet. The current causes the electro magnet to 0:21:53.600 --> 0:21:57.399 generate a magnetic field, and if the current peaks, if 0:21:57.400 --> 0:22:00.880 it gets too strong, that magnetic field comes strong enough 0:22:00.920 --> 0:22:05.040 to pull a metal lever and mechanically move it to 0:22:05.359 --> 0:22:10.360 a different position, which actually causes the switch to flip off. 0:22:10.440 --> 0:22:13.840 It's the power of magnetism that pulls the switch into 0:22:13.840 --> 0:22:18.320 the off position. It's incredibly clever because that only happens 0:22:18.320 --> 0:22:21.680 if the electrical current is strong enough to create that 0:22:21.800 --> 0:22:26.760 magnetic field in the electro magnet. So very ingenious design. 0:22:27.720 --> 0:22:30.440 Now that's a very high level look at circuit breakers. 0:22:30.440 --> 0:22:33.280 It's also not the only way that circuit breakers can work. 0:22:33.359 --> 0:22:37.000 But I want to segue over to surge protectors because 0:22:37.000 --> 0:22:40.960 that was the actual area of interest that I was 0:22:41.160 --> 0:22:44.000 asked about. So circuit breakers are all about cutting off 0:22:44.000 --> 0:22:47.919 a circuit once the current becomes too strong. Surge protectors 0:22:48.160 --> 0:22:52.359 are about protecting against a quick increase in voltage. So 0:22:52.560 --> 0:22:54.320 this is about finding a way to deal with a 0:22:54.359 --> 0:22:59.360 sudden increase in electrical pressure. If you like surges, don't 0:22:59.400 --> 0:23:03.000 have to laugh very long before they are a problem. 0:23:03.240 --> 0:23:06.280 If you get a super fast jump and voltage that 0:23:06.400 --> 0:23:10.119 only lasts for a nanosecond or two, we call that 0:23:10.280 --> 0:23:13.880 a spike, But if it lasts three nanoseconds or more, 0:23:14.440 --> 0:23:18.560 it's a surge. But a nanosecond is one billionth of 0:23:18.600 --> 0:23:23.280 a second. So yeah, surges can be quick, far faster 0:23:23.440 --> 0:23:26.720 than we can perceive, though we definitely can perceive the 0:23:26.800 --> 0:23:30.680 consequences of a surge. Now, if you have something plugged 0:23:30.680 --> 0:23:34.520 into an outlet and the outlet experiences a surge, it's 0:23:34.640 --> 0:23:37.160 kind of like if you were to have a water 0:23:37.280 --> 0:23:40.800 hose connected to a spigot and suddenly that spigott forces 0:23:41.200 --> 0:23:44.080 way more water through the hose than it can handle. 0:23:44.480 --> 0:23:47.320 The hose itself can burst if there's too much water 0:23:47.400 --> 0:23:51.880 pressure inside of it. So voltage surges can cause wires 0:23:51.880 --> 0:23:54.800 to melt or make devices work way harder than they 0:23:54.800 --> 0:23:57.560 are supposed to. You know, devices are meant to work 0:23:57.600 --> 0:24:01.840 at a certain voltage. There you can in add more voltage. 0:24:01.880 --> 0:24:05.399 You could create more voltage and thus make the device 0:24:05.440 --> 0:24:08.199 work harder than it was intended, but that's not a 0:24:08.200 --> 0:24:11.199 great idea. So, for example, the device you've got plugged 0:24:11.200 --> 0:24:14.199 into a wall has a motor in it, then the 0:24:14.240 --> 0:24:17.640 motor may suddenly operate at a speed much higher than 0:24:17.880 --> 0:24:21.639 it was meant to and this might not result in 0:24:21.680 --> 0:24:24.280 immediate failure, but it definitely adds to the wear and 0:24:24.320 --> 0:24:26.919 tear on a device. It can also be a safety issue, 0:24:27.119 --> 0:24:32.080 so you want to avoid surges. A surge protector deals 0:24:32.119 --> 0:24:35.679 with a rapid increase in voltage by directing excess current 0:24:36.119 --> 0:24:39.920 into the wall outlets. Grounding wire and a grounding wire 0:24:40.000 --> 0:24:43.240 is kind of what it sounds like. It's a safety 0:24:43.280 --> 0:24:48.199 wire in the outlet that ultimately connects to earth. So 0:24:48.320 --> 0:24:53.320 under normal circumstances, this wire does not carry any electricity. 0:24:53.840 --> 0:24:58.200 It's it doesn't hold a current. Under normal operating conditions, 0:24:58.520 --> 0:25:01.639