![]() ![]() Voltage is pressure, very much like water pressure in a hose or pipe. Approximately 745 Watts = the power of one horse, or 1 horsepower. A 1 Horsepower Engine was said to the same work as one horse. Watt compared the work down by horses to his steam engine. Generators can only produce a limited number of amperes and just like wires in a home they are protected by circuit breakers that prevent overloading the generator.Ī James Watt Steam Engine. For this reason, the wire sizes used in homes are governed by the National Electrical Code (NEC) and protected by circuit breakers or fuses that open if the safe current level for that wire size is exceeded-an overload. A wire conductor can grow hot enough to ignite flammable materials if it is too small (overloaded) to carry the current. When electrons flow against resistance, they create heat. The larger the conductor, the less resistance they meet. When electrons flow, they meet resistance in whatever conductor they are flowing through. It takes many electrons to do even a small amount of work-one ampere is equal to 6,241,509,300,000,000,000 electrons flowing in one second. The flow of electrons through a conductor is called electric current. Amperes, or amps, is a measure of how many electrons are flowing. We also use Voltage (volts) and Amperes (amps) as required.Ī portable generator supplies electric current (amps or amperes) at 120 and 240 volts.Įlectricity is the flow of electrons through a conductor. ![]() After the purchase is made, it is still important to understand the terms and apply them to prevent accidentally overloading the generator or tripping circuit breakers.Īll generators are rated according to their capacity to produce electrical power in either watts or kilowatts. Correctly applying and using terms like volts, watts, and amps makes the difference between correctly-sizing a generator that does that job efficiently, or choosing one that is under or over powered. It does not matter if you’re shopping for a home standby generator for backup power, a portable generator for electrical power wherever it’s needed, or an Onan RV Generator to make your family camping trip more comfortable with air conditioning and refrigeration. While we are familiar with hearing them, do we really know what they mean? How Many Volts? What’s a Watt?Įlectrical terms get tossed around like baseballs at spring batting practice. But what do they really mean to how we power our homes? Familiar terms we hear about electricity. ![]()
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