Year 12s: what will be the first way you research your future options? >>

Simple question and a simple answer. +rep to who's ever right! :)

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Reply 60

A.J.B

an electrical engineer in the house?

Reply 61

Rachh-x

No
:-)
unless the appliance is switched on.
how can it use electricity? it doesnt need it :-)
obviously though a phone charger will cause electricity to travel down the wire until it finds there is no phone at the end :-)
[i may be wrong, but i believe strongly that i am correct]. xxxx

Reply 62

blip

adream trying to con his way into a successful thread by offering reps. nice one!!

Reply 63

Mush

This depends entirely on the device.

If a device is a simple circuit, and the circuit is broken when you turn the device 'off', then current will not flow, as it has nowhere to flow to, and hence electricity will not be used.

If the device has, for example, a transformer, it will continue to draw current when the 'device' for which it is designed is turne off. How it may not be complete accurate to say that the device is drawing current even though it is off. Because the tranformer itself is still a complete circuit, and hence if you consider the transformer to be the device, then you cannot break the circuit. However, if you COULD turn a transformer off, it would not draw current any longer.

So a very simple answer to your question is that, NO, electricity does not flow from a socket if a device is turned off, but left plugged in.

Reply 64

azhao

Does the power supply feel hot when not used? If yes then yes.

Reply 65

rakata

Does anyone know if leaving the plugs in and turned on for toasters, kettles and microwaves saves energy? I have an annoying housemate lol :s-smilie:

Reply 66

Higgy90

rakata

Does anyone know if leaving the plugs in and turned on for toasters, kettles and microwaves saves energy? I have an annoying housemate lol :s-smilie:

toasters and kettles wont make a difference. if the microwave has a display then it will use a miniscule amount of power, otherwise no. it really isnt worth turning it off however.

Reply 67

Slumpy

CHEM1STRY

WTF

Power is E/s Joules / second. It's measured in kWh. So it's the same as Wh -

kW \times 1000 = W

(like

km \times 1000 = m

)- which is the same as

\frac{E}{s} \times s = E

when cancelled down. The E represents energy (joules) and s a unit of time (seconds). Therefore Wh = energy which gives us energy consumed/wasted or whatever.

There's quite a lot wrong here.
Power is Joules/second, yes. Measured in W though, not kWh(you could measure it in kW, but thats dimensioanally the same as W). Also, km*1000 isn't m. m*1000 is km.
Down here you have got Wh=energy, not power, so I'll give you that, but it conflicts with the start of your post.

Reply 68

rakata

Higgy90

toasters and kettles wont make a difference. if the microwave has a display then it will use a miniscule amount of power, otherwise no. it really isnt worth turning it off however.