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The More You Know: Trivia About Electricity

Everyone is talking about electrical power these days, with the cost of fuel being so high and more demand than ever on New York City’s power grid. Want to join the conversation? Here’s some interesting trivia about electricity that you can use to liven up the chat. And some of it may even remind you about the choices you have to consume less power and save money as a property owner or manager.

Electricity Through History

Before Franklin

We like to think of America’s Benjamin Franklin as the “discoverer” of electricity. But while the famous statesman and inventor did experiment with electricity and invent the lightning rod, humans were aware of it long before that.

Early man saw electricity in action with lightning strikes from the sky, although they didn’t know what it was. Ancient people were later able to harness the power of charged particles by using various animals for their benefit. Some fish species, for example, developed electric cells to use for light in deep, dark water or for echolocation. Humans would catch these fish, along with electric rays and eels, and apply them to the body for therapy, such as for headaches, long before the advent of more advanced medicine.

It makes sense that using electricity could alter health, since the body is largely water (a superior conductor of electricity) and has its own current systems in the heart and nerves. Although it’s less in favor than it was decades ago, electroconvulsive therapy is still used today to treat depression and other forms of mental illness. Other forms of applied electricity commonly used in healthcare today include:

• Implantable pacemakers to make the heart beat
• External defibrillators to stop cardiac arrhythmia
• TENS units and electric stimulators for pain control
• Vagus nerve stimulators to treat anxiety, IBS, and other conditions

Early domestic electricity

New York City was a key location in the development of electricity for use in everyday life in the late 19th century. Our city was one of the first to have streetlights and electricity in buildings, thanks to the power generator built by Thomas Edison. By the way, while Edison is usually credited with inventing the light bulb, he actually improved on existing models so they could be used in practical settings.

Some of the earliest home conveniences powered by electricity include the toaster, fan, and sewing machine. One issue we see frequently in New York City pre-war buildings is electrical wiring that was designed to handle these first electrical devices but hasn’t been upgraded much to handle our current use, like air conditioning and powerful kitchen appliances.

Modern Day Electricity

Appliance knowledge

Those appliance demands can be huge in some cases. Did you know that every year, refrigerators alone in the US consume as much energy as is produced by 25 large power plants? Here’s some more appliance and electronics trivia:

• The rule of thumb today is that a contemporary refrigerator uses about one-fourth the energy of one from 20 or 30 years ago. So replace those outdated fridges to save on your utility bills!
• Microwaves use more energy to run their clocks than they do to heat food.
• Appliances can use electricity even when they’re switched off. You can see if yours are energy hogs by using an easy plug-in voltage meter.
• Are you into gaming? The average gaming system uses many times the amount of electricity as a laptop, even when it’s sitting idle.
• Just one ceiling fixture can consume thousands of dollars in electricity in its lifetime of providing light. To help reduce that amount, switch from incandescent bulbs to LED models, which last longer and run for less. Why? Because these bulbs don’t produce heat with the electricity they use, which radically reduces their power consumption.

Electricity Fun Facts

General knowledge to share and amaze

It’s not just sea creatures that are electrified in the animal kingdom. Platypuses and echidnas have tens of thousands of electroreceptors in their bills, which they use to find food. How do geckos manage to climb straight up those walls? They possess electrostatic forces in their toe pads; the difference in charge between their feet and another surface allows them to stick as if they were made with Velcro.

Electricity travels at the speed of light, or about 186,000 miles per second. While lightning from the sky doesn’t move quite that fast, as there are other factors in its formation and in the atmosphere that slow it down, it still strikes quite quickly and faster than the speed of sound. By the time you hear thunder, the associated lightning has usually already passed. Don’t tempt fate. At the first sight or sounds of an electrical storm, seek shelter, and don’t make it under a tree, which might be called “nature’s lightning rod.”

Silver is actually a better conductor than copper, but it’s not as durable or practical in today’s electrical applications. So, we use copper wire instead, usually insulated with rubber. Rubber doesn’t conduct electricity well, and it can be easily molded around metal wires.

Insulation is vital when protecting yourself from shock and electrocution (originally a portmanteau of “electric” and “execution.” You don’t want to find yourself on the wrong end of a taser or stun gun. These devices can deliver 50,000 volts in a shock to their targets to induce paralysis and cause pain. Although that’s not the equivalent of the 300,000 volts that come from a deadly lightning strike, it can still result in long-term health consequences or death for people with certain medical problems.

How many Google searches do you do in a day? Each average search uses 0.3 watt-hours of electricity. Google uses 250 million total watts per day, 12.5 of which are dedicated to searches, which number over a billion.

Want to save 0.3 watt-hours? Skip the Google search and call Bolt Electric when you need assistance with wiring, switches, light fixtures, and other electrical repairs and upgrades. Call us at 212-434-0098 today to schedule an appointment.