Heating Effect of Electric Current

Question 1 What is meant by heating effect of current?

Question 2 Name few appliances which work on heating effect of current?

Question 3 Explain why filament type electric bulb are not power efficient?

Question 4 What will happen if fuse is not inserted in household electric wiring?

Question 5 Why any metal wire or metal strip cannot be used in place of fuse wire?

Question 6 When does an electric short circuit occur?

Question 7 Give few applications of heating effect of current?

Question 8 When does the overloading of a household electric circuit occur?

Question 9 Why nichrome wires are used in electrical appliances?

Question 10 Explain the working of Electric room heater?

Question 11 Explain the working of electric bulb?

Question 12 give few advantages of CFLs over filament type bulbs?

Effects of Electric Current

An electric current can produce three effects:

(1) Heating effect,

(2) Magnetic effect, and

(3) Chemical effect.

The degree to which a material opposes the passage of current through itself is called its resistance.

 

Copper and aluminium metals have very low electrical resistance whereas alloys such as nichrome have very high electrical resistance (Nichrome is an alloy of nickel, chromium, iron and manganese).

A wire made of a material having high electrical resistance is called a resistance wire. Thus, nichrome wire is resistance wire.

Heating effect of electric current

When an electric current is passed through a high resistance wire (like nichrome wire), the resistance wire becomes hot and produces heat. This is called the heating effect of current.

When an electric current passes through a high resistance wire, the electric energy gets converted into heat energy.This heat energy heats up the resistance wire.

Activity

(1) Take two iron nails and fix them some distance apart on a thermocol sheet (or a wooden block) .

(2) Take about 10 centimetre long piece of nichrome wire and tie it between the two nails. 

(3) Make an electric circuit by connecting the two nails to the two terminals of cell through a switch by using copper wires.

(4) Now pass the electric current in the circuit by moving the switch to ‘on’ position (by closing the gap). After a few seconds, touch the nichrome wire just for a moment.

(5) We will feel that the nichrome wire has become hot. The nichrome wire has become hot because the electric current passing through it has produced heat in it. This is the heating effect of current.

(6) We should not keep the switch in the ‘on’ position for a long time otherwise the electric cell will get damaged and become weak very quickly.

The amount of heat produced in a wire due to heating effect of current depends on two factors:

(1) Resistance of wire (This depends on material of wire , length of wire and thickness of wire).

(2) Magnitude of current passed through the wire.

Greater the resistance of a wire, greater will be the heat produced in it by a given current.

For example : Copper has a very low resistance, so if electric current is passed through a copper wire, then the heat produced in it will be extremely small (due to which the copper wire will become negligibly hot). The copper wires used for making electric circuits in science activities normally do not become hot on passing electric current because they have very low resistance (due to which the heat produced in them is negligible). 

Nichrome has a very high resistance so if the same electric current is passed through a nichrome wire, then the heat produced in it will be too much (due to which it will become very hot).The elements of electric heating appliances (such as electric room heater, electric iron, etc.) become very hot or red-hot on passing electric current because they have very high resistance (due to which the heat produced in them is very large).

 

A short wire has less resistance whereas a long wire has more resistance. Also, a thick wire has less resistance whereas a thin wire has more resistance.

Greater the magnitude of current passed through a given wire, greater will be the heat produced in it. A small current passing in a wire produces less heat but a large current passing through the same wire produces much more heat.

Applications of the Heating Effect of Current

Some of the important applications of the heating effect of current are given below:

(1) The heating effect of electric current is utilised in the working of electrical heating appliances such as electric room heater, electric iron, electric kettle, electric toaster, electric oven, water heater (geyser), immersion rod, and soldering iron, etc.

(2) The heating effect of electric current is utilised in electric bulbs (or electric lamps) for producing light.

(3)The heating effect of electric current is utilised in a safety device called ‘electric fuse’

Electric Heating Appliances

The electric heating appliances (such as electric room heater, electric iron, etc.) work on the heating effect of current. All the electric heating appliances contain coils of high resistance wire made of alloy. The coil of high resistance wire (or coil of nichrome wire) present in an electric heating appliance is called the heating element  of the appliance.

The part of electric heating appliance which ‘heats up’ on passing current is called heating element of the appliance.

When electric current is passed through an electric heating appliance by connecting it to a power socket through insulated copper wires (called cord’ or ‘connecting cable’), then a large amount of heat is produced in the heating element (or coil) due to which the heating element become red-hot.

A lot of heat is produced in the heating element because it is made of high resistance nichrome wire.A negligible heat is produced in the connecting wires of copper because copper has very low resistance.

The electric room heater (called convector) has an element made of a coil of nichrome wire.When current is switched on in an electric room heater after connecting to a socket of power supply line, the element (or coil) of heater becomes red-hot and gives out heat. The element becomes red-hot because a lot of heat is produced in it on passing current (because of the high resistance of nichrome coil). The cord of heater made of copper does not become red-hot or low because a negligible heat is produced in it on passing current (due to its extremely low resistance)

Similarly, when electric current is passed into an electric iron, the element of electric iron (made of nichrome coil) becomes red-hot and produces heat. This heat makes the button of electric iron hot. The hot electric iron is then used for ironing clothes.

The heating elements of most of the electric heating appliances (such as electric iron, electric kettle, electric geyser, electric oven, hotplates and hair dryers, etc.) cannot be seen by us because they are concealed inside the body of these appliances.

 

Electric Bulb

The electric bulb (or electric lamp) which we use for producing light works on the heating effect of electric current. The electric bulb has a very thin filament of tungsten metal. The filament of an electric bulb has a high resistance. When electric current passes through the very thin, high resistance filament of an electric bulb, heat is produced in it. Due to this the filament of electric bulb gets heated to a very high temperature and start glowing. A lot of electricity consumed by the filament of an electric bulb appears as heat due to which the glowing electric bulb becomes quite hot.We should never touch a glowing electric bulb connected to the mains electricity. It may be very hot and our hand may get burnt badly.

The same current flowing through the tungsten filament of an electric bulb produces enormous heat but almost negligible heat is produced in the connecting wires of copper. This is because the fine tungsten filament has very high resistance whereas copper connecting wires have very low resistance.

The production of heat by an electric bulb is not desirable because it leads to the wastage of electricity. So, the filament-type electric bulbs are not power efficient (because they waste a lot of electricity as heat).The wastage of electricity can be reduced by using fluorescent tube lights and Compact Fluorescent lamps (CFLs) for producing light (in place of filament-type electric bulbs.

Advantage of Compact Fluorescent lamps (CFLs)

(1) The fluorescent tube lights and Compact fluorescent lamps do not have filaments. So they do not waste electricity by producing heat and hence they are very power efficient.

(2) They can be fixed in ordinary bulb holders (which are used for traditional, filament-type electric bulbs).

A fluorescent tube light (or lamp) contains mercury vapour. The inside of glass tube is coated with an opaque, white material called phosphor. When a fluorescent tube light (or lamp is switched on and current passes through it, the mercury vapour emits invisible ultraviolet radiations and glows (or fluoresces) to emit white light. Though fluorescent tube lights and CFLs are initially more expensive to buy (than filament-type bulbs) but their running cost is much less (because they consume much less electricity), and they also last much longer.

Before buying any electrical appliance, we should look for the ISI mark of the Bureau of Indian Standards on the appliance (ISI stands for Indian Standards Institution). The ISI mark ensures that the appliance is safe and energy efficient (the wastage of energy being the minimum).

Electric Fuse (or Fuse)

A fuse is a safety device which prevents electric fires and damage to electrical appliances due to excessive flow of current. A fuse works on the heating effect of current.

Working

A fuse consists of a short length of a thin, tin-plated copper wire having low melting point. The thin fuse wire has a much greater resistance than the rest of the electric wiring in the house. So, when the current in a household circuit suddenly increases too much, then the thin fuse wire gets heated too much, melts and breaks the circuit (due to which current stops flowing in the circuit). This prevents fire in the house (which could be caused due to overheating of wires), and also prevents damage to various electrical appliances (like TV and refrigerator) due to a large current flowing through them.

Electric fuses are inserted in the wiring (or circuits) of all the houses and other buildings. The fuse consists of a porcelain fuse holder and a removable porcelain fuse grip.The fuse holder is connected in the household circuit The fuse grip has a fuse wire fixed in it. When the fuse grip carrying fuse wire is inserted in the fuse holder, then the circuit of household wiring is completed.

There is a maximum limit on the current which can flow safely through the fuse wire inserted in the household circuit. If due to some reason, the current in household wiring suddenly becomes too large (and exceeds the safe limit), then the fuse will blow off (its wire will get heated too much, melt and break the circuit). When the fuse wire breaks, electricity supply in the household wiring is automatically cut off before any damage can be done to the rest of wiring or to the electrical appliances being used.

If, however, there were no fuse in the household wiring, then the large current flowing through the ring could heat up the wires to very high temperatures and cause electric fires. The large current flowing through electrical appliances such as TV and refrigerator could also damage them.

When a fuse gets blown (or breaks), a new fuse has to be fitted in its place to restore the electricity supply in the household circuit.

We use a thin wire in a fuse because it has a much greater resistance than the rest of connecting wires. Due to its high resistance, the heating effect of current will be much more in the fuse wire than anywhere else in the circuit. The thickness of the fuse wire should be such that it is able to withstand only a little more current than drawn by the household circuit.

We should not use a thick wire as a fuse wire because it will have a low resistance and hence it will not get heated to its melting point easily.

The fuse wire is usually made from tin-plated copper wire having low melting point so that it may melt easily. A copper metal wire (or any other metal wire or metal strip) should not be used as a fuse wire because it has a high melting point due to which it will not melt easily when a large current passes through it.

 

Cause of Large Current flow

(1) Short Circuit

In household electric wiring, electric current is supplied through two insulated wires which run together and reach each and every electrical appliance. One insulated wire is called live wire and the other insulated wire is called neutral wire. Both these wires are necessary for the working of an electrical appliance. The touching of live wire and neutral directly is known as short circuit.