Energy in the Home

Most of us live in homes that have reliable electricity connections all the time, so we don’t even need to think about where that electricity comes from or how it works. We just switch on the lights without a second thought! In this scene, you can look a little closer at a house filled with electrical appliances and find out just how much power they’re using – and how that energy gets into the home in the first place.

# Learning objectives

1: Be able to describe how electricity is supplied to homes{.info}

2: Be able to describe how electricity is supplied to household appliances{.info}

3: Be able to explain why appliances need different amounts of energy{.info}

# Connecting to the Grid{.objective .objective1}

In this section students can learn that most homes get their electrical power from a big system of connections we call the power grid (in the UK – where our scene is based – it’s called the National Grid). Exploring the scene, various examples of electrical appliances have been modelled to show their connection in the home. Observations should allow student to identify that the source of electricity comes from the National Grid.

# Wall or Battery?{.objective .objective2}

In this section there is an explanation detailing the differences between wall powered and battery powered devices. In this activity students are asked to enter the scene to see how many appliances they can locate in this scene that are powered from the wall, how many need charging, and how many might use replaceable batteries. Students should consider which appliances can be purchased in a battery-powered version and which do they think wouldn’t be practical to run from a battery?

# How Much Power?{.objective .objective3}

In this section students can learn that when you plug in a socket to the wall, the potential difference between the live and neutral wires inside it matches the voltage coming from the house’s supply (in the UK, 230V) and that the power consumed by each appliance depends on how much energy it needs to keep running. A worked example will provided along wit the equation for students to calculate the current drawn by different appliances, to show how much energy is needed per unit of time.

# Teacher Resources

### Download Teacher Notes

[](https://data.avncloud.com/activities/791893/files/Energy%20in+the+Home+Teacher+Notes+Only.pdf?date=1675944027&size=823447&md5=a90b768bd57d52094743ee153c090e98)

### Student Quiz Answers Document

[](https://data.avncloud.com/activities/791895/files/Energy%20in+the+Home+Quiz+Answers.pdf?date=1675944285&size=500976&md5=3caedbbdb179c3575c1ecce80ca0fb7d)

### Download Student Quiz Document

[](https://data.avncloud.com/activities/791897/files/Energy%20in+the+Home+Quiz+Only.pdf?date=1675944394&size=95477&md5=5ad4d24f826cac596a25301a8409caf4)