HOW ELECTRICITY GETS TO YOUR HOME
From power plant to plug socket, follow the journey electricity takes before it reaches our homes
WORDSSCOTT DUTFIELD
DID YOU KNOW?
In 1878, Cragside in England was the first home lit by electricity
I n the UK, the average household uses around 2,700 kilowatt-hours of power each year. The majority of power stations produce electricity through a principle called electromagnetic induction. First demonstrated by Michael Faraday in 1831, electromagnetic induction uses a moving magnet and a conductor, such as copper wire, to induce an electrical charge. This works because when the magnet moves around inside the coil, it generates a ‘potential difference’, otherwise known as a voltage, between the ends of the coil along with the current. Voltage can be thought of as the electrical pressure that drives the flow of electrical charges, whereas ‘current’ is the actual rate of flow of that charge.