On Fri, 12 Nov 2004 13:42:19 +0000, Paul Burridge
wrote:

The power company run a line to my house. They supply me with
electricity. This amounts to a 230V, 65A facility at the distribution
board in a cupboard under the stairs. I run all my stuff from that
board. The board contains several RCBOs that trip-out in the event of
any leakage current being sensed. If current in = current out; they're
happy and won't trip. Because they don't trip out, I conclude I don't
use any current.
The voltage supplied is 230VAC RMS. Since this is alternating between
equal positive and negative half-cycles, the average level of this
voltage supply is zero.
I use no current and they effectively supply no voltage. Why do I get
billed for electricity usage when I clearly can't have used any?

---
For a purely resistive load, since P = I²R, the sign of the current
going into the load gets squared, so that when it goes in negative it
comes out positive.

For a reactive load, you don't get charged for the imaginary current,
(at least in the US we don't) so you get charged for what you use.

--
John Fields

On Fri, 12 Nov 2004 09:57:13 -0600, John Fields
wrote:

For a purely resistive load, since P = I²R, the sign of the current
going into the load gets squared, so that when it goes in negative it
comes out positive.

Seems like there's an opportunity for free energy kooks there.
Put positive and negative current in alternately, averaging zero,
but get all positive power. :-)