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November 13th 04, 04:39 AM

On Fri, 12 Nov 2004 13:56:34 GMT, (Don
Pearce) wrote:

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?

You don't get billed for current, you get billed for energy - in the
UK the measure is the kilowatt hour. Multiply your voltage by your
current instant by instant, take the average (gives you power) and
multiply that by the duration in hours and you have your consumption.

Er, ????

You get billed for "Power Consumed" which is covered under the
umbrella of "Energy". Now POWER is consumed when a voltage potential
causes a current to flow in a circuit. If that circuit happens to be
through a heater or refrigerator then CURRENT flows. Since the supply
voltage is constant (or should be) then the load requirement
determines the current which flows and in some cases it will be small
and in others it will be large. Now since CURRENT x VOLTAGE = POWER,
you do get charged for CURRENT usage and the amount you get charged
varies dependant upon how much current flows and for how long.

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