Question

Describe the type of connection (series or parallel) that you feel is the most adequate for the electrical outlets in a residence. If you have any experiences with the electrical wiring in a residence, explain and discuss them.

Answer 1

In a residence almost all home appliances are connected in parallel. This is done:

• To provide the same voltage across all of them, as in Parallel they share the same live and neutral wire across them so same voltage across them.
• To individually control them. You can use individual switch and fuse for each appliance.
• Make them independent of other devices because in series one failed device will result in stopping all the devices in that particular series.
• Often times different home appliances are of different type and they consume different power resulting in different voltage drop across them which will make it impossible for many devices to be working in series.(If we consider different resistive load on series,the voltage drop will be different for different loads) For example you can’t use a 1800W water heater in series with a 25W table lamp, that heater will have so little voltage across it that it will never work.

Few exceptions are that, when connecting Fuses, it should be connected in series and other circuit breakers and circuit current indicators should be connected in series in the circuit.