Basic Household Electrical Parts & Materials

1. Electric Meter

First in the list of common electrical parts you see everyday is the Electric
meter. It is used by the national electricity grid to measure the units of
electrical energy used in your household circuits. Yeah, that’s how they find
the amount you need to pay for your electricity bill per month.

Kilowatt hour (kWh) is an energy unit.

Disc & Digital Electric Meters

Suppose you have a 1000W electrical appliance in your house and you have
to use this appliance for one hour everyday. Then the electrical energy
consumed is one kilowatt-hour per day. Electric Meter calculate this
consumed electric energy through the circular disc fixed in it.

When you use electricity, this circular disc starts to rotate which records the
number of electrical energy units used by you. If you look closer inside the
meter, you can see there are digits moving at the same time when the
circular disc rotates.

Electricity grid company uses that meter readings to create your monthly
electricity bill every 30 days or so.
1 kWh = Amount of Watt x Number of hours used / 1000
1 Unit = 1kWh

2. Fuse

Few Types of Fuses

A fuse is an electrical part which you can’t see as it’s always inside a plug or
an electrical device such as TV.

Basically fuses are used to protect electrical appliances, parts and electronic
components from potential damage due to a high current – Ampere –
flowing in the circuit.

This electrical part is a small length thin wire created using lead and tin alloy.
These days fuse wire is commonly seen in a glass tube for easy use. There
are different fuse wires with the ability to conduct certain maximum currents
such as 3A, 5A, 13A and 15A.
Couple of Fuse Holders

Yes, that’s for the domestic electrical circuits, fuses for the commercial
systems can go as high as 300,000A. When designing the circuit diagram
the circuit designers use various symbols. Do you know which symbol
represents a fuse?

It’s this symbol ⏛ where you strike a small rectangle box that represent the
electrical part protecting your electrical devices – Fuse!
This is the Fuse Symbol

Curious on how exactly a simple wire do the protection duty without

the muscles?

When electrical current flows through the circuit exceeding the rated ampere
value of the fuse, the thin wire melts down (fuses) thanks to heating effect of
electric current and in return makes the closed-circuit an open-circuit. As you
already guessed, open-circuits never flow electrical current, hence the
current flow is cut down suddenly while protecting the appliance and other
electrical parts & components.

In other words, fuse is kind of a superhero which saves the day by sacrificing
itself for the greater good.

This is why when the fuse goes down, you need to replace same value and
same size of fuse. This is also a safety rule. Want to know more electrical
safety rules?

When a fuse goes down, it’s gone forever. Since replacing

fuses seem annoying, a new electrical part was created to avoid such
complications.

This component is a miniature circuit breaker and it looks like a switch

consisting various ampere values. Circuit breakers function similar to fuses.
In the event of an exceeding current flow than the rated ampere value, the
switch opens and stops the current, instead of melting anything or dying
forever. The circuit can be connected again by closing the switch.

3. Distribution Box

Distribution Box Includes These Electrical Parts

Distribution box is another easy to notice electrical part in your home. It

consists 3 more electrical parts, namely,

 Main Switch (MCCB – Moulded Case Circuit Breaker)

 Trip Switch (RCCB – Residual Current Circuit Breaker)
 Circuit Breakers (CBs )

As the name implies, Distribution Box simply distributes the electric supply
to sections of the house. These sections contain light circuits [Light
Switches + Light Bulbs], fan circuits [Fan Regulator + Fan] and plug
socket circuits.

In each of these circuits the Live Wire is connected to a circuit

breaker which will be explained in a moment.

4. Main Switch (MCCB)

You know every house or commercial building has a distribution box which is
where the Main Switch is located. It’s the first electrical part receiving the
electricity from the electric meter inside your house. Therefore the Main
Switch is the responsible part to take down the electricity throughout the
house as required.

Often useful while upgrading house wiring and when thundering & lightning
to disconnect the supply.

Single & Three-phase Main Switches

There are 2 wires inside the cable coming from the electric meter
namely Live Wire and Neutral Wire. These 2 wires are then connected to
the Main Switch. While the main switch is OFF the electric supply is stopped
by disconnecting the two wires.

Yes, you read it right.

Remember, current flows only when the circuit is closed, hence the current
flows specifically when the Main Switch is ON. That’s why you need to OFF
the Main Switch to disconnect the power. Quite the other way around than
the usual “switch on”. Right?

5. Trip Switch (RCCB)

Different Trip Switch Brands

Remember the fuse I explained earlier? Just like a fuse, protecting people
and electrical appliances is the primary goal of the Trip Switch, an electric
switch designed to interrupt a circuit suddenly & automatically.

However, it’s not a fuse, but a type of circuit breaker. This electrical part’s
common name is Trip Switch while the technical term is RCCB – Residual
Current Circuit Breaker. Trip Switch is there to help you multiple times
compared to a fuse.
Electric current coming from the Main Switch connects to the Trip Switch via
Live & Neutral Wires.

If there is a fault in any of the circuits in the house this switch

opens (Trip) automatically and disconnects the power supply. For example,
when someone gets electrocuted or when your house become a target of a
lightning attack. Since the Trip Switch is so useful, it comes with a Test
Button letting you check if it works as expected.

Working Principle of RCCB

How It Works – Trip Switch!

Residual Current Circuit Breakers work by comparing the current entering

the appliance via the live wire with the current leaving the appliance through
the neutral wire. This difference in electrical current is called the residual
current. RCCB Tripping current commonly 30mA (0.03A) or 100mA (0.1A),
depending on the country it will change.

RCCB consists of,

 Primary coil
 Secondary coil
 Trip coil

Always Primary coil and Secondary coil will sense the load current (IL and
IN). When the circuit is OK the IL=IN, then trip coil will not get any
current (IL-IN=0A) to energize the trip coil.

When the circuit Not OK the IL>IN, it means the trip coil will get some
amount of current (IL-IN=3A). If IL-IN exceeding the RCCB tripping
current, Trip coil energized and RCCB immediately trip.

It can happen due to a fault in the circuit Or when earth leakage current
exceeds the value of tripping current of the RCCB.
6. Wall Switches

No wonder you have switched the switches thousands of times. Wall

Switches are among the top consumed electrical parts list in any place that
uses electricity.

Single, Two & Three Gang Wall Switches

Switches are used in light circuits and plug socket circuits to connect or
disconnect the circuit according to the will of the individual.

There are different types of wall switches such as Push Button, Press Button,
Toggle and Rocker while the latter is the universal light switch used on most
houses these days. Then there are single, double, triple, quadruple as well as
quintuple wall switches.

Electricians can attach multiple lights to a single switch as long as the

current rating of the switch is not exceeded, for example all outdoor lights
can be attached to a single switch letting you light up them at once easily.

7. Plug Sockets

Plug sockets are used to get electric supply for appliances like computers,
electrical heaters, televisions, refrigerators and whatever electrical device
you’ve been using.
Plug Sockets With Various Types of Sockets

Do you know that Plug Base is another name used to refer Plug Sockets? if
you didn’t, now you know!

There are plug sockets to get 5A, 13A or 15A current. Similar to wall
switches, there are different types of Plug Sockets based on pin type such as
two-pin plugs and three-pin plugs where the 3rd pin is for Earth Wire. To
get these connections, electricians use two core wires and three core wires.

Plug Sockets come with a switch for extra protection, so you don’t get
electrocuted or harm your appliances while plugging. For safety, you need to
OFF the switch before plugging any plugs.

8. Electrical Wires & Cables

Electrical wires are used to transport electric current, be that from electric
meter to distribution box to power outlets (Plug sockets), all things get the
supply through various electrical wires.

There are 3 types of electrical wires,

1. Live Wire
2. Neutral Wire
3. Earth Wire
Each of the above wires contain different color codes depending on the
country and in here Sri Lanka we have following wire color codes.

Wires with Red or Brown colors are used for live connections, so those are
the Live Wires. Then the wires with Blue or Black colors are used for neutral
connections, so they are the Neutral Wires. If you see a Green or Yellow-
Green wire, remember they are used for earth connections, which means
those are the Earth Wires.

Household circuits are designed by using various types of wires as explained

above. Electrical cable is formed when all these 3 wires or at least the crucial
2 [Live & Neutral] wires are insulated with rubber or plastic cover. Here
are more important details about electrical wires.

AREA OF CROSS RATED

WIRE
SECTION OF THE MAXIMUM COLORS USE CASES
CODE
WIRE (MM2) CURRENT (A)

Red Or – Lamp Circuits

1/1.13 1.0mm2 11A
Black – 5A Plug Base Circuits

Red Or
7/0.50 1.5mm 2
15A – 15A Plug Base Circuits
Black

Red Or
7/0.85 4mm 2
24A – Power cable from Electric
Black
Pole → Electric Meter →
Red Or
7/1.04 6mm2 31A Distribution Box
Black

9. Two Way Switches

Two way switches are the last electrical part explained in this article. It’s a
bit different than the normal wall switches in terms of how it operates.

These switches are used to operate a light from two different places. Normal
wall switches only has 2 connections, while Two Way switches got 3
connections.
Couple of ways Two Way switches are used,

 When you need to ON and OFF a light bulb in a staircase from top as
well as bottom.
 To ON and OFF a light bulb outside your door, when you go out at
night.

For example, in the 2nd instance, you ON the switch while you inside the
house and then you lock the door once outside. Now you want to OFF the
switch, how do you do that? Talk to Barry Allen to get the powers of going
through matter? Nope!

You setup a Two Way switch outside the house and you OFF it there.

Wrapping Up The Common House Electric

Circuit
Okay, this section wraps up how all the electrical parts explained above is
used in the common house electric circuit.

It all starts with the place where the electricity is generated. Then the
electricity is transmitted through high power service cables. In Sri Lanka, first
level is 66,000 voltage, then it steps down to 33,000 voltage and then
again to 11,000 voltage.

From the 11K voltage, Three-phase starts which is what you usually see in
the road. It contains 3 Live Wires and 1 Neutral Wire. Three-phase is the
reason why your house can face a power cut while some of the houses in
your block or area don’t.

Main wire coming from the electric pole first is connected to the electric
meter in your house. From the electric meter the Main Wire is connected to
the Main Switch and then through the Trip Switch to the Circuit Breakers in
the Distribution Box. Circuits to various sections of the house starts from the
Circuit Breakers.

Here’s a common house wiring circuit.