Basically, your electric heating appliances simply convert electrical energy to heat energy. But how exactly does that happen? What happens inside them once you turn on the switch? This is how our heating elements work made simple.

Everyone has a device that converts electrical energy to heat or thermal energy: from your electric stove to your smartphone battery. But what some of us would really love to learn is how the conversion happens. Today, we will look at what really happens inside an electronic device that converts electrical energy into heat energy.

Basically what happens in any electric heating equipment is the conversion of electrical energy to heat energy. Electrical energy is the energy carried by moving electrons in an electric conductor.

Thermal energy is energy that results from moving atoms or molecules and is commonly referred to as heat. In order to get this conversion, we will need a material with a good amount of resistance.

What the material does is to convert the electrical energy passed through it into heat. The material gets hot when electricity flows through it. Resistors resist the flow of current. But what generates heat is the current flowing through the material. ( We will see how this happens in the next few paragraphs.)

This material gets hot when a certain amount of heat is passed through it. That is why heaters, electric iron, etc draw a lot of current which also means a lot of voltage when used. You need a high amount of current to be able to overcome high resistance and from Ohm’s law, Resistance*Current = Voltage.

In an electric heater, a device with a reasonable amount of resistance and a high melting point is often used. A good example is Nichrome. A material that is a low conductor of heat might be needed between the nichrome (heater) and the rubber used for the product cover.

When [url=https://www.google.com/url?client=internal-element-cse&cx=partner-pub-3418958017988417:9753888053&q=https://earboard.com/blog/things-consider-buy-mtn-lumos-mobile-electricity-system/&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwj05LWy7ZTmAhXODOwKHVzqAAwQFjAAegQIBBAC&usg=AOvVaw0aec1pIlpBUhxxhPnBProC]electricity[/url] is passed through the heating element (could be a coil made from Nichrome), electrons flow – charge-carrying electrons flow ( that is, current produced).

The electrons flow well due to voltage that matches the resistance of the material or heating element. The resistance must be overcome. This explains why heaters zap a good amount of voltage. The flow causes the vibration of atoms in the material. Since Resistance is high and current (flow of electrons) is also high in the material, the vibration and collision increases rapidly and as a result, heat is also produced rapidly.

Heating elements like this have a high melting point and they don’t expand visibly because of heat which makes them very good for electric heaters. In straight materials, the required amount of heat for the devices might not be possible – considering the length of the material – so most heating elements are made into coils for increased length and maximum heat.

Written by Ekemini – [url=https://www.electronicsdiary.com/]Electronics Diary[/url]