Let's Talk About PARALLEL Circuits: Voltage, Current, Resistance, and Power

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Discovering the difference between Series Circuits, Parallel Circuits, and Combination Series-Parallel Circuits can be confusing for many residential and commercial electricians. In the ongoing series on circuits, Dustin will be talking about Parallel circuits in today’s episode of Electrician U.

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Try to think of a parallel circuit having the power source hit all the loads at once as opposed to a series circuit, where you must travel THROUGH one circuit to get to the next. There are also a few things that are different when it comes to the calculations between series circuits and parallel circuits. In a series circuit, voltage is dropped off at each load. In a parallel circuit the voltage is constant throughout the circuit. Current in a series circuit is constant throughout the circuit whereas in a parallel circuit, they are directly proportional to the resistance and additive overall. Resistance in a parallel circuit can be figured by using the inverse of the sum of inverses of each resistance. And lastly, power can be figured by using the formula P= Esquared/Rt.
Let’s try a problem and see if it works! 50v Power source, 2 resistive loads at 2 ohms (R1) and 4 ohms (R2) and R1 amperage is 25a and R2 amperage is 12.5a with an overall amperage of 37.5a. Using ohms law (E=IxR) we can see the following- R1 (25x2) = 50v and R2 (12.5x2) = 50v. Kirchhoff was correct! Amperage once again let’s look to the ohms law formula of I=E/Rn. So, for our first load we have 50v/2ohms = 25a and for our second load we have 50v/4ohms = 12.5a. Once again, the formulas do in fact work! Power is figured using the P=IxE for each load. So, for the R1 load 25 x 50 = 1250w and for the R2 load 12.5 x 50 = 625w. This wattage is also added together to give us an overall wattage of 1875w for the entire circuit.
Since we are dealing with 2 resistances only there are 2 ways to figure this. We can use the inverse of the sum of inverses mentioned above. So, 1/ (1/R1 + 1/R2) = 1/ (1/2 + ¼) = 1/.75 or 1.3 ohms of resistance. The other way (since we have only 2 resistances, it won’t work for any more than that) we can use the product over sum method (it’s a bit simpler!). This formula is Rt = R1xR2/R1+R2. So, for our problem that would be 2x4/2+4= 8/6 or 1.3 ohms.
So much like Series Circuits, we can see that Kirchhoff’s laws concerning Parallel Circuits are in fact correct. Now that we know the formulas for both series and parallel circuits, and have in fact proven them to be correct, it will make it much easier to understand combination circuits, which have elements of both Series and Parallel circuits.
We hope this has been helpful in understanding parallel circuits. Is there a topic you would like to see discussed on Electrician U? Leave us a comment in the comments section and let us know. Please continue to follow Dustin and Electrician U as we are constantly updating our content to assist our followers in becoming the best electricians that they can be.