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Folks, I don't mind telling you that this has been a hard article to write. So hard in fact that I've avoided writing it for years. Why? Because electricity is hard to explain, and most of the time the explanations leave you with more confusion than you started with.
Here's the most common explanation of how electricity works, from HowStuffWorks:
This is a great way to start a 9th grade term paper but it doesn't leave you with any real deep understanding of what you need to know. It's not technically untrue but it's not going to help you in the field. I'm going to try to give you some information that's going to actually let you use these terms with some comfort.
Generally, volts have to be constant. That's a useful thing to know about them, as opposed to thinking that they are like water pressure. Here in the US most outlets give you something close to 110 volts. Commercial equipment works on 220 volts and things that plug into USB work on 5 volts.
If you have too much voltage you will burn out the equipment you have connected. If you don't have enough, the equipment won't work right. At the very least it will be flaky and it's possible it won't work at all.
When you see the lights dim during a brownout, they're not getting enough voltage. If a circuit breaker fails in your home, you get inconsistent voltage through it and that can make things go on and off, and sometimes break.
Amps are a measure of current. Everyone says that as if it explains everything and you don't need to ask any more questions.
It's more important to know that amps aren't usually constant. If a device needs more energy it will naturally draw more amperage. Things like turning an electric motor or heating up the air are hard to do (compared to something like running a phone or a watch) and so they take more amps.
If you can't supply enough amps one of two things will happen. The most common thing is that your circuit breaker will flip. A circuit breaker is a special form of switch that flips by itself if a specific condition is met. That condition is simple: too many amps flowing through the line.
The other possibility is that mechanical equipment will fail. It's like if you haven't eaten too much and then you go exercise. Your body can't supply enough power for your muscles to work and so you get faint.
The danger of too many amps is that your wiring will melt, there will be sparks and there will be a fire. That, as they say, is bad.
I'm only mentioning ohms because HowStuffWorks does. Ohms are a measure of resistance which, in my experience, is almost impossible for humans to understand properly. All measures of electricity are tied together so that if you know how many volts and amps you have, you can calculate ohms. If you know how many volts and ohms you have, you can calculate amps, etc.
You will generally not ever have to worry about ohms except when looking at the impedance of cables, which is a completely different thing.
Watts are like the holy grail of electricity knowledge. Watts are going to be the number you use when you're really figuring out how much power something needs. Why? Because the formula for watts is simple.
So, a watt gives you a measure of how much real electricity is being used by a real thing. You probably first noticed watt measurements with light bulbs. Back before LEDs and all, the watt measurement told you how bright the bulb would be. Why? Because there was a direct measurement between how much power the bulb drew and its brightness. Today with LED and CF bulbs it's hard to draw that same line. Luckily watts are used in a lot of other ways too.
Power supplies measure their output in watts. Sometimes you see amps used in this way as well, expecially with mobile products. I'm not quite sure what that is, but it doesn't really matter. To get watts when looking at mobile devices, multiply amps by 5 since all mobile devices work off 5 volts.
Watts are useful for another reason… you're generally charged by the watt when you get your electric bill. Actually the measurement you see is kWh, meaning kilowatthours. A killowatthour is a measure that says, you used 1,000 watts of power in one hour. Or, you used 4,000 watts for 15 minutes. Whatever fraction or multiple of time it takes you to use 1,000 watts, that's the number of kWh you used.
And you're billed by the kWh. Depending on where you live, you're probably billed somewhere between a dime and 40 cents per kWh.
So, if you want to know how much that phone is costing you to charge, or how much you're paying to leave that light on, here's the way you do that.
Your typical low end phone charger uses 6 watts while charging and practically nothing while not charging. So if you were charging all month, 24 hours a day for 30 days, that's 6 x 24 x 30. In other words, 4,320 watthours (6 watts x 720 hours.)
4,320 watthours = 4.32 kilowatthours, because you divide by 1,000. If you're paying 15 cents per kilowatthour, your charger would cost you about 65 cents to charge your phone if you literally charged it constantly for a month. More likely, you use your charger about 2 hours a day, so 60 hours a month. That's 360 watthours, .36 kilowatthours, or 5.4 cents per month.
In other words, don't worry about charging your phone.
The post Volts, Amps, and Watts — How should you measure electricity? appeared first on The Solid Signal Blog.
Continue reading...
Is electricity really like water?
Here's the most common explanation of how electricity works, from HowStuffWorks:
This is a great way to start a 9th grade term paper but it doesn't leave you with any real deep understanding of what you need to know. It's not technically untrue but it's not going to help you in the field. I'm going to try to give you some information that's going to actually let you use these terms with some comfort.
Volts
Generally, volts have to be constant. That's a useful thing to know about them, as opposed to thinking that they are like water pressure. Here in the US most outlets give you something close to 110 volts. Commercial equipment works on 220 volts and things that plug into USB work on 5 volts.
If you have too much voltage you will burn out the equipment you have connected. If you don't have enough, the equipment won't work right. At the very least it will be flaky and it's possible it won't work at all.
When you see the lights dim during a brownout, they're not getting enough voltage. If a circuit breaker fails in your home, you get inconsistent voltage through it and that can make things go on and off, and sometimes break.
Amps
Amps are a measure of current. Everyone says that as if it explains everything and you don't need to ask any more questions.
It's more important to know that amps aren't usually constant. If a device needs more energy it will naturally draw more amperage. Things like turning an electric motor or heating up the air are hard to do (compared to something like running a phone or a watch) and so they take more amps.
If you can't supply enough amps one of two things will happen. The most common thing is that your circuit breaker will flip. A circuit breaker is a special form of switch that flips by itself if a specific condition is met. That condition is simple: too many amps flowing through the line.
The other possibility is that mechanical equipment will fail. It's like if you haven't eaten too much and then you go exercise. Your body can't supply enough power for your muscles to work and so you get faint.
The danger of too many amps is that your wiring will melt, there will be sparks and there will be a fire. That, as they say, is bad.
Ohms
I'm only mentioning ohms because HowStuffWorks does. Ohms are a measure of resistance which, in my experience, is almost impossible for humans to understand properly. All measures of electricity are tied together so that if you know how many volts and amps you have, you can calculate ohms. If you know how many volts and ohms you have, you can calculate amps, etc.
You will generally not ever have to worry about ohms except when looking at the impedance of cables, which is a completely different thing.
Watts
Watts are like the holy grail of electricity knowledge. Watts are going to be the number you use when you're really figuring out how much power something needs. Why? Because the formula for watts is simple.
So, a watt gives you a measure of how much real electricity is being used by a real thing. You probably first noticed watt measurements with light bulbs. Back before LEDs and all, the watt measurement told you how bright the bulb would be. Why? Because there was a direct measurement between how much power the bulb drew and its brightness. Today with LED and CF bulbs it's hard to draw that same line. Luckily watts are used in a lot of other ways too.
Power supplies measure their output in watts. Sometimes you see amps used in this way as well, expecially with mobile products. I'm not quite sure what that is, but it doesn't really matter. To get watts when looking at mobile devices, multiply amps by 5 since all mobile devices work off 5 volts.
Watts are useful for another reason… you're generally charged by the watt when you get your electric bill. Actually the measurement you see is kWh, meaning kilowatthours. A killowatthour is a measure that says, you used 1,000 watts of power in one hour. Or, you used 4,000 watts for 15 minutes. Whatever fraction or multiple of time it takes you to use 1,000 watts, that's the number of kWh you used.
And you're billed by the kWh. Depending on where you live, you're probably billed somewhere between a dime and 40 cents per kWh.
Here's an example
So, if you want to know how much that phone is costing you to charge, or how much you're paying to leave that light on, here's the way you do that.
- Find the watts used by the device. It's usually on the power supply.
- Figure out how long you keep it on. If it's on all week, that's 168 hours.
- Multiply watts by how many hours it's on all month.
- Divide that number into 1,000.
Your typical low end phone charger uses 6 watts while charging and practically nothing while not charging. So if you were charging all month, 24 hours a day for 30 days, that's 6 x 24 x 30. In other words, 4,320 watthours (6 watts x 720 hours.)
4,320 watthours = 4.32 kilowatthours, because you divide by 1,000. If you're paying 15 cents per kilowatthour, your charger would cost you about 65 cents to charge your phone if you literally charged it constantly for a month. More likely, you use your charger about 2 hours a day, so 60 hours a month. That's 360 watthours, .36 kilowatthours, or 5.4 cents per month.
In other words, don't worry about charging your phone.
The post Volts, Amps, and Watts — How should you measure electricity? appeared first on The Solid Signal Blog.
Continue reading...
5 Replies
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579 views
TWiT Tech Podcast Network
Time for another AWESOME video from the TWIT Network!
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n43A0sNukCg
Direct YouTube Link - SpaceX Seeks to Conduct 450 Starship Launches a Year in Texas!
TWIT's Website
TWIT Live Feed
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n43A0sNukCg
Direct YouTube Link - SpaceX Seeks to Conduct 450 Starship Launches a Year in Texas!
TWIT's Website
TWIT Live Feed
0 Replies
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5 views
Staff member
HERE TO HELP YOU!
Cutting Edge
Sometimes a thread gets so many posts in it that is can cause issues for the server so that why today we introduce The Song Name Game Part 3!
So let the game continue!
The last song was added by Bobby who posted...
One Meat Ball - Andrews Sisters
CONTINUE ON AND HAVE FUN! WELCOME HOME TO SATELLITEGUYS.US!
Here are the original rules for the game as posted by WebbyDude back in 2006. http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads/68645-Song-Name-Game
Just name a song title and the band who performed it. The next person does the same thing, but needs to list a song title or band name which includes a word from the previous entry. Pick songs from any genre.
Example:
Long Live Rock and Roll -- Rainbow
Rainbow in the Dark -- Dio
Another example:
Ride the Lightning -- Metallica
Lightning Strikes -- Ozzy Osbourne
Get it?
An additional note: we all know that song titles, sometimes, use profane words. Because this is a family friendly website it is advised that you clean up that title up a bit. This is accomplished by using something like sh!t instead of the real word. Thanks....
So let the game continue!
The last song was added by Bobby who posted...
One Meat Ball - Andrews Sisters
CONTINUE ON AND HAVE FUN! WELCOME HOME TO SATELLITEGUYS.US!
Here are the original rules for the game as posted by WebbyDude back in 2006. http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads/68645-Song-Name-Game
Just name a song title and the band who performed it. The next person does the same thing, but needs to list a song title or band name which includes a word from the previous entry. Pick songs from any genre.
Example:
Long Live Rock and Roll -- Rainbow
Rainbow in the Dark -- Dio
Another example:
Ride the Lightning -- Metallica
Lightning Strikes -- Ozzy Osbourne
Get it?
An additional note: we all know that song titles, sometimes, use profane words. Because this is a family friendly website it is advised that you clean up that title up a bit. This is accomplished by using something like sh!t instead of the real word. Thanks....
68506 Replies
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2671310 views
Marques Brownlee
Time for another AWESOME video from Marques Brownlee!
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scwlR0QHGOk
Direct YouTube Link - The NEW Tesla Roadster: My Honest Reaction
The official MKBHD Website!
The MKBHD Store
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scwlR0QHGOk
Direct YouTube Link - The NEW Tesla Roadster: My Honest Reaction
The official MKBHD Website!
The MKBHD Store
0 Replies
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5 views
iJustine
Time for another AWESOME video from iJustine!
View: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/m44iKsdN1-Q
Direct YouTube Link - NVIDIA RTX Spark launch party!!!
The official iJustine Website's Website
Buy her book!
View: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/m44iKsdN1-Q
Direct YouTube Link - NVIDIA RTX Spark launch party!!!
The official iJustine Website's Website
Buy her book!
0 Replies
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17 views
For quite a while now, people with a VIP211k have been losing their recordings on their activated external HDDs... even when there's nothing physically wrong with HDD. I believe this is an intentional and underhanded tactic that Dish is pulling in an attempt to force users away from the VIP211k.
They are obviously regretting that they ever let users have a "non-dvr" dvr in the first place. You would think they would be happy charging you a $40 one time fee... and then be happy letting the customer be the one responsible for HDD failures.
Dish clearly hates the 211k bitter-clingers. This recording deletion problem is intentional (IMO), and I think it is just one more tool that they are using. Hopper and a 2-year agreement... that's what they want you to have. Think about that... a 2-year agreement... with a company $30 Billion in debt (that's with a B). What happens when all that debt causes them to drop the channel that may have been your whole reason for having Dish in the first place? Guess who's stuck with a service that no longer suits their needs... for the remainder of the 2-year agreement.
On top of that, they don't want you to install it yourself. I purchased and installed all my equipment myself. That used to be common. Now, they lie to me and tell me that my dish must be updated to use a Hopper. Funny thing is... they don't even know what dish I have because they didn't install it, and I didn't tell them. If you ask what type of dish/LNBs the hopper needs... good luck getting an answer. All they know is that whatever you have needs to be upgraded by an installer.
It is quite apparent to me that they care much more about staying in their box, than they do working with the customer. That's too bad, because it hasn't always been that way. It's like they are totally unaware of the current business environment that they are trying to compete in.
I have been a customer since 2010. I will be cancelling my service before the next period. Yeah, I know, my $1,200 a year won't make a difference to them. It just seems like they have forgotten who needs who, especially when you consider the competition in today's streaming world. But hey, they will have succeed in forcing me off the 211k.
They are obviously regretting that they ever let users have a "non-dvr" dvr in the first place. You would think they would be happy charging you a $40 one time fee... and then be happy letting the customer be the one responsible for HDD failures.
Dish clearly hates the 211k bitter-clingers. This recording deletion problem is intentional (IMO), and I think it is just one more tool that they are using. Hopper and a 2-year agreement... that's what they want you to have. Think about that... a 2-year agreement... with a company $30 Billion in debt (that's with a B). What happens when all that debt causes them to drop the channel that may have been your whole reason for having Dish in the first place? Guess who's stuck with a service that no longer suits their needs... for the remainder of the 2-year agreement.
On top of that, they don't want you to install it yourself. I purchased and installed all my equipment myself. That used to be common. Now, they lie to me and tell me that my dish must be updated to use a Hopper. Funny thing is... they don't even know what dish I have because they didn't install it, and I didn't tell them. If you ask what type of dish/LNBs the hopper needs... good luck getting an answer. All they know is that whatever you have needs to be upgraded by an installer.
It is quite apparent to me that they care much more about staying in their box, than they do working with the customer. That's too bad, because it hasn't always been that way. It's like they are totally unaware of the current business environment that they are trying to compete in.
I have been a customer since 2010. I will be cancelling my service before the next period. Yeah, I know, my $1,200 a year won't make a difference to them. It just seems like they have forgotten who needs who, especially when you consider the competition in today's streaming world. But hey, they will have succeed in forcing me off the 211k.
168 Replies
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7500 views
Pub Member / Supporter
Lifetime Supporter
Has anyone subscribed to NBA League Pass for 2026-27 and try to link their account to NBA.com to stream League Pass? I purchased it for 2026-27, and when I linked, I got a message saying success, but then I receive an error that my linked subscription does not include the preseason games for NBA League Pass. Is that how it has always been? I know satellite doesn't have the preseason games on the NBA League Pass channels, but I thought that I was able to stream the preseason once I linked my account on NBA.com?
2 Replies
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87 views
Supporting Founder
Really excited for this season with Kentucky having a new coach and some really exciting recruits. Probably won't last long, but here's hoping this season is great.
143 Replies
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1468 views
Nah, you just don't understand how ignore works, which is why you made your own NFL thread thinking there wasn't one
For some reason, the satelliteguys.us site is loading a lot slower than usual on both Chrome on my Asus laptop and Safari on my iPhone.
I'm also seeing longer appearances of the blue bar at the top and the "3 blue bars" loading symbol.
Is anyone else also having the same problem? Thanks in advance.
I'm also seeing longer appearances of the blue bar at the top and the "3 blue bars" loading symbol.
Is anyone else also having the same problem? Thanks in advance.
530 Replies
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18127 views
Remember folks... just like DNS... its always Foxbat. 
WTF… …What the Foxbat!Remember folks... just like DNS... its always Foxbat.
S
wow what a kick in the balls!!! the wife blames you when things don't work now scott's blaming youWTF… …What the Foxbat!
I know. Here's what Scott has in store for me if I get out of line:wow what a kick in the balls!!! the wife blames you when things don't work now scott's blaming you
S
OMG to freaking funny
You're no fun.
I thought I would come here and find lots of complaints about the update to the dish anywhere mobile app, but am not seeing any. It used to look just like the desktop webpage. Now you can no longer filter by sports channels or movie channels. Plus that they made it look like a big button telephone and you see fewer channels in the screen which requires more scrolling. Yes I realize you can look at sports then select which sport you want to look at, I just liked being able to see all sporting events in the guide with all other channels being filtered out. Am I alone in the wilderness on this?
7 Replies
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160 views
Supporting Founder
Pub Member / Supporter
Lifetime Supporter
Apple has finally released their Apple TV 4K with built-in Siri and a microphone so it can respond to your queries even if you don't have the remote. It also increases in price, to $299. I had been planning on updating my current Apple TV 4K streamers, but that's $600 for the two of them, and that's a pass at this point.
At $299, it had better come with 256 GB of Storage, Gigabit (or better) Ethernet, the latest HDMI tech and standards, and one year of free Apple One. But it probably won't…
At $299, it had better come with 256 GB of Storage, Gigabit (or better) Ethernet, the latest HDMI tech and standards, and one year of free Apple One. But it probably won't…
Apple TV 4K
Apple TV 4K. New Siri AI and hands-free control. Stunning picture and immersive HomePod surround sound. Works with your Apple and smart home devices.
www.apple.com
20 Replies
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336 views
S
. apple's been making money off of software and not hardware for a while
they all do that anyways.. ever notice your cell phone slows down when you come up for an upgrade..
. apple's been making money off of software and not hardware for a while
You should have looked in the APP STORE instead.
