Which is safer, Alternating Current (AC), or Direct Current (DC)?

Alternating Current (AC) and Direct Current (DC) have slightly different effects on the human body, but both are dangerous above a certain voltage. The risk of injury changes according to the frequency of the AC, and it is common for DC to have an AC component (called ripple). Someone with special equipment can measure this, but the effect on a particular person is very difficult to predict as it depends upon a large number of factors. As a consequence you should always avoid contact with high voltage electrical conductors, regardless of the type of electrical current they are carrying.

More detailed technical information on electrical injury is given in the standard BS PD 6519 "Guide to the effects of current on human beings and livestock - Part 1: General aspects.'

When did you last check the condition and safety of your plugs,

...sockets and flexes?

Damaged plugs, sockets and flexible cables can cause electric shocks,
burns and fires. Follow these simple rules to avoid problems.
• Remove plugs from sockets carefully. Pulling out a plug by the
cable puts a strain on it, and could damage the contact between
the plug and the socket. This could result in the plug overheating,
its wires becoming loose or an electric shock (if the earth wire is
disconnected).
• Check the plug and socket for burn marks, sounds of ‘arcing’
(buzzing or crackling), fuses blowing, circuit-breakers tripping or if
it feels hot.

Electric car grid balancing options limited: study

Technology enabling the UK power grid to control the charging of electric cars could correct only 6 percent of the additional imbalance in supply and demand by 2020 caused by rising use of the cars, a study said on Tuesday.
The technology could also provide a vehicle owner with a modest annual financial return of 50 pounds, National Grid estimated in a report published together with engineering company Ricardo.
Utilities and grid operators fear that the large-scale introduction of electrical cars could cause supply problems when millions of car users charge their vehicles during peak demand hours after returning from work.
With a system in place, the grid operator would be able to interrupt or vary the charging of an electric vehicle according to grid imbalances during peak and off-peak times

The UK government said on Monday that it expected 60 percent of all new cars registered in 2030 to be electric.
Another option considered by the industry is to invest in vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology that also enables transfers from cars back to the grid, known as reverse charging.
The study said vehicle owners with V2G technology could reap annual revenues of 600-8,000 pounds, depending on the vehicle's size.
But it also said that "very significant capital cost and balancing limitations ... would serve to render the fleet scale roll-out of the V2G balancing service uneconomic" if extended to owners of single cars.
V2G operation "may be attractive for owners of captive vehicle fleets such as industrial or local delivery vehicles ... where interface costs might be shared across multiple vehicles or battery packs," the report said.

Electrical dangers around the home

Electricity improves our everyday lives - but only when used correctly.
Don’t create possible dangers by overloading sockets, and never
ignore warning signs like burning smells, sounds of arcing (buzzing or
crackling), fuses blowing or circuit-breakers tripping. Electrical
accidents are most likely to happen when equipment is damaged or
misused. Failure to correct the problem could have devastating
effects. This sounds like common sense, but you would be surprised
how many of us fail to follow basic safety guidelines.

Scientist Willard Boyle Dies

so what! i hear you cry. but you have a lot to thank Willard Boyle for. in fact he helped you create most of the photos and videos you have taken in the last decade or so, because Willard Boyle one of the key inventors of the CCD.

Willard Boyle died on Saturday at the age of 86. Boyle was a Nobel laureate physicist. The invention that earned the prize for him and his colleague George Smith is in everything from bar code scanners to medical endoscopes to the Hubble Space Telescope. It is the CCD, the charge-coupled device. It is the light-sensitive microchip at the heart of digital photography.

RIP Willard, I thank you for your services to humanity

Do you even know when your electrics were last checked?

Remember – no matter how old your property and its electrical
fittings, they will suffer from wear and tear, and you should get a
registered electrician to check them at least every 10 years, or if you
move into a new property. Do you even know when your electrics
were last checked?

How old is your wiring?

Electricity is out of sight, out of mind - usually, cables are
conveniently hidden inside our walls and consumer units (fuse boxes)
are often hidden away in cupboards. So it’s not surprising that we
forget to check our electrical installations for wear and tear.
Faulty and ageing wiring is one of the major causes of electrical fires
in the home. You can avoid these by finding out the age of the wiring
in your home, and by carrying out regular checks on the condition of
your cables, switches, sockets and other accessories.
There are clear signs that can help you tell the age of electrical
equipment in your home. These are:
• cables coated in black rubber (phased out in the 1960s);
• cables coated in lead or fabric (before 1960s);
• a fusebox with a wooden back, cast iron switches, or a haphazard
mixture of fuse boxes (before 1960s);
• older round pin sockets and round light switches, braided flex
hanging from ceiling roses, brown and black switches and sockets
mounted in skirting boards (before 1960s);
• wall-mounted light switches in bathrooms (before 1960s).

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