When you consider doing electrical work at home or even wanting or needing to move your appliances around, you must understand the difference between 120 and 140 Volt outlets. Both of them will be found in your house, but how are they different, and why you must know the difference to start with?
Understanding electrical currents
Think about the electrical currents at your place as pressure. The harder and quickly the individual electrons get pushed through the electrical wiring, the more power they are going to provide to the outlet.
No doubt, this means you need to be very careful and safe. Not every electrical outlet and wire can handle the higher voltage, like 240 Volts. You can differentiate between a 120V outlet and a 240V outlet easily. You might think that the safest way is to go with the 120V outlets throughout your house simply. But as it turns out, both the alternatives can prove to be beneficial, depending upon the needs of the appliances.
When are the outlets of 120 Volt enough?
Most of the appliances that we use every day only need enough electricity for a 120-volt outlet. Refrigerators, microwaves as well as dishwashers are some of the functions that will work the best on 120 Volt outlets.
You’ll easily recognize them anywhere in your house. If you don’t know that there are two kinds of outlets, these will be the ones that you think of as ubiquitous. But in most of the situations, 240 Volt outlets and wiring might be required.
When you need outlets of 240 Volt?
Most of the appliances need more than 120 volts to run reliably and adequately. A dryer, washing machine, and over are some of the examples. Technically, all of them will run on 120V, but they won’t be effective; in fact. The oven, which is connected to a wire of 120V, will only produce one-fourth of the heat it would produce if connected to the outlet of 240 volts.
Conclusion
Any appliance repair needs some knowledge of electricity. If you are not confident, you shouldn’t do it alone. The experts are there to help you out.
