We have the French to thank for the letter I – for intensité de courant, meaning current intensity. So if we had 5 Amps of current being delivered by a solar panel this could be written as I SOLAR = 5 A. The symbol for current is capital-letter I and for Amps we use the letter A. The next electrical quantity we’re usually interested in is current, measured in Amps. Voltage can be measured quite simply and inexpensively with a voltmeter, or by using a multimeter set to measure voltage. Anyway, we have ways to get around that, so for the moment we’ll just note it as a limitation. 12 Volts is classified as low-voltage and as we will see when we begin to calculate volt-drop, this is a distinct limitation compared to 240V systems. Voltage is a measure of the electrical force that the electrical system can exert on the equipment it is supplying. Helpfully, the symbol for Voltage and Volts is V – this may also not seem very exciting but wait till we get to current.
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The most basic electrical quantity is probably Voltage, measured in Volts. So, in 12Volt DC systems we will only have to deal with power measured in Watts. Secondly, in DC circuits, watts are watts – I know that may not sound terribly encouraging, but in AC circuits power appears in all sorts of forms – real, apparent, reactive, and even imaginary power. When we get into inverters we’ll need a little bit of AC knowledge but we’ll leave that for now. This information is on a need-to-know basis, and if you plan on getting the best out of your 12Volt stuff – you need to know!įortunately the 12Volt equipment that we use for camping and caravanning is DC (Direct Current) and that simplifies things a lot.įirstly, DC voltage and current behave nicely, so you can add and subtract them, and even multiply them – in 240 Volt AC circuits you can’t, well not easily, but that’s not our concern, we will be talking about 12Volt stuff.
![12 volt electrical diagram program free 12 volt electrical diagram program free](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/da/61/53/da61536b25d88afe4721ec982dd1ed80.png)
Electrical Basics Volts, Amps, Watts and all those other things