Glossary of Electrical Terms
- Electrician—a professionally certified tradesman who is licensed to install, service or repair electrical wiring and electrical components for buildings, machines, powerlines, and other equipment based on a specific certification class.
- Electrical Apprentice—an individual, who is learning to become an electrician, is registered with a trade apprenticeship authority as a student, and is sponsored by an electrical contractor who provides job site training and experience.
- Commercial electrician—an electrician who performs electrical work for commercial buildings.
- Industrial electrician—an electrician who performs electrical work primarily in an industrial environment.
- Residential electrician—an electrician who performs electrical work for residential buildings.
- Electrical contractor—a licensed person or business that employs electricians, who can legally perform electrical work related to designing, installing, and maintaining electrical systems.
- Electrical Apprenticeship—a period of training before becoming a licensed electrician which includes 4 levels of theory and exams, 6000 hours of supervised work experience and usually takes 4 years to complete.
- Handyman—a person who is never legally allowed to do regulated electrical work, but can perform other general household tasks and repairs.
- Licensed, Bonded & Insured Company—a contracting company that has acquired the necessary certification and insurances for the benefit and protection of their clientele.
- Electrical Code—regulations which are revised or updated every 3 years for designing, installing and repairing electrical installations.
- Receptacle—an electrical outlet in which devices can be plugged into.
- Electrical Plug—the end of an electrical cord that is inserted into the receptacle or outlet
- Extension Cord—a length of electric cord that can be used to provide temporary power to an appliance that is located too far from a receptacle.
- Rewiring—to replace existing wiring in a building, appliance, or device with new wires.
- GFCI protection—Ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) protection shuts off electrical power to an outlet to prevent dangerous exposure to electrocution.
- Arc Fault protection—protection that provides both series and parallel arc fault protection to the entire branch circuit.
- Arc—the spark or electrical discharge created when an electrical current leaps across the gap between electrodes.
- Surge protector—a device designed to protect appliances or other electrical devices from voltage spikes.
- Load—the component of a circuit that consumes power or energy.
- Knob-and-tube wiring—an early standardized form of ungrounded electrical wiring that was commonly used in North American buildings from the 1880’s to the 1940’s.
- Aluminum wiring—a type of electrical wiring used extensively during mid 60’s to late 70’s but now used only in very specific applications.
- Copper —a type of electrical wiring now considered to be the standard in most modern applications.
- Electrical Insulation—the dielectric covering on electrical wiring and conductors.
- Electrical panel—a service box that contains circuit breakers which distribute electrical current to circuits throughout the building.
- Circuit breaker—an automatically operated electrical switch that protects an electrical circuit from damage due to excess current from an overload or short circuit condition.
- Fuse Panel—a service box that contains fuses
- Fuse—a circuit interrupting device with an internal link that is designed to melt or break if a circuit exceeds the rating of the fuse.
- Ampere (amp)—a unit of measurement for an electrical current.
- Circuit—the path that electricity flows through.
- Conductor—any material that allows electricity to flow through it.
- Semiconductor—materials that are neither good conductors nor good insulators.
- Insulator—any material that resists the flow of an electrical current.
- Current—the rate at which electricity flows through a circuit.
- Generator—a machine that turns mechanical energy into electricity.
- Ground—an electrical connection with the earth that creates zero energy potential.
- Grounded—anything touching an electrical current and the ground at the same time.
- Grounded conductor—a circuit conductor that has been intentionally grounded.
- Substation—a collection of electrical equipment that is designed to raise, lower, and regulate electrical voltages.
- Transformer—a device designed to raise or lower the voltage of electricity.
- Volt—a unit of electrical force or pressure.
- Voltage—the force that causes electricity to flow through a circuit.
- Volt Meter—a device used for measuring the voltage of an electrical current.
- Kilovolt—a unit of pressure that is equal to one thousand volts.
- Voltage drop—a drop in pressure in an electrical circuit due to conductor resistance.
- Amp Meter—a device used for measuring an electrical current’s flow in amperes.
- Amplitude—the maximum value of a pulse or wave of an electrical current.
- Amplifier—a device used to increase power and voltage.
- Inductor—a coil of wire wrapped around an iron core.
- Ohm—a unit of measurement used to define the resistance of a material to an electrical current.
- Ohm Meter—a device used to measure the ohms of an electrical current.
- Open circuit—when a circuit is broken and the flow of current through the circuit is interrupted.
- Watt—a unit for measuring the electrical power used in a circuit.
- Watt Meter—a device used to measure a circuit’s electrical power usage in watts.
- Kilowatt—a unit of electrical power that is equal to one thousand watts.
- Alternating current (AC)—electric current that periodically reverses direction.
- Direct current (DC)—electric current that only flows in one direction.
- Stripping—removing insulation from a conductor or wire.
- Dead—free from any electrical connection or charge.
- Leakage—electrical current escaping from the circuit.
- Output—current, voltage, or power delivered by a device or circuit.
- Hertz—a unit of measurement for frequency.
- Kelvin—the measurement of the colour temperature found in the light spectrum