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Are Houses wired in series or Parallel?

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If you have been looking into the electrical matters of your house lately, one thing that would have come to your mind is the wiring scheme of your house. Is it parallel or series? So, we will be helping you find out the answer to this question and share some of the reasons behind it. Are you ready to embark on this journey?

All house wiring is parallel:

It is not about YOUR home only; the house wiring is usually done in parallel. The parallel wiring allows each of the circuits in your house to have different paths for the flow of electricity while keeping the voltage constant. Thus, you can get a fully lighted and functional house at your disposal. This would not have been possible with a series circuit.

Also Read: Common Electrical Problems in Home

Why do we use the parallel circuit in-house wiring?

Here are the main reasons for using parallel circuit:

We don’t use every electronic item at once:

In a home, we usually have multiple electric items. However, we don’t use all of them at the same time. A house wired in series would allow only one switch that would trigger the flow of current to all the appliances and electronic gadgets. This means that switching on one would automatically switch on all the others, and vice versa.

Lack of enough Power:

Besides, the current passed to different electronic devices would have been different in the case of series circuiting. So, if you had switched on two bulbs at a time, the current flowing them would have divided. With an increase in the number of these gadgets, the division of current would continue. The result will be a lack of enough power to run some of the electronic items or gadgets.

Also Read: Loose electrical connections in a circuit

Damage at one point will break the circuit:

Moreover, another problem in series wiring for a house is, in case, there was an issue with one of the gadgets, you would not have been able to switch on any other light before fixing the issue first. This is because, in a series connection, a breakage in the path breaks the connection. However, this is not the case in parallel circuits.  

While running the house on a parallel connection actually solves this issue, and each switch or gadget in your house gets the same amount of power that your electricity company provides you.

No place for new fixtures:

While working with the series connection, no new fixtures can be added. So, this would have been a major problem as we all keep on adding new connections according to our needs, don’t we?

Summing up:

These disadvantages of the series connection are the main reasons the electrical experts use parallel connections. This has become an industry norm all over the world.

Also Check: Does burnt-out Bulb use Electricity?