Why/How does the electrity in your home go out?

Answer 1

There can be several different reasons. A vehicle could have knocked down a pole. A lightening bolt could have hit a transformer. There could be too much electricity being used at one time in a region of the country which would cause an overload. There could be an overload of a circuit or fuse in your home if too many appliances are on at one time.

Answer 2

AC electricity is generated at multiple power stations all over the country, and is put onto the "grid", a massive network of giant cables all across the country that are all cycling at the same frequency (!), and are typically 24,000 or 48,000VAC. These are tapped down at local power farms, and then tapped down again to arrive in your neighbour hood, where the high voltage is finally tapped down to a smallish 240VAC transformer that serves you house and a few of your neighbors.

Most often, when the power goes out, it's one of these small transformers that has failed, or one of the larger ones that feeds them. As the (old) oil in them degrades, it produces acetylene as a by-product, and acetylene goes "BANG!"...

Although I might be wrong, because I like Mutzie's explanation much better!

Answer 3

the most common reason is a fuse getting blown or a circuit breaker going off. this happens when the current exceeds the limit of the line. a fuse is a small wire that melts when the current is in excess thus breaking the line. a circuit breaker is an advanced version of the fuse where a contact is opened, the advantage being easy restoration of power, as opposed to replacing the fuse.

Answer 4

When consumers (such as yourself) draw too much electricity for a power plant to handle, the power plant is forced to simply switch off to prevent its equipment from being damaged.

Ideally, the remaining power plants connected to the grid can compensate, but sometimes they aren't able to, and the loss of one power plant puts too much load on the other plants, and they all go off in rapid succession. Then you have large regions without electricity.

Answer 5

When you unplug something from an electrical outlet and then look very carefully below it on the floor or counter you will see, after some time has passed, a little pile of electrons. Since they are fairly light weight, they will get picked up and wafted around the room. They collect everywhere and you later see them as dust bunnies under furniture, beds and behind appliances.