Editing Electricity (section)

===Applications===
[[File:Gluehlampe 01 KMJ.png|thumb|upright|The [[incandescent light bulb]], an early application of electricity, operates by [[Joule heating]]: the passage of [[current (electricity)|current]] through [[Electrical resistance|resistance]] generating heat.|alt=a photo of a light bulb|left]]

Electricity is a very convenient way to transfer energy, and it has been adapted to a huge, and growing, number of uses.<ref>{{Citation
| first = Matthew
| last = Wald
| title = Growing Use of Electricity Raises Questions on Supply
| newspaper = New York Times
| url = https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE6DD1F3AF932A15750C0A966958260
| date = 21 March 1990
| access-date = 2007-12-09
| archive-date = 2008-01-08
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080108022330/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE6DD1F3AF932A15750C0A966958260
| url-status = live
}}</ref> The invention of a practical [[incandescent light bulb]] in the 1870s led to [[lighting]] becoming one of the first publicly available applications of electrical power. Although electrification brought with it its own dangers, replacing the naked flames of gas lighting greatly reduced fire hazards within homes and factories.<ref>
{{Citation
| first = Peter | last = d'Alroy Jones
| title = The Consumer Society: A History of American Capitalism
| page = 211
| publisher = Penguin Books}}
</ref> Public utilities were set up in many cities targeting the burgeoning market for electrical lighting. In the late 20th century and in modern times, the trend has started to flow in the direction of deregulation in the electrical power sector.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.en-powered.com/blog/the-bumpy-road-to-energy-deregulation | title = The Bumpy Road to Energy Deregulation | publisher = EnPowered | date = 2016-03-28 | access-date = 2017-05-29 | archive-date = 2017-04-07 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170407145323/https://www.en-powered.com/blog/the-bumpy-road-to-energy-deregulation | url-status = live }}</ref>

The resistive [[Joule heating]] effect employed in filament light bulbs also sees more direct use in [[electric heating]]. While this is versatile and controllable, it can be seen as wasteful, since most electrical generation has already required the production of heat at a power station.<ref>
{{Citation
| first = Charles and Penelope
| last = ReVelle
| title = The Global Environment: Securing a Sustainable Future
| publisher = Jones & Bartlett
| page = [https://archive.org/details/globalenvironmen0000reve/page/298 298]
| year = 1992
| isbn = 0-86720-321-8
| url = https://archive.org/details/globalenvironmen0000reve/page/298
}}
</ref> A number of countries, such as Denmark, have issued legislation restricting or banning the use of resistive electric heating in new buildings.<ref>{{Citation|last=Danish Ministry of Environment and Energy |work=Denmark's Second National Communication on Climate Change |title=F.2 The Heat Supply Act |url=http://glwww.mst.dk/udgiv/Publications/1997/87-7810-983-3/html/annexf.htm |access-date=2007-12-09 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080108011443/http://glwww.mst.dk/udgiv/Publications/1997/87-7810-983-3/html/annexf.htm |archive-date=January 8, 2008 }}
</ref> Electricity is however still a highly practical energy source for heating and [[refrigeration]],<ref>
{{Citation
| first = Charles E. | last = Brown
| title = Power resources
| publisher = Springer
| year = 2002
| isbn = 3-540-42634-5}}
</ref> with [[air conditioning]]/[[heat pump]]s representing a growing sector for electricity demand for heating and cooling, the effects of which electricity utilities are increasingly obliged to accommodate.<ref>
{{Citation
 |first1 = B.
 |last1 = Hojjati
 |first2 = S.
 |last2 = Battles
 |title = The Growth in Electricity Demand in U.S. Households, 1981–2001: Implications for Carbon Emissions
 |url = http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/efficiency/2005_USAEE.pdf
 |access-date = 2007-12-09
 |url-status = dead
 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080216100857/http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/efficiency/2005_USAEE.pdf
 |archive-date = 2008-02-16
}}
</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=Demand for air conditioning is set to surge by 2050 |newspaper=The Economist |url=https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2021/08/10/demand-for-air-conditioning-is-set-to-surge-by-2050 |access-date=2023-03-13 |issn=0013-0613}}</ref> Electrification is expected to play a major role in the [[decarbonisation]] of sectors that rely on direct fossil fuel burning, such as transport (using [[electric vehicles]]) and heating (using [[heat pumps]]).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pathak |first1=M. |title=Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change |last2=Slade |first2=R. |last3=Shukla |first3=P.R. |last4=Skea |first4=J. |page=91 |chapter=Technical Summary |year=2023 |doi=10.1017/9781009157926.002 |isbn=9781009157926 |display-authors=etal |chapter-url=https://ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg3/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGIII_TechnicalSummary.pdf}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Watson |first1=S.D. |last2=Crawley |first2=J. |last3=Lomas |first3=K.J. |last4=Buswell |first4=R.A. |date=2023 |title=Predicting future GB heat pump electricity demand |journal=Energy and Buildings |volume=286 |pages=112917 |doi=10.1016/j.enbuild.2023.112917 |s2cid=257067540 |issn=0378-7788|doi-access=free }}</ref>

The effects of electromagnetism are most visibly employed in the [[electric motor]], which provides a clean and efficient means of motive power. A stationary motor such as a [[winch]] is easily provided with a supply of power, but a motor that moves with its application, such as an [[electric vehicle]], is obliged to either carry along a power source such as a battery or to collect current from a sliding contact such as a [[Pantograph (rail)|pantograph]]. Electrically powered vehicles are used in public transportation, such as electric buses and trains,<ref>{{Citation
| title = Public Transportation
| newspaper = Alternative Energy News
| date = 2010-03-10
| url = http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/technology/transportation/public-transit/
| access-date = 2010-12-02
| archive-date = 2010-12-04
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101204204748/http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/technology/transportation/public-transit/
| url-status = live
}}</ref> and an increasing number of battery-powered [[electric car]]s in private ownership.{{cn|date=March 2025}}

Electricity is used within [[telecommunications]], and indeed the [[electrical telegraph]], demonstrated commercially in 1837 by [[William Fothergill Cooke|Cooke]] and [[Charles Wheatstone|Wheatstone]],<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Liffen |first=John |date=July 2010 |title=The Introduction of the Electric Telegraph in Britain, a Reappraisal of the Work of Cooke and Wheatstone |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1179/175812110X12714133353911 |journal=The International Journal for the History of Engineering & Technology |language=en |volume=80 |issue=2 |pages=268–299 |doi=10.1179/175812110X12714133353911 |s2cid=110320981 |issn=1758-1206}}</ref> was one of its earliest applications. With the construction of first [[First Transcontinental Telegraph|transcontinental]], and then [[Transatlantic telegraph cable|transatlantic]], telegraph systems in the 1860s, electricity had enabled communications in minutes across the globe. [[Optical fibre]] and [[Communications satellite|satellite communication]] have taken a share of the market for communications systems, but electricity can be expected to remain an essential part of the process.{{cn|date=March 2025}}

Electronic devices make use of the [[transistor]], perhaps one of the most important inventions of the twentieth century,<ref>
{{Citation
| first = Dennis F.
| last = Herrick
| title = Media Management in the Age of Giants: Business Dynamics of Journalism
| publisher = Blackwell Publishing
| year = 2003
| isbn =0-8138-1699-8
| url-access = registration
| url = https://archive.org/details/mediamanagementi0000herr
}}
</ref> and a fundamental building block of all modern circuitry. A modern [[integrated circuit]] may contain many billions of miniaturised transistors in a region only a few centimetres square.<ref>{{Citation
| first = Saswato R.
| last = Das
| title = The tiny, mighty transistor
| newspaper = Los Angeles Times
| date = 2007-12-15
| url = http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-das15dec15,0,4782957.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail
| access-date = 2008-01-12
| archive-date = 2008-10-11
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081011191958/http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-das15dec15,0,4782957.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail
| url-status = live
}}</ref>