Physics

• Occurs mainly in solids
• Metals are better conductors than plastic or wood
• Vibrating particles pass on kinetic energy to other particles
• Metals have free electrons and at the hot end the electrons move faster and collide with other electrons transferring energy

• Depends on the colour and texture
• Dark matt = absorb heat radiation better than bright glossy surfaces (white or silver)
• Silvered = reflect nearly all heat

e.g. black solar panels or silvered survival blankets

• Occurs in liquids and gases only
• More energetic particles move from the hotter region to the cooler region and take their heat energy with them.
• Convection currents are all about changes in density

e.g. immersion heaters in kettles and hot-water tanks

• There's usually more than one type of heat transfer
• Heat conduction through the bottom of a pan to heat up contents is useful
• Heat radiation out the sides of pan is not useful as it's the food you want to heat up
• To work it out: List main types of heat transfers and where, write down if it's useful or not, make sensibe suggestions
• Always mention which form of heat transfer is involved: conduction, convection or radiation.

• Types of energy:
• Electrical: whenever a current flows
• Light: from the Sun, lightbulbs etc.
• Sound: from loudspeakers or anything noisy
• Kinetic: anything that's moving has it
• Nuclear: realeased only from nuclear reactions
• Thermal/heat: flows from hot objects to colder ones
• Gravitational potential: possessed by anything which can fall
• Elastic potential: stretched springs, elastic, rubber bands etc
• Chemical: foods, fuels, batteris etc

• Some of the input energy is always lost of wasted, normally as heat
• The less energy wasted the more efficient a device
• Calculating the efficiency:

Efficiency = Useful Energy output / Total energy input

• No device is 100% efficient & wasted energy always dissipated as heat
• Other factors when comparing devices: Initial cost, running cost, ease of use, looks

• Cavity wall insulation - Foam squirted into gap between bricks so reduces convection & radiation across gap
• Loft insulation - thick layer of fibreglass wool across loft floor reduces conduction & radiation into roof from ceiling
• Draught-proofing - strips of foam & plastic around doors & windows stops draughts of cold air - reduces convection
• Double glazing - two layers of glass means more radiation reflected back & air gap between glass reduces conduction
• Thermostatic radiator valves - prevent house being overwarmed
• Hot water tank jacket - lagging such as fibreglass wool reduces conduction & radiation
• Thick curtains - big bits of cloth over windows reduces heat loss by conduction & radiation

• kWh = amount of energy
• A killowatt-hour is the amount of electrical energy used by a 1kW appliance left on for 1 hour
• Turning 1 kWh into 3 600 000 joules by:

E= P x T = 1 kW x 1 hour = 1000 W x 3600 s = 3600000J (=3.6 MJ) (Energy (in joules) = Power (watts) x Time (in seconds)

Calculating the cost:

No. of UNITS (kWh) used = POWER (in kW) x TIME (in hours)

COST = No. of UNITS x PRICE per UNIT

**Always turn the power into kW not watts and the time into hours not minutes

• National grid takes electrical energy from power stations to where it's needed (homes; industries)
• Transmitting a lot of power needed needs a high voltage or high current
• Problem with a high current is loads of energy lost through heat in cables
• Much cheaper to boost voltage high (400 000) & keep current very low
• To get the voltage to 400000V requires transformers & big pylons with huge insulators
• Transformers have to step up voltage at one end and bring it down to safe levels at other end
• Voltage increased using a step-up transformer and reduced using a step-down transformer