ELECTRIC GENERATOR

An electric generator is a machine that changes mechanical energy into electrical energy. Generators produce almost all the electric power used by people. They furnish electric power that runs machines in factories, provides lighting, and operates home appliances. Generators were once called dynamos, a shortened form of the term dynamoelectric.

A generator may be small enough to hold in one hand, such as a generator used to power a bicycle headlamp. Or a generator may be bigger than a house and supply electric power for as many as 1 million homes.

The size of large generators is usually measured in kilowatts. One kilowatt equals 1,000 watts. A giant generator can produce more than 1 million kilowatts of electric power.

There are two main types of generators. Direct-current (DC) generators produce electric current that always flows in the same direction. Alternating-current (AC) generators, or alternators, produce electric current that reverses direction many times every second. Both kinds of generators work on the same scientific principles. But they differ in the ways they are built and used.

**You may copy this information for your own use ONLY any information you publish on a website is fraud without my permission.