Small Motors

How does an appliance that is plugged into a wall socket limit the amount of current it draws?

I’m designing a project to work that is plugged into a wall socket (in the US). Does the appliance automatically draw whatever it needs? If that is true, does that mean you could take out the batteries of a remote control and plug the connectors to the batteries into a wall socket and not have it get fried? How exactly does it work?

The electric socket has the ability to send through massive amounts of amperage (current) but in a way only uses what it needs. The rules would follow simple electronics rules and theories, which I’d think would apply to any country. The electricity is limited by power supply (step down transformers) in the device usually. Example, a clock radio. Doesn’t use very much electricity, however, the clock’s internal circuitry would fry if it were to be connected directly to the full electricity available from the wall socket. Instead, the plug goes directly into a step down transformer, thats inside the radio, and from there, the radio’s circuitry then only is using 5-12volt of electricity.

If you were to try to plug the connector’s from a remote control directly to the wall plug, then you’d have a big poof of smoke instantly. That is because electricity takes the path of least resistance. The resistance would only be a micro millimeter of wiring. No resistors, no step down transformer, would mean that massive amounts of amps would try to travel through those thin wires and eventually create a short circuit by frying the small wires.

So, in a way, appliances do draw what they need, but the electric socket is ready to send as much as anything could possibly draw. There has to be some sort of thing to limit the draw though. Resistors, step down transformer (for small electric devices). Now big appliances, don’t have step down transformers or resistors. But they still only draw what they need.

Wall Socket Special