Before the innovation of electricity, basically 100 years ago, people utilized burn fires, whale oil lamps, candles and kerosene oil lamps to make visibility in the dark. Although these could have been more efficient in lighting every area and corner, science has solved this problem and invented a secondary energy source known as electricity to lighten our every room of life, irrespective of the pros and cons of electricity. Scientists such as Benjamin Franklin, Nikola Tesla, and Thomas Edison contributed to our need for and use of electricity.
The pros and cons of electricity are simply the positive and negative impacts or effects of electricity. In today’s era, can you visualize life without electricity for just a few minutes? You will know that a few hours without electricity wreaks havoc in our lives. A lot of our work goes to waste without electricity because humans depend on electronic items. And these electronic items run on electricity or make use of electricity as an energy source.
This 21st century is tech-savvy, in which gadgets and electronic items like computers, mobile phones, laptops, refrigerators, washing machines, televisions, and electronic kitchen essentials like mixers, ovens, grinders, microwaves, heaters, etc, surround everyone. Despite the pros and cons of electricity, even the construction of a home is incomplete without electric wiring. This is how electricity has impacted our life from birth to death.
Advantages Of Electricity
1. Easily accessible and produced
Using a comprehensive variety of renewable and non-renewable sources of energy in producing electricity makes it easy to construct. Everyone can access electricity with the pros and cons of electricity in mind.
2. Renewable Source of Energy
Electricity is generated by humans by different methods regularly to satisfy their electric needs. Therefore, it is regarded as a renewable energy source as it can be produced daily regardless of the pros and cons of electricity.
3. Easy to Manage and Transport
With accurate planning and management, electricity transmission is attainable on a large scale over a long distance. Electricity can transport and cover long distances through mediums like wire.
4. Versatile and Easy to Transform
Electricity is versatile as it can be converted into another type of energy according to the user’s utilization. It can be transformed into motion (via an engine), light (lighting a bulb) and heat (lighting an electric radiator).
5. Reduces Greenhouse Emission
Electricity can be created via renewable energy sources such as wind and solar, which are much cleaner and more environmentally friendly. Due to this, electricity and its production process do not initiate greenhouse gas emissions.
6. More Efficient and Convenient
Electricity is a convenient and efficient energy source that makes many appliances and devices functional. It has minimal energy loss in the generation process and transmission over long distances.
7. Have Lower Maintenance
Once the setting of the electricity is done, it should only be required to be maintained at regular intervals when electric equipment (like bulbs, tube light & others) is damaged with time. Electric vehicles are cheaper to maintain due to no oil changes, fewer parts to wear down, and fewer engines to maintain because electric cars do not have inner combustion engines.
8. Requires Less Labor Force
Implementing electricity requires labor, but only 2-3 hours is enough. It doesn’t require a lot of work.
9. It Can Be Set Up In Many Sizes
The generation capacity of electricity can be measured in multiples of kilowatts, like gigawatts (GW) and megawatts (MW). The discharge of electric current can be controlled according to the user’s needs. For example, about 2 KW or 3 KW of electricity is used in the home, but a commercially considerable amount of electricity is used.
Disadvantages Of Electricity
1. Carelessness In Electricity Can Be Dangerous For Everyone
How often do we get news of an individual (including humans or animals) dying due to electric shock? Whenever living beings come in contact with live electricity without safety, they get an increased voltage of electric shock that might be life-taking, creating harsh burns, seizures, unconsciousness, cardiac arrest, muscle spasms and other injuries.
However, the human body already conducts electricity, and after meeting with live electricity, an electric current flows through tissues that cause an electric shock, which is also called electrocution. The damage depends on the amount of current but in some cases, even a little amount of electricity can be disastrous, depending on the circumstances. Current over 0.01 amp can result in agonizing to severe shock, or more than this 0.1 amp to 0.2 amp flow of current can be fatal.
2. Cause Injuries
An electric shock may result in injuries divided into four parts: flame, lightning, flash, and true.
a. Flash injuries: current may or may not pass through the skin because they happen when an arch flash ignites an individual’s clothing.
b. Lightning injuries: this happens when the extremely short but very high voltage of electric current flows through the individual’s whole body. It can be considered a light electric shock.
c. Flame injuries: surface burns occur due to electric current or other reasons but electric current doesn’t travel past the skin.
d. True Injuries:Â when an individual becomes a part of the electrical circuit. It can result in severe damage.
3. Electricity Causes Fire Breakout
More than 60% of fire accidents are caused by electricity, the use of non-standard appliances, improper electrical wiring, carelessness, ignorance of the electric problem, overheating, overloading, illegal tapping of electric wires, and the use of extensions, wires, cables, faulty outlets (receptacles), circuit breakers or improperly grounded sockets. All these causes are behind fatal accidents and can lead to serious fires. Places that have electric wiring are most prone to fires due to electric short circuits.
4. Electric Power Plant Creates Pollution
Electric power plants produce noise, water, land and air pollution that impact the health of living beings.
- Noise pollution: electric power plants make use of large equipment like turbines, boilers and crushes, emitting high noise that affects people working in the plants.
- Land degradation: coal power plants emit waste (toxic gases and acids) that pollutes the air and water. If air and water pollutants stay untreated, they can affect the water, flour, and fauna areas, making them unfit for living or livelihood activities.
- Air pollution: coal power plants emit various pollutants into the air, like CO (carbon monoxide), O (ozone), SO (sulphur dioxide), NOx (oxides of nitrogen), lead and non-methane hydrocarbons, and SPM (suspended particulate matter).
- Water pollution: water is very important in coal power plants as it is used in boiler furnaces to produce steam, wash coal and cool equipment. If hot water is directly poured into the bodies of water, it raises their temperature and affects aquatic flora and fauna. Water is used to tidy up the items in power plants, and that dusted water contaminates groundwater.
5. Impact On Health
Electricity generated by power plants causes severe damage to human health. The emitted chemical pollutants affect the different areas or organs of the human body that cause diseases.
Impact of Chemical Pollutants on Health
- Ammonia: creates skin & eye burns and respiratory problems.
- Mercury: due to this nervous system, the kidneys, brain, and liver are damaged. It can also create birth defects and neurological defects.
- Lead: lead can damage a child’s kidneys and nervous system, affecting the child’s memory, learning, and behaviour.
6. Cost Of Construction
Electricity or electric work in construction can charge about 10%–13% of the whole construction cost, excluding land costs. Also, irrespective of the pros and cons of electricity, the construction and maintenance of power plants need money.
7. Electricity Is More Expensive Than Gasoline
We all know that gasoline is cheaper than electricity, as electricity can be charged or has a standard rate set by the state or central government. Electricity can be induced by gas and fossil fuels, as gas burning produces heat and steam that generate electricity. With this, we can see that electricity is more expensive than petrol or diesel in terms of maintenance and use.
Electric vehicles have fewer service stations, and establishing a level 2 charging station can be costly compared to that of gasoline because gas stations are available and affordable. Gas used in the kitchen is cheaper than electric conduction, which uses electricity for everything.
8. Electric Vehicles Are Not Emission-free
Electric vehicles can be more harmful for the climate than gasoline, petrol, or diesel vehicles because of the power plant emissions. These electric vehicles have no tailpipe emissions and a smaller carbon footprint.
9. Loss Of Species
Acceleration in human activities results in biodiversity loss (at 100–1000 times the prehuman level). Electricity production is one of the major reasons that pollutes a large amount of freshwater during electricity generation. Globally, electricity generation has advanced, including thermal power (77% of the total) and hydropower (16%) in 2018.
During the thermodynamic conversion of heat to produce electricity, a large amount of freshwater held in reservoirs affected aquatic biodiversity. This may result in species loss by disturbing their habitat and way of life. It contributes to water pollution or brings drought to some areas that may hold different aquatic or land species.
Final Words
The pros and cons of electricity have brought enlightenment about electricity and how it works. Knowing fully well that electricity is a second source of energy that can be received from the conversion of another energy source, such as natural gas, nuclear power, coal, and other natural resources. Electricity is a basic part of nature, one of our most widely used forms of energy.
