1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,000 Hi Catherine, hi Bianca, I'm Warren Walke with Dominion Power. 2 00:00:06,000 --> 00:00:10,000 I understand you want to learn a little bit more about what we do and about public damage. 3 00:00:10,000 --> 00:00:12,000 Yes, what is public damage? 4 00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:15,000 Public damage is when a person causes a power outage. 5 00:00:15,000 --> 00:00:19,000 It might be as far as a car hitting a utility pole or somebody digging in their backyard 6 00:00:19,000 --> 00:00:22,000 hit an underground cable or even vandalism. 7 00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:25,000 So if there's public damage to a power line, it's your job to fix it. 8 00:00:25,000 --> 00:00:29,000 Exactly, we have crews that will go out and restore service to the customer. 9 00:00:29,000 --> 00:00:31,000 Come on, let me show you some things. 10 00:00:33,000 --> 00:00:35,000 Do you know how power gets to your neighborhood? 11 00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:39,000 Yes, we know that it is transmitted from the power plant to our homes. 12 00:00:39,000 --> 00:00:46,000 Exactly, when the generator spins in the power plant, the voltage comes out at about 230,000 volts. 13 00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:49,000 Isn't that a lot higher voltage than what is used in our homes? 14 00:00:49,000 --> 00:00:50,000 Absolutely. 15 00:00:50,000 --> 00:00:54,000 Then why does it have to be such high voltage at the power plant? 16 00:00:54,000 --> 00:00:59,000 Electricity travels much easier over long distances at a higher voltage. 17 00:00:59,000 --> 00:01:04,000 The high voltage electricity travels through wires that string all across the area. 18 00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:09,000 Eventually, these high voltage power lines go into a fenced off area full of large metal boxes, 19 00:01:09,000 --> 00:01:11,000 fat wires, and other stuff. 20 00:01:11,000 --> 00:01:14,000 These areas are called substations. 21 00:01:14,000 --> 00:01:20,000 In a substation, the very high voltage electricity is changed into lower voltage electricity. 22 00:01:20,000 --> 00:01:24,000 Even though the voltage is lower, it is still too high for you to use in your home. 23 00:01:24,000 --> 00:01:27,000 Is there another place where the voltage is even lower? 24 00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:30,000 That's right, there is. It's in your neighborhood. 25 00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:34,000 If you look up on the power pole, you'll see a round gray, looks like a can. 26 00:01:34,000 --> 00:01:36,000 That's a transformer. 27 00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:42,000 They're called transformers because they transform the electricity to just the right voltage for your home. 28 00:01:42,000 --> 00:01:46,000 In other neighborhoods, the wires are underground. 29 00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:49,000 In that case, the transformer is a big green box. 30 00:01:49,000 --> 00:01:51,000 What is the voltage used for our homes? 31 00:01:51,000 --> 00:01:56,000 Eventually, the voltage is stepped down to 240 volts for your large appliances. 32 00:01:56,000 --> 00:01:59,000 That would be like your air conditioner and your clothes dryer. 33 00:01:59,000 --> 00:02:04,000 And then 120 volts, and that would run like your hair dryer or your microwave or your toaster. 34 00:02:04,000 --> 00:02:08,000 Is there a way that we can measure how much energy is used in our homes? 35 00:02:08,000 --> 00:02:12,000 Yes, there's a meter on the side of your house called a kilowatt hour meter. 36 00:02:12,000 --> 00:02:14,000 What is a kilowatt hour? 37 00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:17,000 A kilowatt hour is a measurement of energy. 38 00:02:17,000 --> 00:02:22,000 Kilo means 1,000, so that's 1,000 watts, a kilowatt. 39 00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:25,000 A toaster is a one kilowatt device. 40 00:02:25,000 --> 00:02:29,000 If it were running for one hour, it would use a kilowatt hour of energy. 41 00:02:29,000 --> 00:02:32,000 You can figure out how much energy an appliance will use. 42 00:02:32,000 --> 00:02:39,000 You just take the rating of the appliance in kilowatts, the time it is on continuously, and multiply it. 43 00:02:39,000 --> 00:02:47,000 If a microwave used one kilowatt of power per hour for three hours, that would equal three kilowatt hours. 44 00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:52,000 If we had a three kilowatt device that ran for one hour, would it be the same amount of energy? 45 00:02:52,000 --> 00:02:56,000 Yes, it would, and you can also figure out how much it would cost to run that appliance. 46 00:02:56,000 --> 00:02:58,000 How do we do that? 47 00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:01,000 Ask your parents to show you your utility bill. 48 00:03:01,000 --> 00:03:04,000 On the bill, it will show what you're being charged per kilowatt hour. 49 00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:08,000 For example, let's say the charge per kilowatt hour is five cents. 50 00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:11,000 We have a toaster, a hairdryer, and a microwave. 51 00:03:11,000 --> 00:03:15,000 We'll say that each of these appliances is a one kilowatt device. 52 00:03:15,000 --> 00:03:19,000 How much would it cost to run these appliances for two hours? 53 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:25,000 Well, a one kilowatt appliance running for two hours would equal two kilowatt hours of energy. 54 00:03:25,000 --> 00:03:29,000 If there were three appliances, that would be a total of six kilowatt hours. 55 00:03:29,000 --> 00:03:31,000 Right, so find the price. 56 00:03:31,000 --> 00:03:35,000 We would multiply kilowatt hours times the cents per kilowatt hour. 57 00:03:35,000 --> 00:03:42,000 That's six kilowatt hours times five cents per kilowatt hour, or 30 cents. 58 00:03:42,000 --> 00:03:47,000 And so by using a little math, you can calculate what each appliance in your home will cost to run. 59 00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:52,000 You can learn more about calculating energy costs at the NASA Wi-Fi's website. 60 00:03:52,000 --> 00:03:54,000 Thanks for telling us about it. 61 00:03:54,000 --> 00:03:56,000 Hey, look over there. 62 00:03:56,000 --> 00:03:58,000 I wonder what that person's painting on the grass. 63 00:03:58,000 --> 00:04:01,000 Oh, that's Mr. Utility. 64 00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:04,000 He provides a service to locate underground cable for people. 65 00:04:04,000 --> 00:04:06,000 Why don't you ask him about his job? 66 00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:08,000 Great, we'll do that. 67 00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:10,000 Thanks for telling us what you do, Mr. Walk. 68 00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:11,000 Sure, I'll see you later. 69 00:04:11,000 --> 00:04:12,000 Bye. 70 00:04:12,000 --> 00:04:13,000 Bye-bye. 71 00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:14,000 Hi, kids. 72 00:04:14,000 --> 00:04:15,000 Hi. 73 00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:17,000 Can we ask what are you doing? 74 00:04:17,000 --> 00:04:18,000 Sure. 75 00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:22,000 I'm working lines on this property to let everyone know that there's an underground power line buried there. 76 00:04:22,000 --> 00:04:26,000 The homeowners had called us up because they're planning on putting in a fence. 77 00:04:26,000 --> 00:04:28,000 They were afraid they would damage some underground utilities. 78 00:04:28,000 --> 00:04:30,000 Hmm. 79 00:04:30,000 --> 00:04:34,000 I wonder what would happen if someone was putting up a fence and they didn't call you. 80 00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:36,000 Hmm, that could be a problem. 81 00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:41,000 Someone can easily damage an underground utility simply because they didn't know it was there. 82 00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:43,000 Would that be considered public damage? 83 00:04:43,000 --> 00:04:44,000 Yes, it sure would. 84 00:04:44,000 --> 00:04:47,000 But Mr. E doesn't have any painted lines in his yard. 85 00:04:47,000 --> 00:04:49,000 And he just finished putting up a fence. 86 00:04:49,000 --> 00:04:51,000 And his house is without power. 87 00:04:51,000 --> 00:04:54,000 I don't remember seeing any lines in his yard either. 88 00:04:54,000 --> 00:04:56,000 Hmm, let me check my list. 89 00:04:56,000 --> 00:04:58,000 No, I don't see a Mr. E on my list. 90 00:04:58,000 --> 00:05:00,000 And you say he's without power? 91 00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:01,000 Yes. 92 00:05:01,000 --> 00:05:03,000 In fact, several houses are without power. 93 00:05:05,000 --> 00:05:06,000 Jim to repair crew. 94 00:05:06,000 --> 00:05:07,000 This is the repair crew. 95 00:05:07,000 --> 00:05:08,000 Go ahead. 96 00:05:08,000 --> 00:05:11,000 We've got a homeowner here who has put in a fence. 97 00:05:11,000 --> 00:05:12,000 He didn't contact us. 98 00:05:12,000 --> 00:05:14,000 I think we've got a power break here. 99 00:05:14,000 --> 00:05:17,000 Maybe there's public damage to the underground line. 100 00:05:17,000 --> 00:05:19,000 We've had a report of an outage of several houses. 101 00:05:19,000 --> 00:05:20,000 We'll check it out. 102 00:05:20,000 --> 00:05:21,000 Thank you. 103 00:05:22,000 --> 00:05:23,000 Hey, kids. 104 00:05:23,000 --> 00:05:24,000 What's happening? 105 00:05:24,000 --> 00:05:28,000 Mr. E, did you call Mr. Utility to find out where your underground power lines were 106 00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:30,000 before you started putting up your fence? 107 00:05:30,000 --> 00:05:32,000 What do you mean? 108 00:05:32,000 --> 00:05:34,000 Mr. E, you should have called us. 109 00:05:34,000 --> 00:05:37,000 I could have easily shown you where the underground power line was 110 00:05:37,000 --> 00:05:39,000 and you could have prevented this power outage. 111 00:05:39,000 --> 00:05:42,000 Oh, man, if I'd have known I was supposed to call you, I would have. 112 00:05:42,000 --> 00:05:45,000 Doesn't Mr. E look kind of familiar? 113 00:05:45,000 --> 00:05:48,000 Hey, man, next time I promise to give you a call, okay? 114 00:05:48,000 --> 00:05:51,000 Mr. E, my crews will make repairs and we'll get the lights back on. 115 00:05:51,000 --> 00:05:53,000 See you later, treehouse detectives. 116 00:05:53,000 --> 00:05:54,000 Bye.