Power 101

Remember a couple of weeks ago when we cooked our clock radio and had to make an emergency trip to the mall? Well, when we moved in to our new place we got several more electrical appliances from home (lamps, TV, stereo, vacuum cleaner, mixer, and another clock radio). All of the lamps work with a simple plug adaptor if you use light bulbs that are purchased here and that really helped with our super, ultra modern apartment (see Ultra Modern blog entry). We had a converter that we used to test the mixer and it seemed to run without a hitch. Next we use the converter on the other clock radio – 30 seconds later – poof – no more clock radio. Now what? We are totally unwilling to plug in the TV or the stereo for fear it will melt down and those are hardly replaceable for 14 CHF. Robert ‘Tesla’ Thompson did some on-line searching and the mystery is now solved:

Adaptor: changes one plug type to another plug type
Converter: used w/electric appliances (heating element or mechanical motor)
Transformer: used w/electronics (things with electronic chips or circuits)

Here’s more than you ever wanted to know about this fascinating subject