Final answer:
Normal household circuits designed to carry 15 amps are wired with 14-gauge copper wire. Circuit breakers protect against excessive current, while wire gauge affects the current-carrying capacity. A 100 A house operating at 80% will consume a significant amount of power, incurring notable costs.
Step-by-step explanation:
Normal household circuits are designed to carry 15 amps, on a 14-gauge copper wire. The American Wire Gauge (AWG) system standardizes the measurement of wire sizes, where a larger gauge number indicates a smaller diameter of wire. In this case, a 14-gauge wire has a diameter of 1.628 millimeters.
Circuit breakers in a home are rated in amperes and are used to prevent damage from excessive current. For instance, a 15-amp circuit breaker can protect multiple outlets in a living room, while a more powerful appliance like a refrigerator may require a 20-amp breaker.
In terms of power consumption, a 100 A house operating at 80% capacity at 120 V would be using 96 amps, which translates to a power consumption of 11,520 watts or 11.52 kW. Multiplying this by the hours in a month (730 hours approximately) gives us 8,409.6 kWh. At a rate of $0.15 per kWh, this results in a cost of $1,261.44.