How are parallel circuits used in homes?

Parallel circuits are used throughout your home - because they allow current to keep flowing through various paths, even when it cannot flow through one path.

Here are two examples of parallel circuits in your home.

• Most times, the electrical outlets in a particular room will be on a single circuit, because the single circuit can usually handle the load of several devices. (It's rare that everything is running all at once.) If this was a series circuit, you would need to have something hooked to every outlet in order to turn a single device on.

• Within a multi-bulb light, a parallel circuit ensures that when one bulb burns out, the others still stay lit. Otherwise, you'd have all of the bulbs go out - then figuring out which one is "out" is like figuring out which bulb has gone on a string of Christmas lights. Yikes!