An investigation into the efficiency of an immersion heater 2

This will then be used to calculate the efficiency of the heater. Efficiency is how good the item being tested is at retaining energy: The ratio of the energy delivered by a machine to the energy supplied for its operation determines the items efficiency. I will use the following formula to calculate the immersion heater’s efficiency.

    Energy supplied

                                    100%

           Energy produced        

Method:

                          Circuit diagram

The apparatus and circuit were set up and arranged as shown in my diagrams above

The measurements I will take are as follows:

• initial temperature of water
• amps after 2 minutes
• volts after 2 minutes
• temperature of water after 2 minutes

To get a fair and average result I will change the type of wire I am using as well as the S.W.G of the wires but not the length of the wire so as to get a variety of results ands therefore see what wire is more efficient to use in the immersion heater.

Results:

Below are the tables of the results I got once I had carried out the experiment.

Summary table

Conclusion:

After performing this experiment I found out that an immersion heater can never be 100% efficient. as you are producing other  types of energy which you don’t need and therefore have no use for and are wasted. I also concluded that by using constantan wire is more efficient than nickel chrome wire. I also found out that carbon wire is not a good type of wire to use as it burned out too quickly.

 Things that I would change about this experiment if I  was to do it again would be that I would try more types of wires and a different variety of S.W.G s as there weren’t many different types of S.W.G s available at the science lab.