Electricity is a big mystery to you, eh! You’ve tried to learn something about it but they throw a set of formulas at you and never bother to tell you why? Or where you’d use them? Not sure which meter to pick up to see why that blower motor, starter, or alternator you just installed doesn’t work right? We want to help.

This article is intended to present the basic operation of components and circuits from a practical standpoint without going into the theory that bogs down most of us when we try to study and understand electricity. In order to intelligently diagnose most electrical system problems we really don’t need to know that theory. Yes, there are times when solving circuit problems requires a deeper study and understanding of circuit analysis than we’ll give here. But we hope that after using the basics for a while, you’ll be encouraged to study electricity a little deeper.