The physical mechanisms involved in electron irradiation of insulating specimens are investigated by combining some simple considerations of solid-state physics (trapping mechanisms of electrons and secondary electron emission) with basic equations of electrostatics. To facilitate the understanding of the involved mechanisms only widely irradiated samples having a uniform distribution of trapping sites are considered. This starting hypothesis allows development of simple models for the trapped charge distributions in ground-coated specimens as investigated in electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) as well as for the bare specimens investigated in scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and environmental SEM (ESEM). Governed by self-regulation processes, the evolution of the electric parameters during the irradiation are also considered for the first time and practical consequences in EPMA, SEM, and ESEM are deduced. In particular, the widespread idea that the noncharging condition of SEM is obtained at a critical energy E2 (where δ + η = 1 with δ and η yields obtained in noncharging experiments) is critically discussed.