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Direct current (DC) is the unidirectional flow of an electric charge. An electrochemical cell is a prime
example of DC power. Direct current may flow through a conductor such as a wire, but can also flow
through semiconductors, insulators, or even through a vacuum as in electron or ion beams. The
electric current flows in a constant direction, distinguishing it from alternating current (AC). A term
formerly used for this type of current was galvanic current.[1]
The abbreviations AC and DC are often used to mean simply alternating and direct, as when they
modify current or voltage.[2][3]
Direct current may be converted from an alternating current supply by use of a rectifier, which
contains electronic elements (usually) or electromechanical elements (historically) that allow current
to flow only in one direction. Direct current may be converted into alternating current via an inverter.
Direct current has many uses, from the charging of batteries to large power supplies for electronic
systems, motors, and more. Very large quantities of electrical energy provided via direct-current are
used in smelting of aluminum and other electrochemical processes. It is also used for some railways,
especially in urban areas. High-voltage direct current is used to transmit large amounts of power
from remote generation sites or to interconnect alternating current power grids.

Part of a series of articles about

Electromagnetism

 Electricity
 Magnetism

Electrostatics[show]

Magnetostatics[show]

Electrodynamics[show]

Electrical network[hide]
 Alternating current
 Capacitance
 Direct current
 Electric current
 Electric potential
 Electromotive force
 Impedance
 Inductance
  Ohm's law
 Parallel circuit
 Resistance
 Resonant cavities
 Series circuit
 Voltage
 Waveguides

Covariant formulation[show]

Scientists[show]

 v
 t
 e

Contents

 1History
 2Various definitions
 3Circuits
 4Applications
o 4.1Domestic and commercial buildings
o 4.2Automotive
o 4.3Telecommunication
o 4.4High-voltage power transmission
o 4.5Other
 5See also
 6References
 7External links

History[edit]
Further information: History of electric power transmission
Brush Electric Company's central power plant with dynamos generating direct current to power arc lamps for
public lighting in New York. Beginning operation in December 1880 at 133 West Twenty-Fifth Street, the high
voltages it operated at allowed it to power a 2-mile (3.2 km) long circuit.[4]

Direct current was produced in 1800 by Italian physicist Alessandro Volta's battery, his Voltaic pile.
[5]
 The nature of how current flowed was not yet understood. French physicist André-Marie
Ampère conjectured that current travelled in one direction from positive to negative.[6] When French
instrument maker Hippolyte Pixii built the first dynamo electric generator in 1832, he found that as
the magnet used passed the loops of wire each half turn, it caused the flow of electricity to reverse,
generating an alternating current.[7] At Ampère's suggestion, Pixii later added a commutator, a type of
"switch" where contacts on the shaft work with "brush" contacts to produce direct current.
The late 1870s and early 1880s saw electricity starting to be generated at power stations. These
were initially set up to power arc lighting (a popular type of street lighting) running on very high
voltage (usually higher than 3000 volt) direct current or alternating current.[8] This was followed by the
wide spread use of low voltage direct current for indoor electric lighting in business and homes after
inventor Thomas Edison launched his incandescent bulb based electric "utility" in 1882. Because of
the significant advantages of alternating current over direct current in using transformers to raise and
lower voltages to allow much longer transmission distances, direct current was replaced over the
next few decades by alternating current in power delivery. In the mid-1950s, high-voltage direct
current transmission was developed, and is now an option instead of long-distance high voltage
alternating current systems. For long distance underseas cables (e.g. between countries, such
as NorNed), this DC option is the only technically feasible option. For applications requiring direct
current, such as third rail power systems, alternating current is distributed to a substation, which
utilizes a rectifier to convert the power to direct current.

Various definitions[edit]

Types of direct current

The term DC is used to refer to power systems that use only one polarity of voltage or current, and
to refer to the constant, zero-frequency, or slowly varying local mean value of a voltage or current.
[9]
 For example, the voltage across a DC voltage source is constant as is the current through a
DC current source. The DC solution of an electric circuit is the solution where all voltages and
currents are constant. It can be shown that any stationary voltage or current waveform can be
decomposed into a sum of a DC component and a zero-mean time-varying component; the DC
component is defined to be the expected value, or the average value of the voltage or current over
all time.
Although DC stands for "direct current", DC often refers to "constant polarity". Under this definition,
DC voltages can vary in time, as seen in the raw output of a rectifier or the fluctuating voice signal on
a telephone line.
Some forms of DC (such as that produced by a voltage regulator) have almost no variations
in voltage, but may still have variations in output power and current.

Circuits[edit]
A direct current circuit is an electrical circuit that consists of any combination of
constant voltage sources, constant current sources, and resistors. In this case, the circuit voltages
and currents are independent of time. A particular circuit voltage or current does not depend on the
past value of any circuit voltage or current. This implies that the system of equations that represent a
DC circuit do not involve integrals or derivatives with respect to time.
If a capacitor or inductor is added to a DC circuit, the resulting circuit is not, strictly speaking, a DC
circuit. However, most such circuits have a DC solution. This solution gives the circuit voltages and
currents when the circuit is in DC steady state. Such a circuit is represented by a system
of differential equations. The solution to these equations usually contain a time varying
or transient part as well as constant or steady state part. It is this steady state part that is the DC
solution. There are some circuits that do not have a DC solution. Two simple examples are a
constant current source connected to a capacitor and a constant voltage source connected to an
inductor.
In electronics, it is common to refer to a circuit that is powered by a DC voltage source such as a
battery or the output of a DC power supply as a DC circuit even though what is meant is that the
circuit is DC powered.

Applications[edit]
Domestic and commercial buildings[edit]

This symbol which can be represented with Unicode character U+2393 (⎓) is found on many electronic devices
that either require or produce direct current.

DC is commonly found in many extra-low voltage applications and some low-voltage applications,

especially where these are powered by batteries or solar power systems (since both can produce
only DC).
Most electronic circuits require a DC power supply.
Domestic DC installations usually have different types of sockets, connectors, switches,
and fixtures from those suitable for alternating current. This is mostly due to the lower voltages used,
resulting in higher currents to produce the same amount of power.
It is usually important with a DC appliance to observe polarity, unless the device has a diode
bridge to correct for this.
EMerge Alliance is the open industry association developing standards of DC power distribution
in hybrid houses and commercial buildings.

Automotive[edit]
 Most automotive applications use DC. An automotive battery provides power for engine starting,
lighting, and ignition system. The alternator is an AC device which uses a rectifier to produce DC for
battery charging. Most highway passenger vehicles use nominally 12 V systems. Many heavy trucks,
farm equipment, or earth moving equipment with Diesel engines use 24 volt systems. In some older
vehicles, 6 V was used, such as in the original classic Volkswagen Beetle. At one point a 42 V
electrical system was considered for automobiles, but this found little use. To save weight and wire,
often the metal frame of the vehicle is connected to one pole of the battery and used as the return
conductor in a circuit. Often the negative pole is the chassis "ground" connection, but positive
ground may be used in some wheeled or marine vehicles.

Telecommunication[edit]
Telephone exchange communication equipment uses standard −48 V DC power supply. The
negative polarity is achieved by grounding the positive terminal of power supply system and
the battery bank. This is done to prevent electrolysis depositions. Telephone installations have a
battery system to ensure power is maintained for subscriber lines during power interruptions.
Other devices may be powered from the telecommunications DC system using a DC-DC
converter to provide any convenient voltage.
Many telephones connect to a twisted pair of wires, and use a bias tee to internally separate the AC
component of the voltage between the two wires (the audio signal) from the DC component of the
voltage between the two wires (used to power the phone).

High-voltage power transmission[edit]

Main article: High-voltage direct current
High-voltage direct current (HVDC) electric power transmission systems use DC for the bulk
transmission of electrical power, in contrast with the more common alternating current systems. For
long-distance transmission, HVDC systems may be less expensive and suffer lower electrical
losses.

Other[edit]
Applications using fuel cells (mixing hydrogen and oxygen together with a catalyst to produce
electricity and water as byproducts) also produce only DC.
Light aircraft electrical systems are typically 12 V or 24 V DC similar to automobiles.

See also[edit]

 Electronics portal

 Energy portal

Look up direct
current in Wiktionary,
the free dictionary.

 CCS
 DC bias
 Electric current
 High-voltage direct current power transmission.
 Neutral direct-current telegraph system
 Solar panel

References