There are two kinds of electricity: Direct Current (DC) and Alternating Current (AC). AC power is generally referred to household power because of all the power outlets around your home. DC power is generally confined to cars, trucks, and small devices like your computer and tablet phone.
Household AC power cannot directly power your electronic devices, in order to do that, you’ll need an adapter. That’s the square-like device (sometimes referred to as “the Brick”) that sits in between the AC outlet of your home and your device. It takes AC power and converts it to DC power.
Likewise, any accessories that plug into your car’s outlet cannot plug into the house (AC) power. Again, you’ll need an adapter the converts AC power to DC power.
But what if you wanted to plug your AC power adapter (the square adapter the came with your laptop. Most modem cars have AC outlets now (called an inverter). If your car does not come with outlets (household AC power ports), then you’ll need an aftermarket inverter.
This is where things get complicated and in my opinion wasteful. The inverters typically have a cigarette plug that plugs into the cigarette port of your car, then converts to AC power. Then you’d plug your “brick” into it and it converts back to DC power. You are effectively converting DC power (car) to AC power (household) back to DC power (small device). We covered the details in our proper blog https://mikegyver.com/why-inverters-are-a-waste-of-energy/
Our goal with all our devices is to eliminate this waste and put power back into your hands and increase your productivity.
So in short, anything that plugs into the house is AC power. Typically the adapters have prongs and plug into the wall of your home. Anything the plugs into your car is DC power, typically that has a round tip that is a little larger than the size of your thumb the plugs into the cigarette port (or power port of the car).
Geek on for more differences below!
Current is the flow of electrical charge carriers like electrons. Its symbol is “I” and its standard unit is “ampere” which is symbolized by “A.”
In Direct Current (DC), the electric charge (current) flows in one direction only. It is a linear electrical current that moves in a straight line. While the Alternating Current (AC), the electric charge flows periodically reverses direction.
Where do we find the AC and DC?
One of the best examples of Alternating Current power is the power outlet. If you see electrical outlets at home or office, they are good examples. However, the Direct Current examples are batteries, solar cells, etc.
What electronic devices run on AC and DC?
Mostly electrical appliances like fans, bulbs, refrigerators, washing machines, microwave ovens, etc. are running on AC. In DC, there is a lot of gadgets/devices also run or use on this type of current such as laptops, mobile phones, TV remotes, clocks, toys, digital cameras, etc.
Advantages and disadvantages of Direct Current (DC) and Alternating Current (AC).
Here are some of the advantages of AC.
1. It is cheaper than DC.
2. AC can be easily converted into DC using the rectifier (an electrical device that converts AC to DC).
3. The variation of AC is easy by using transformers.
4. During the transmission, the loss of energy is negligible for AC.
Here are some of the disadvantages of AC.
1. Alternating Current is dangerous to work at high voltages.
2. Can be dangerous to anyone who touches it.
Here are some of the advantages of DC.
1. Direct Current is compatible with renewable sources of energy such as solar, wind, and hydropower.
2. Most countries and the new technologies support clean, local, distributed generation of DC power.
Here are some of the disadvantages of DC.
1. You cannot step up the level of DC voltage in high voltage transmission since the transformer won’t work on DC.
2. DC is more expensive than AC.
3. In transporting electricity in a long-distance over wires, the portion of the electricity will be lost and wasted in form of heat.
Which is better between Direct Current (DC) and Alternating Current (AC)?
If you see the roles of DC and AC, both of them are essential. Thus, AC is not better than DC and vice versa. The appliances at home, office, and everywhere are very important which run on AC. However, there are devices that run on DC which are very crucial in an emergency such as flashlights, watches, radios, phones, laptops, and some medical equipment.
Pop quiz:
Which do you prefer to be shocked with? 100 volts of DC power or 100 volts of AC power?
Comment below!
☎️ For more information and inquiries:
🌐 Website: www.mikegyver.com
📕 Blog: www.mikegyver.com/blog
✉️ Email: [email protected]
▶️ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0QlBR1c1pjEI3O_kcKfb8w
Images source: www.google.com
