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Name: Parag P.
Status: student
Age: 20s
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: 7/13/2004
Question:
What is difference between applied voltage and supplied voltage?

Replies:
Parag,

I think it really depends on context. Sometimes I may use the two terms interchangeably. I have a 13.8 volt power supply that SUPPLIES VOLTAGE to my radios. I would say that the SUPPLIED VOLTAGE is 13.8 volts DC. At the same time I could correctly say that I applied a voltage of 13.8 volts DC to my radios with my power supply. Or you could tell someone that you took a 9 volt battery to power some LED's through a resistor. You would tell them this by saying, "Even though I used a 9 volt battery to power the LED's, the true APPLIED VOLTAGE was only 2.1 Volts DC because I used a 330 Ohm current limiting resistor.

These are just semantics. They both KIND OF mean the same thing...but it really just depends on how you use them in the sentence. Applied voltage is used mostly to describe what voltage actually makes it to the LOAD POINT (or appliance / or whatever you are powering). Supply or supplied voltage really is speaking to what the power supply (of whatever type) may be "PUTTING OUT". The APPLIED AND SUPPLY VOLTAGEs are rarely the EXACT SAME because this would require superconducting wires.

Great question.

Darin Wagner


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