Nettostroom

Nettostroom is a term used in Dutch electrical engineering to describe the actual current flowing through a conductor or circuit element after accounting for the combined effect of all connected sources and loads. It is measured in amperes and depends on the chosen direction convention. In practice, nettostroom represents the current that must be carried by a particular branch of a circuit.

In DC circuits, nettostroom in a given conductor or branch equals the algebraic sum of the currents flowing into and out of a node, with a consistent sign convention. Kirchhoff's current law underpins this principle: the sum of currents at a node balances. In AC circuits, the nettostroom is the phasor sum of the branch currents. Because currents can have different phase angles, the nettostroom is not simply the arithmetic sum of magnitudes; it requires vector addition to obtain the true current through the conductor.

Nettostroom is a key concept in practical electrical design. It informs the sizing of conductors, insulation, and thermal management, as well as the ratings for protective devices such as fuses and circuit breakers. It is also relevant in energy metering, where the current measured in a conductor reflects the net flow that supplies a load or returns to a source.

Related concepts include gross or rated currents, which describe potential or nominal values rather than the actual current in a given operating condition. The nettostroom is a fundamental application of Kirchhoff's laws and basic circuit theory, reflecting how multiple currents combine within a network to produce the observed current in any branch.