The invention relates to a direct current lightning arrester and a system using the direct current lightning arrester. The direct current lightning arrester comprises a lightning arrester body and a discharge gap group. The lightning arrester body comprises several lightning arrester units, every two lightning arrester units are connected by a flange, the top and bottom of each lightning arrester unit are provided with a sealing ring and a pressure release plate in order, the flange is positioned at the end of the lightning arrester unit and closes the sealing ring and the pressure release plate inside, each lightning arrester unit includes a jacket, an epoxy pipe and a resistance chip column from the outside in, and the resistance chip column is formed by series connection of several resistance chips. The lightning arrester body has a height of 7.5m-9m, optimally 8.2m. The discharge gap group consists of an upper discharge electrode and a lower discharge electrode, and the air gap distance between the upper discharge electrode and the lower discharge electrode is 2.3m-2.6m. The direct current lightning arrester provided by the invention has the advantages of simple structure, small volume, convenient installation, large air gap adjustment range, and reasonable technical parameters, thus having good application prospects.