Home

AC or DC?

Solar photo-voltaic (PV) panels are becoming cheaper and cheaper, the price of batteries too is coming down. However, the price of the inverters that convert the direct current (DC) electricity coming from the panels to the alternating current (AC) that the power grid uses is not falling in a similar way.

This page written 2016/12/15, last edited 2020/10/14
Contact: David K. Clarke – ©
 
Home


Google search Ramblings

 
Solar PV
Solar power
The first solar PV installation on my place at Clare, South Australia
Given that solar panels produce DC, batteries store DC, electronics use DC, LED lights must have DC and many other appliances could use direct rather than alternating current, should we be setting up our homes for more use of DC rather than AC?

Why use expensive and not particularly long-lived inverters to convert DC from our solar panels to AC when our tablets, laptops, radios, LED lights and home batteries have to be built containing rectifiers to convert that AC back into DC? Apart from the cost of the unnecessary inverters and rectifiers, some of the power is lost in the conversion from DC to AC and again in the conversion from AC to DC.

Should the modern home be set up with parallel direct and alternating current wiring? Or even DC alone?

References:
Green-tech: the home of tomorrow will run on direct current
Green-tech: Time to Rethink the Use of DC Power for the Energy Smart Home

There are some advantages in AC for electric motors. I'm not up on the technicalities.

Reference:
Tesla: induction versus DC brushless motors