I wanted to share this opinion on Hackaday about a topic that is the usefulness of a something that has become ubiquitous relatively fast.
This techonolgyy has a lot of potential, what do you think?
I wanted to share this opinion on Hackaday about a topic that is the usefulness of a something that has become ubiquitous relatively fast.
This techonolgyy has a lot of potential, what do you think?
That’s pretty much the “we should all put PoE everywhere” debate, and I don’t think that’ll happen (or is a good idea) - and that’s coming from me as someone with switches providing 1.5kW of PoE power budget in the garage.
The alternative would be a shared conductor like we have now - and while that is working will in data centres doing a conductor in the required dimensions for that would be too big, and potentially dangerous, so that’ll happen even less.
No, it’s got nothing to do with power over ethernet.
It’s simply having only one high power rectifier at the breaker box.
And removing all those rectifiers from every device in the house.
We don’t need AC in the home anymore. Every device is now using DC, and any other device will still work with DC.
The only thing really left are motors, but even those are going brushless and we can chop half of the inverter out of the equation of those as well.
And every device won’t even need smart electronics for PD either.
It would also solve the North America 60Hz and EU 50Hz issue, where the AC coming in doesn’t matter. We all standardize on a DC output.
And when people want to add alternative power (Solar/Wind/etc), it’s a HELL of a lot easier to just push the DC into the existing system without having to worry about frequency matching.
Since when is it an issue?
A lot of stuff accepts both and the plugs are different anyways so why does it matter?
Btw most of the world uses 50hz not just the EU.
again, simpler and cheaper electronics for everything
Yeah, but they would be simpler but you would instead have to put powerful DC-DC converters in pretty much everything.
It sounds like a solution to a problem which isn’t a big deal. In theory it might be nice but it works fine as it is. We know very well how home AC grids work and charging that would be a mess.
powerful DC-DC
No, are you not aware how these work?
A step down DC-DC is nothing compared to a transformer rectifier or PD electronics with communication with a USB-C.
Maybe, DC wiring at home will never happen though (except in the form of POE).
It was once upon a time, in the age of olde, where switched-mode power supplies were not the norm and GaN semiconductors weren’t in the process of taking over the whole power IC market. Taking in any mains voltage/frequency and spitting out any reasonable DC voltage is no issue for those things, they simply don’t care.
It’s still going to be an issue in the future but pretty much only for resistive heaters (well, at least the voltage part) and motors with oomph.
Speaking of DC though: The EU is looking into applying HVDC not just to point-to-point connections but at a network level. Don’t expect that to hit your home in your lifetime, but if you’re an aluminium smelter it would make a lot of sense to have a direct connection to tons of DC.
I laughed and wrote out a list of things in my house using AC but I see you’re talking more theoretically. Most of the things using ac in my house are only ever plugged into one circuit, so we could leave those circuits alone. I don’t think USB C PD could handle a hairdryer though, and they aren’t always used on the same circuits (eg sometimes bathroom, sometimes bedroom)
It’s really tough to displace entrenched standards.
_ I don’t think USB C PD could handle a hairdryer though_
Of course it wouldn’t. The idea would be get rid of USB-C and PD completely.
You’d have 110VDC@15A available for your hairdryer. Heating coils don’t care if it’s AC or DC, and the blower fan would be a brushless fan.
You’re compressors for AC or fridge would be freq drives, which are cheaper because they could drop the rectifier circuit, and highly efficient.
The only real concern about having DC in the home as standard is the safety aspect of DC doesn’t let go if you get shocked.
But that is already being worked on in general as many homes have high-voltage DC circuits from solar panels.
But different devices need different voltages. Does every outlet in my house have to have its own connection to the central rectifier? It’s a lot of re wiring.
PWM DC to DC dropping voltage to what you need is easy/cheep.
So instead of a big transformer + rectifier that each device has now, it would be a much smaller/cheaper step down at like 99.8% efficiency
This doesn’t seem better.
Well, I mean if you don’t understand power electronics I don’t see how you can make that statement.
I understand the electronics. I don’t understand why you think this would be worth replacing all my appliances
Lots of small kitchen appliances would be out of luck. Or how about vacuum cleaners as an example that needs a lot of power but might be plugged in for every room …. Where would I recharge batteries for my lawn care equipment?
What?
Most vaccums are brushless, where they are already converting the AC to DC internally. Your vacuums would be cheaper.
Where would I recharge batteries for my lawn care equipment?
again what? The same way? Your charger is converting AC to DC. You could skip that step.
All of these appliances would work better/cheaper with a 110VDC@15A source.
Yeah I think many of us missed that you’re proposing a full power replacement circuit, rather than USB power everywhere
One of the things you’re missing about USB and would likely lose here is that it’s “smart”. Both sides negotiate an acceptable power profile. If you only have one converter for the house I don’t think you could easily deliver many different power profiles to many points
You wouldn’t have to.
Every device instead of having an expensive PD communication device in it, would have an even cheaper PWM DC Step-down.
No communication needed.
Each device would just draw what it needs to.