G+_Jason Perry Posted June 28, 2015 Share Posted June 28, 2015 Lets talk power. More and more things are using DC power these days. I am starting to look at all the places I want DC power in my house and thinking there has to be a better way. Everything plugs into AC but most things convert it. I am not saying I want to switch all my power lines over to DC, just look into distributing power to my wired in device that are DC and wondering if I should look at my lighting as well. Are there any good sources that look at this? If I run DC lines it also makes any future renewable enerey projects more efficient because I am not converting from DC to AC to DC. As I said before I dont want to replace my current electrical system, I am just thinking of the logistics of running DC beside it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Arcturus Lancaster Posted June 28, 2015 Share Posted June 28, 2015 Trouble with DC distribution is all the devices run at a different voltage. Also loss over distance is an issue with lower voltages. Ac is really quite efficient at power distribution. And power supplies are becoming quite efficient with active components. Old way being dump excess voltage as heat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_John Mink Posted June 28, 2015 Share Posted June 28, 2015 "If I run DC lines it also makes any future renewable energy projects more efficient because I am not converting from DC to AC to DC." This makes complete sense, but it's not entirely accurate. it ends up that DC-DC is hard to do efficiently, and sometimes it's honestly more efficient to use AC as an intermediate step. If you really want to dig deep, Texas Instruments has a "white paper" (or something) on Switching Regulators (one type of voltage regulator). It's certainly quite detailed but even if you don't follow every line, it should give some insight into the difficulty of DC-DC conversion: http://www.ti.com/lit/an/snva559/snva559.pdf There are certainly cases where it would be more efficient to use DC, but the truth is that even in the near future you'd end up having a mix...so it's just better to use AC as your "main". That said, by all means get a battery and solar power and have all that on DC! Just don't expect your house to run off DC anytime soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Jason Perry Posted June 28, 2015 Author Share Posted June 28, 2015 Thanks for the input Arcturus Lancaster and John Mink. This is why I like posting here. This crazy idea started from me starting to playing with home automation. I am looking at putting occupancy sensors and arduinos in every room. My thought was run 12v to all them and where needed decrease the voltage to what is needed. Ans now that I say this i remember Fr. Robert Ballecer, SJ saying POE switches run 48V and bring the voltage down from there. Looks like some reading to do at the cottage this upcoming week. I love a good story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Eddie Foy Posted June 28, 2015 Share Posted June 28, 2015 there are NEC codes for low voltage wiring. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Jason Marsh Posted June 29, 2015 Share Posted June 29, 2015 TLDR: It's a pain, not cheap, and it can be done. I used to have my home network (cable modem, router, NAS) on a battery storage solar power setup. It worked pretty well, except for when we had back-to-back low-solar days. It was all DC, only AC component was a 24V powerchair charger for those low-solar days. It was a little pricey to build, and would take something like 500 years to pay for itself, but it was just a fun project. You absolutely can run low-voltage circuits in your home, and as Eddie Foy mentioned there are NEC standards for doing so. Considering the low loads that most of our DC devices present, using 24 volts or more for distribution will make wiring losses pretty much negligible, but the problem will be with having switching regulators at each point of use. They're still a little expensive for wiring every room with them, especially considering that our DC devices operate on so many different voltages. Your laptop will take 15 or 18 volts, your usb devices charge on 5v, your modem and router may be 12v, and so on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Ben Reese Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 I disagree... I think you should absolutely do this and let us all know how terrible or great it is lol. It really seems like you should be able to run 24-48 volts everywhere and be fine. Perhaps voltage dividers or a potentiometer at each DC outlet would make the process easier. On second thought, probably what I'd really need is just 2A USB plugs at every outlet (and 8 next to my bed). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_John Mink Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 Ben Reese? I think you nailed it with your lasf point, just get a few high power chargers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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