4 ms·
I think an easier answer for all of this with a more direct impact to consumers wallets and carbon consumption is to use more DC wiring inside homes. Those big
by CyanLite2 5y ago
I think an easier answer for all of this with a more direct impact to consumers wallets and carbon consumption is to use more DC wiring inside homes.
Those big ugly power supply bricks that we all carry around for our laptops... it converts AC power to DC power that's used by your device. Your cell phone adapter, your Xbox/PS5, etc..etc.. Nearly every one of our electronic devices require converting AC input to DC so you can plug into a standard wall outlet.
You can expect about a 5-20% on average power loss just to do the conversion. With alternative energies coming online from DC sources, the power loss is starting to get pretty bad.
DC Input (solar/wind) -> High-Voltage AC (for transmission lines) -> Low-Voltage AC (240v coming into your home) -> Power Brick -> DC Output (just so you can charge your phone).
5-20% power loss each time that's converted just to pull 5 volts @ 3 amps just to charge a cell phone.
- nebula8804 5y agoDo these newfangled GaN power supplies improve this metric somewhat?
- CyanLite2 5y agoNope, still does AC-to-DC conversion
- ianai 5y agoIt'd be really cool if something like USB-C were fleshed out enough to really "deserve" to be added as an outlet option alongside the usual. Maybe in a few revisions (aka a decade or two?) a successor to USB-C will finally nail this unambiguously.
- sp332 5y agoYou can buy outlets with USB ports built in. Long-distance USB would probably have issues with voltage dropping unless you used some beefy cable. Also, USB PD negotiates between individual devices, so you need some extra logic per port instead of just stringing them up in parallel like normal power outlets.
- CyanLite2 5y agoThose outlets have an internal AC-DC converter in them. I can't find the link/product, but Matt Reiseinger (youtube superstar home builder) showcased a distribution box where he ran USB-like cables in the bedroom/living areas. There was a main DC distribution box that delivered power to those places. You could plug in a standard Macbook Pro USB-C cable directly into the wall and get DC power. No conversion (except what was done by the distribution box). The AC-DC converter in the distribution box could be directly bypassed if you were running on solar/battery/wind sources.
- samtho 5y agoThe power loss is definitely on the higher side (> 20%) but if we were to run DC within the home, we’d probably be better off using 48v. Higher voltage means resistance matters less and conductors can be smaller (less current) but still be low enough to convert efficiently.