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It seems that a major cost of solar installations is the inverter. Power electronics that generate >100W AC power are big and expensive. Now that more and more

It seems that a major cost of solar installations is the inverter. Power electronics that generate >100W AC power are big and expensive. Now that more and more devices use USB-C PD for power, I wonder whether it would be possible to forego the AC inverter, and just power everything with small USB-C power supplies that have 12V input and can be powered directly from the battery. Or maybe you could use a 110V inverter instead of a 230V inverter? Switched mode power supplies usually accept either.

blkhawk 4y ago
yes - my small inverter was 30EUR - its only capable of delivering about 180W. That was a significant portion of the total system cost for my toy system (with a 180W panel).
amatecha 4y ago
Yeah, inverters are pretty inefficient too. I've got a 12v battery and I power some stuff directly, and then a couple things from a 12v->5v buck converter. So far so good, even though the applications are limited. My setup is ultra-humble though lol (I don't even have a solar charge controller yet!)
bityard 4y ago
12v DC power systems is a sub-niche in both the RV and ham radio communities. I know of someone locally who has most of his house on 12v lighting and some appliances, to be able to take advantage of solar without the high expense and hassle of a grid-tied system.
goodpoint 4y ago
Yes. The setup in the article is pretty inefficient.
_heimdall 4y ago
The really big costs start to pipe up with batteries if you want the system to be functional at night and on rainy days Inverters aren't cheap, but as your inverter size goes up your battery capacity likely scales even faster to account for times when you don't have much sun for 2-3 days. Hopefully that'll change soon! Lifepo4 batteries are the best we have on the market today, but they're not cheap and still require a lot of hard to find natural resources to produce

blkhawk 4y ago

yes - my small inverter was 30EUR - its only capable of delivering about 180W. That was a significant portion of the total system cost for my toy system (with a 180W panel).

amatecha 4y ago

Yeah, inverters are pretty inefficient too. I've got a 12v battery and I power some stuff directly, and then a couple things from a 12v->5v buck converter. So far so good, even though the applications are limited. My setup is ultra-humble though lol (I don't even have a solar charge controller yet!)

bityard 4y ago

12v DC power systems is a sub-niche in both the RV and ham radio communities. I know of someone locally who has most of his house on 12v lighting and some appliances, to be able to take advantage of solar without the high expense and hassle of a grid-tied system.

goodpoint 4y ago

Yes. The setup in the article is pretty inefficient.

_heimdall 4y ago

The really big costs start to pipe up with batteries if you want the system to be functional at night and on rainy days Inverters aren't cheap, but as your inverter size goes up your battery capacity likely scales even faster to account for times when you don't have much sun for 2-3 days. Hopefully that'll change soon! Lifepo4 batteries are the best we have on the market today, but they're not cheap and still require a lot of hard to find natural resources to produce