A clean energy future
I just watched this video about energy dependence and it got me thinking about some stuff.
In particular, it struck me how one of the quoted figures is that even LED lighting is only about 30% efficient in its conversion from final energy to usable light. My experience with LED lighting has been that 120V AC lamps do indeed generate a lot of heat, and I guess 30% sounds about right, but so much of that heat is just from the power circuitry: namely from having to convert AC to DC and step the voltage down.
But does it have to be that way?
What would things look like if homes had a low-voltage wiring system specifically for DC devices? Whole-home USB wiring that just connects every DC device via USB Power Delivery, so all of the laptops, phones, lighting, and so on just get however much DC current they need, without any need for additional power conversion. Have just one central spot for converting AC to DC for everything, and take advantage of the efficiency that would provide.
Even something small, like a household power bank, could do a lot for this. The battery can charge up and top itself off as necessary and do its AC-to-DC conversion on an intermittent basis, and then the low-voltage devices in the home can slowly discharge it with a relative trickle, all resulting in a much lesser amount of overall power draw.
Furthermore, with homes that have solar power and/or battery backup systems, there isn’t even a need for AC-DC conversion to begin with, making things even more efficient!
It just seems like this is something which could make a huge difference in household power efficiency if widely adopted.
And of course, we could solve the entire country’s electrical power needs super quickly if everyone were to install solar panels on their house, and treat the grid as a place to store power instead via hydroelectric batteries and such, but that’s just wishful thinking given the current political climate…