Not Completely Bonkers

[The Solar King]

I don't know if anyone else visited a stand at Ecobuild where there was a demonstration running computers using flexible thin film printed panels. The guy on the stand was ex SAS and seemed to have spent too long in the sun. He was saying that a lot of forces kit runs on low voltage DC. Basic premise being that a great number of electrical devices we use have a power supply that takes mains voltage and reduces it to 8-20 volts DC.

He was also mentioning various techniques for generating power such as the SEG effect and Seebeck effect.

The bottom line was he had taken his house off-grid using DC, ditching all the PSUs that were mainly generating heat and using LED lighting. When asked about white goods, he said he had units designed for things like luxury yachts that were built DC. He also had a battery back up system.

When you think about it, it does make some sense. PSUs are not the most efficient way of heating your home. Phone and computer chargers are now the most common source of fires in offices.

What does anyone else think?

 

[mdovey]

It make sense to me - most devices in the home are indeed low power DC (with transformers). Even white goods will be using some DC for the electronic controllers.

I doubt however, that the typical household could go completely off grid, and the cost of replacement batteries would probably offset most (if not all) of the savings.

What I would envision is intelligent inverters which could output both DC and AC (transforming DC from the grid AC if there is no or insufficient power from the panels), then run a DC ring around the house which you could plug DC devices directly into. We'd need an standard socket for DC devices, although USB is pretty prevalent.

 

[solarsavings]

There's was an ex special forces guy in the malvern hills that is into something similar a few years back. He made his living from communications in unfriendly places and was into yachts big time too. I wonder.....

 

[The Solar King]

This guy was a Scot and now lived North of Glasgow.

 

[Marvo]

He's got a point, many household appliances nowadays could run much more efficiently if the power supply was removed and it was fed directly by DC. Problem is there's no standardization of the supply voltage requirements on the DC side, every manufacturer uses different DC voltages and PC's have two different internal voltage rails etc.

It would massively reduce the the triplens and therefore neutral load on the supply authority if the small built-in SMPSU's were a thing of the past and a central more efficient transformer/regulator/battery system was used.

Maybe something for further future development but I think it would need a push in the right direction by a few legislation changes.

 

[moggy1968]

You know, there's so many 'ex SAS' guys around I'm really concerned there's no one left in The Regiment!

The one thing that's pretty much guaranteed is if someone says they're ex SAS they aren't.

More likely signals, may have done some time on attachment as a 'Hereford Groupie'.

A lot of forces kit is DC so it can run on batteries. Low voltage for obvious length of use issues

 

[siliconskum]

It would massively reduce the the triplens and therefore neutral load on the supply authority if the small built-in SMPSU's were a thing of the past and a central more efficient transformer/regulator/battery system was used.

Actually, that is how it was done originally. The local transformer substations we see now, were actually a large battery plant around the turn of the 20th century (lighting only back then). This is starting to make a comeback due to the need to store power from intermittent renewable energy sources. Also DC grid transmission is also having a revival due to rewnewable energy too.

Funny how technology goes full circle.

SS