| ▲ | KnuthIsGod 6 hours ago |
| Waiting for home DC. It is silly to have AC to DC converters in all of my wall connected electronics ( LED bulbs, home controller, computer equipment etc ) |
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| ▲ | jacquesm 6 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| Not going to happen. For the same reason that the US never converted to a higher domestic voltage even though there are many practical advantages. The transition from one system to another at the consumer level would be terrible, even if there would be some advantage (and I'm not sure the one you list is even valid, you'd get DC-DC converters instead because your consumers typically use a lower voltage than the house distribution network powering your sockets) it would be offset by the cost of maintaining two systems side by side for decades. You could wire your house for 12, 24 or 48V DC tomorrow and some off-grid dwellers have done just that. But since inverters have become cheap enough such installations are becoming more and more rare. The only place where you still see that is in cars, trucks and vessels. And if you thought cooking water in a camper on an inverter is tricky wait until you start running things like washing machines and other large appliances off low voltage DC. You'll be using massive cables the cost of which will outweigh any savings. |
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| ▲ | manwe150 5 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | I suppose that still begs the question somewhat, since the US does have 240V (2 phase) already driving many appliances. Why hasn’t it ever become standard for luxury kitchens to have a European-style outlet for use with a European kettle? I know the US already has a different 240V plug shape, so it might have to be an unlicensed installation, but surely someone wanted hot tea faster and did that calculus before? | | |
| ▲ | fc417fc802 an hour ago | parent | next [-] | | Ahckhually US residential is split single phase, not two phase. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split-phase_electric_power I think the answer to your question is that it mostly doesn't matter for personal mug size quantities of hot water and if it does matter to you there are readily available competing options such as dedicated taps for your kitchen sink. Perhaps the biggest reason is that a traditional kettle on any half decent electric range will match if not exceed the power output of any imported electric kettle. Many even go well beyond that with one burner marked "quick boil" or similar. | |
| ▲ | jacquesm 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Well, as you say, it would not be according to code and the insurance company might have something to say about it. It's also single phase but not quite the way you do it in the USA, it would be a neutral and a phase whereas in the USA I think it is 2x110. Finally, it's 50 Hz rather than 60 which would work fine for resistive loads but not so well for inductive ones such as transformers and motors. In all likely not worth the trouble. When I moved to Canada I gave away most of my power tools for that reason and when I moved back I had to do that all over again. | | |
| ▲ | aidenn0 4 hours ago | parent [-] | | > In all likely not worth the trouble. When I moved to Canada I gave away most of my power tools for that reason and when I moved back I had to do that all over again. If you ever have to do it again, you can probably get a transformer rated high enough for power-tools for cheaper than replacing all of your power tools. |
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| ▲ | jcalvinowens 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | I wired a UK kettle to an unused 240V range outlet in the US once. It was amazing, boiled a liter of water in just under a minute. Obviously kinda sketchy. | | | |
| ▲ | ianburrell 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | You can run 240V circuit to kitchen for kettle and put in NEMA 6 outlet. But few people care about fast boil and importing European kettle. Most people use the microwave or stovetop, and 120V kettles are fine in most cases. It will never become a standard thing. | |
| ▲ | vessenes 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Most important comment here!! I would love to buy like a 6kw battery induction kettle for the states. As far as I can tell, they don’t exist. | |
| ▲ | tbrownaw 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | > I know the US already has a different 240V plug shape, so it might have to be an unlicensed installation, but surely someone wanted hot tea faster and did that calculus before? How expensive would a proper AC->DC->AC brick for that power level be? | | |
| ▲ | jacquesm 4 hours ago | parent [-] | | Not so simple, you'd have to use a 'drier' or 'welder' socket for that otherwise you won't have enough power. A single circuit in Europe is 240V 16A or 3840W! A pure sinewave inverter for that kind of power is maybe 600 to 1000 bucks or so, then you'd still need the other side and maybe a smallish battery in the middle t stabilize the whole thing. Or you could use one of those single phase inverters they use for motors. |
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| ▲ | SoftTalker 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | I'm not sure it's likely, but I could see DC lighting start to happen in new construction. Have a single AC-to-DC converter off the main service entrance that powers hard-wired LED lighting fixtures in the house. Would probably be better than running the individual (and usually very low quality) converters in dozens of standard LED light bulbs. Would need to be standardized, codified, etc. so probably not happening soon. | |
| ▲ | wincy 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | I just wish I could run my air conditioner and my desktop computer at the same time without flipping the breaker. The RTX 5090 is a space heater and will easily peg at the 600W it’s rated for, and so with that and an air conditioner window unit, I have to run a long cable from another unused room if I want to do anything that stresses the video card. |
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| ▲ | scarecrowbob 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Well, having spent some time operating a 12VDC system last year when I moved into some shacks, I will say that I find it a lot more convenient to run 120VAC. I end up converting stuff anyhow, because all my loads run at different voltages- even though I had my lights, vent fan, and heater fans running on 12V I still ended up having to change voltages for most of the loads I wanted to run, or generate a AC to to charge my computer and run a rice cooker. Not to mention that running anything that draws any real power quickly needs a much thicker wire at 12V. So you're either needing to run higher voltage DC than all your loads for distribution and then lowering the voltage when it gets to the device, or you simply can't draw much power. Not that you can't have higher voltage DC; with my newer system the line from my solar panels to my charger controller is around 350VDC and I can use 10awg for that... but none of the loads I own that draw much power (saws, instapot, rice cooker, hammond organ, tube guitar amp) take DC :D |
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| ▲ | ternus 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| The lesser-known instance of this is RV power. When you're running off small batteries and solar, you want to make the best use of the watt-hours you have, and that means avoiding the DC-to-AC-to-DC loop wherever possible. So you run 12V (or in newer models, higher voltage) versions of everything, upconverting as necessary. |
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| ▲ | amluto 4 hours ago | parent [-] | | I am really skeptical that 12VDC power distribution in RVs actually saves power compared to a high-quality (hah!) higher voltage AC or DC system. 12V is absurdly low and you can’t easily lose quite a few percent in resistive losses even with fairly large cables, and those large cables are quite unpleasant to work with and rather dangerous. | | |
| ▲ | saltyoldman 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | I tried using a microwave off the RV batteries, your inverter needs 4/0 cable. Very "fun". |
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| ▲ | hahn-kev 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| It's called USB power delivery |
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| ▲ | est 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| home appliances have lower voltage, like 12V or 5V. The wire loss and heat would be a problem. |
