So solar panels produce DC current, no conversion actually happens when sunlight is generated as electricity.
The DC current is then converted to AC as it is efficient in the electrical grid for long distances. However it is also used at home and majority of devices (hardly at least) don’t use AC as it gets converted to a safer DC current. This is especially important for electronics and battery recharging. When conversion happens, majority of that energy is lost as heat which you would find in the charging brick. In addition, with smartphones and EVs, wouldn’t direct DC be more efficient and quicker to charge than converting it back to DC. [Proponents claim that it would be beneficial if buildings had a ‘AC-DC converter box’ near a switchboard.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hF_A4sp7nM8) (should mention that this is not a very credible source but others also claim similar stuff with DC)
So as I said before, why is AC forced as the current for homes instead of direct DC. Only current that needs to be exported to the grid would benefit from AC conversion. I couldn’t really see any answer to this with solar on mind. They will say AC is used for powering things while the other sites claim that AC burn devices if used.
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>However it is also used at home and majority of devices (hardly at least) don’t use AC as it gets converted to a safer DC current.
The majority of devices *by count* use lower voltage DC, but the vast vast majority of devices by *power draw* use AC
Electric stoves, ovens, dishwashers, clothes washers, electric driers, fans, air conditioners, and pumps are all built with AC motors and with heating elements sized for the right AC voltage.
You’d also run into the problem of *which* DC voltage do you send around your house? 5V? 9V? 12V? 24V? 170VDC to replicate peak of line? The losses are mostly in stepping between voltages not in the conversion from AC to DC. If you’re running 24VDC it is safer but you need *thiccc* wires to pass any significant amount of power(800W for a PC would require 8AWG wire!), and if you’re running 170VDC its actually significantly more dangerous and fuses/breakers won’t stop the arc so you have no fault protection
>When conversion happens, majority of that energy is lost as heat which you would find in the charging brick.
This is also wildly outdated knowledge. Solar inverters can be >95% efficient at their conversions. The bigger it is the higher the efficiency. Even small USB power bricks are all using flybacks now and are >80%. A 10W USB power brick might consume 12W of power at full load but a big 50W brick is probably less than 60W because again more space means more room for efficient parts
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