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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>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. (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.
You can absolutely add a separate DC grid at, for example, 12V or 24V or 48V to your home. If you have enough devices that could benefit from that it makes total sense! It’s quite often the case with island solutions in, for example, a toolshed or similar.
But is that the case? Do you have enough devices that could readily use DC? Or would you have to suddenly replace or modify 200 different power supplies in your house just to save on pennies in conversion inefficiencies? If you’re not feeding your surplus into the grid you wouldn’t save anything anyway, you’d just have a slightly more efficient system, provided you utilize your whole output.
What kind of plugs would you use? AC power supplies are already standardized, no real risk of frying any equipment.
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