oil supply sigint

[jim bell]

 From: Mirimir <mirimir at riseup.net>
>See
> http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2016/04/slow-electricity-the-return-of-low-voltage-dc-power.html
What is said there is logical, but it is impractical.  Society has far too much invested in AC transmission systems (including those wires already installed in buildings) and consuming devices to expect even a small switchover to DC for the vast majority of applications.  In Tesla's (and Edison's) day DC was impractical, because there was no efficient, reliable way to convert low-voltage DC to high-voltage, and back.  (motor-generator sets were the closest to that.)
In contrast, the AC transformer was very simple, reliable (no moving parts), and eventually could be built to step up to 760 KV (and perhaps higher), enabling transmission of many hundreds of miles, and then down to 240 VAC, split to 120 VAC.  That's why Tesla was right, and Edison was wrong.  Edison could never have wired the country with any realistic DC system.
Today, converting DC to  DC is far easier, at least for low voltages, see the large set of chips made by Maxim.  https://www.maximintegrated.com/en/products/power/switching-regulators.html   
But it is virtually as easy to convert rectified AC to low-voltage DC, with these same kinds of chips.  So there is very little reason to abandon the modern AC distribution system.  Even a local solar array generates a varying voltage that will have to be switched to a specific DC voltage to charge batteries, which is easy to do.  And if you hope to sell your excess of power to the grid, it will have to be converted to AC anyway.
        Jim   
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