What I'd love is a standardized DC outlet wired into homes that can power anything from a phone to a desktop computer.
USB-C?
You're not going to put ~600W through a USB-C cable.
Slow Electricity: The Return of DC Power? (2016)
41–50 of 233 posts
Re: Slow Electricity: The Return of DC Power? (2016)
#42I would love 12VDC wired around my house with step down converters for each room. It would allow Our kids to plug in and unplug most of their things themselves (music players, lights, etc).
I'd go for 48VDC.
12V would need some fat wiring to avoid incurring voltage drops for normal amounts of loads.
48V is nice because you can use much thinner wiring, and it's about the highest "safe" voltage to accidentally touch with normal dry skin.
Re: Slow Electricity: The Return of DC Power? (2016)
#43What I'd love is a standardized DC outlet wired into homes that can power anything from a phone to a desktop computer.
There are people that wire up their entire homes with Anderson Powerpoles for DC everywhere. There's also PoE. The non-nerd's option is 12V cigarette lighter plugs, 5V USB-A plugs or USB-C. Hackaday had an article on this topic a while back: https://hackaday.com/2016/12/21/so-wheres-my-low-voltage-dc-...
You can even get Anderson Powerpole wall sockets: https://powerwerx.com/powerpole-connector-outlet-box-coverpl...
I lived on a boat for a while and I used almost exclusively DC - it worked out pretty well. I used hard wiring and cigarette lighter plugs and that worked fine. The problem with wiring a house is that DC losses start to be huge over decent distances (100+ feet starts to be really tough.) I feel like that's one reason why DC is only really standard on cars/boats/motorhomes.
Re: Slow Electricity: The Return of DC Power? (2016)
#44I read the whole article with sympathetic interest, until the conclusion: > One way to solve the problem of high power devices is simply not to use them -- this is the approach that's followed in sailboats, motorhomes and caravans > Obviously, this strategy implies a change in our way of life. It would mean that electricity is used only for lighting, electronics and refrigeration, while non-electric alternatives are…
I get unreasonably angry when Victorian cosplayers think they've found the solution to our wasteful modern life. Simply eschew modern conveniences and spend hours each week beating your clothes against a rock!
Simple, instead of grocery shopping twice a month, ditch that wasteful freezer and walk to the farmers' market down the block before dinner each night.
Was it cloudy yesterday? Simple!, take a whore-bath¹ at the sink and be thankful your meetings are on Zoom these days :)
Ok, ok, those are caricatures of the final paragraphs, but that's what I hear when the word "simple" is abused that way.
[¹] Or, "PTA", which isn't much nicer. Any ideas on what to call this that's less vulgar, but still derisive?
Re: Slow Electricity: The Return of DC Power? (2016)
#45What I'd love is a standardized DC outlet wired into homes that can power anything from a phone to a desktop computer.
Low-voltage DC for long wire runs is kind of wasteful -- you either lose a lot of energy in the wires or you need extra thick cables, so I wonder if the best way to do this is to have a high voltage line (AC or DC, it doesn't really matter) that goes to an outlet that has its own self-contained switching power supply and a bunch of low-voltage DC outlets.
Transitioning to this sort of system would actually be simple, you'd just have to make DC power supply boxes that plug into a regular 110 or 220 AC outlet -- sort of like multi-port USB power adapters, but designed for more power and probably higher voltages: perhaps +/- 12 volts and ground.
A more sophisticated system might be that the DC power supply can supply a different voltage/current to each port, and it negotiates with the device to supply to current power. (I think this is basically how DC fast chargers for EVs work -- the car tells the charger what it can accept, and the charger supplies that the car.)
Maybe "dumb" devices that don't know how to do the handshake just default to 5v DC or something.
Re: Slow Electricity: The Return of DC Power? (2016)
#46What I'd love is a standardized DC outlet wired into homes that can power anything from a phone to a desktop computer.
The "Anderson" DC connector is used a lot in the 48V systems I've played with. A bit bulky but could be a good candidate.
Re: Slow Electricity: The Return of DC Power? (2016)
#47What I'd love is a standardized DC outlet wired into homes that can power anything from a phone to a desktop computer.
USB Power Delivery 3.1 specifies power over USB-C up to 5A @ 48V. 240W doesn't give you a very powerful desktop: probably an SSD, a 65W CPU and a low power GPU. But that's still a decent desktop. I don't necessarily think it's wise to do 5 amps over USB-C, but it is a standardized DC outlet. Personally, USB-A is still a more useful power outlet, but nobody is insane enough to shove 240W over it.
Yes, USC-C with PD is the winning idea for DC infrastructure. All new homes should come with PD outlets. The outlets could be fed with 12 gauge copper and the PD electronics should be built in to the individual outlets.
Re: Slow Electricity: The Return of DC Power? (2016)
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I break about a USB-C cable a week I don’t know… that seems excessive, even people I’ve known to handle all of their stuff like it’s free have managed to go mostly through 1-2 cables a year.
I mean, the people who design this stuff don't do any user research, they sit in offices and think everyone else sits in offices. Reality is if you go out at all you've probably figured out that phones only come with 1/2 day of real battery life (because they do the damn factory tests with full bars of reception, not real world 1-bar reception), and you needed to charge a phone stuffed in one pocket with a battery in…
Sounds like you need to replace your phone's battery. I get 3 days charge with pretty heavy use from my moto g power. Much of your charging woes would disappear after that, charging only at night.
Re: Slow Electricity: The Return of DC Power? (2016)
#49Re: Slow Electricity: The Return of DC Power? (2016)
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
I mean, the people who design this stuff don't do any user research, they sit in offices and think everyone else sits in offices. Reality is if you go out at all you've probably figured out that phones only come with 1/2 day of real battery life (because they do the damn factory tests with full bars of reception, not real world 1-bar reception), and you needed to charge a phone stuffed in one pocket with a battery in…
Sounds like you need to replace your phone's battery. I get 3 days charge with pretty heavy use from my moto g power. Much of your charging woes would disappear after that, charging only at night.
Here come the excuses. No, I don't. My phone battery dies quickly because I use it. It's on 100% brightness (because you can't see the screen with any less than 100% in the California sun) providing GPS navigation when I'm on bike rides, sometimes recording timelapses and videos for part of it (sounds like what phones were made for, right?). Then I get to some destination and I need to have a Google Meet call with video on. Maybe hang out in a park and code for a while using phone as a 5G hotspot for my laptop and constant VPN into my office. All these are pretty normal use cases to me, the 1 full day battery life is bullshit if you actually use your phone. Then battery is dead, on the way home USB-C cable between my pocket and the phone mounted at the front. Then sometimes I dismount the bike on short notice and USB-C cable yanks and gets deformed, sometimes even damaging the USB-C port. Really shitty design. Their designers probably never bike.
They should look at Zojirushi water boiler magnetic plugs. You can yank them all you want and they don't deform. They're designed to be yanked off accidentally by children without bringing down a pot of boiling water from the counter. They just need to miniaturize the concept.