> If you build an off-grid solar house and use it for both your house > and charging your electric car, are there any disadvantages for using > DC current (household appliances can all be converted to DC) and > avoiding AC since you are off the grid? You avoid the cost, > maintenance, and (slight) inefficiency of inverters, but are there > significant disadvantages to this approach?
A big question is what voltage. Home solar typically uses high voltage 300 to 600 VDC so that currents are less and smaller copper wire can be used (think #12 standard wire). Remote, Off -grid DC systems typically operate no higher than 48 volts. Right there is a 10 to 1 drop in voltage so a 100 to 1 increase in cable losses. Now think big battery cables everywhere and a huge investment in copper. Some people then drop to 12v to use many common 12 camping accessories to live by. That then further multiplies wire losses by another eight to one factor, or almost 800 times more losses for the same wire. So In most cases, it is far, far easier to accept the 5% Inverter lossess and keep your house at the 120 VAC standard so you can use all existing home wiring techniques and all existing home appliances and all existing electrical things in the home than to deal with ALL specialized much more expensive DC appliances and HUGELY expensive specialized wiring. Bob _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org Read EVAngel's EV News at http://evdl.org/evln/ Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
