On the viability of dc homes: an economic perspective from domestic electrical appliances

Abstract

The past few years witnessed a growing acclaim for dc power systems, which is mainly justified by the increasing use of energy storage systems and renewable energy sources based mainly on solar photovoltaic technologies. However, there is also a motivation from the point of view of domestic electrical appliances. Since the vast majority of these appliances is comprised by an ac-dc converter, it can be convenient to shift the domestic power supply from ac to dc. In this context, this paper presents an economic assessment of dc homes from the energy consumption perspective and its comparison with traditional homes supplied by ac electrical power grids. In order to perform such assessment, the main type of electronic loads is powered both by ac voltage and by dc voltage, comparing the efficiency and estimated energy cost for each case. The removal of the ac-dc converter present in these loads is also analyzed and compared with the two previously referred cases, supporting the supply of dc power to this type of loads. The analysis is performed by means of experimental results obtained with a laboratorial setup, aiming to validate the feasibility of dc homes under realistic operating conditions of the loads.