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Old 09-21-12, 07:35 AM   #7
Sirius
Lurking Renovator
 
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: Southern Califormia
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Piwoslaw,

The closest thing I have to a DC subsystem is a few variable AC to DC transformers from Rat Shack. This is simply because any of my DC based electronics require an AC plug to charge them. If I'm working on an electronics project, I always use a battery so I don't fry what it is I'm working on.

I'm sure you know, the device will draw the amperage that it needs, but if you plug a 12V power source into a 6V device, you create a paper weight. I did that with an early (expensive) Olympus digital camera.

I have thought about adding wiring to my house to run off of non-grid connected green powered battery systems. I even thought about putting the outlets next to the grid ones and just painting them green. However, they would be fed from the batteries, through an inverter to produce AC simply because the majority of stuff marketed in this world is designed to plug into a 110V or 220V AC outlet.

To quote Scotty in one of the Star Trek movies, (get your Scottish accent in your head now) "Captain, the more you reroute the plumbing, the easier it is to stop it up".

I think that was the writers way of explaining the K.I.S.S. method. "Keep It Simple Stupid", no offence intended. I learned that one in the military.

I think we all need to take a hard look at what we are doing for effiency and sacraficing ease of use. There needs to be a happy medium.

Don't let that discourage experimentation, that's not what I'm saying at all! That's how new discoveries are made.

For a system in my house, that I live in, daily; I don't know if I have enough time to worry about what voltage my DC device needs, find the appropriate step-up/step-down transformer, and still make it to work on time. I don't know if I'll be alert enough at 0400 when I get up to be able to read what the voltage is. And lets not forget when friends come over (who have no idea about my DC subsystem). God forbid if they start drinking a bit and then get access to the DC subsystem. I see lots of paper weights in that scenario.

I don't have that kind of time to let those worries take free rent in my head.

Separate your experiments from your daily living. K.I.S.S. it, and don't re-route the plumbing.
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