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Old 03-21-10, 11:04 PM   #17
NiHaoMike
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Xringer View Post
Not if you wanted AC...
That reminds me of a story my ECEN 441 instructor told. A contractor from NASA asked him about what power system to use onboard the space station. His response was DC. One company had tried to build a 20kHz power system and they could not get it to work properly. Then, based on the note the instructor wrote, another company built it on DC. It worked and DC is what they use today!

The answer seemed almost too obvious. Batteries are DC, as are solar panels. Electronics also run from DC. So why waste energy converting to AC only to convert it back to DC? Motors often run on AC, so use a point-of-load inverter that supplies exactly the right frequency and voltage needed at that time.
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