The Home of the Future will be DC
135 years ago, Thomas Edison lost the "War of the Currents" because Direct Current (DC) power didn't travel long distances well. Alternating Current (AC) won the grid.
But in the home of the future, Edison might finally have his day.
The Convergence of DC
Most of our modern electronics—TVs, computers, and LED lights—run natively on DC power. Currently, we use wasteful power bricks to convert the grid's AC back into DC. Even modern high-efficiency refrigerators and Airspool air conditioners use internal inverters to run on DC motors.
The Purdue Nano-Grid
Researchers at Purdue University have already built a "house of the future" that runs entirely on DC power. By using a local DC nano-grid powered by solar panels and batteries, they’ve eliminated the energy lost during AC/DC conversion.
As we move toward a world powered by the sun (which produces DC), cutting out the "middleman" of AC conversion is the logical next step for an efficient home.