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Question of the Month: Which of the following do you think is the biggest barrier to moving to use more renewable energy sources?

dychen

e14 Question of the Month

Consumers are making the move to renewable energy, however, there is still a lot of dependence on fossil fuels.  Take the poll and in the Comments section, let us know what you think can be done to make the shift to renewable energy easier.

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  • source of image: amazon

    As we start to see more and more of these type of USB power sockets around the place, maybe the question is... why are these sockets only 5V DC. Could we get more use-cases for 12V and maybe 24V for homes and offices, especially if every building had a renewable energy source and a big old battery. One feeds of the other, so to speak. Then I suppose, the other question, if this renewable energy source plus battery is working well then I wonder... would we still need AC power sockets in every room in the home or in the business.

  • in reply to BigG

    cost of the cabling - lower voltage means higher currents -> higher diameter conductors are needed to keep the same voltage drop (percentage) across the installation. There is the saying that  there are DC powered server rooms somewhere (and maybe telecom switches were powered from 48V) but this involves very high diameter power lines to keep voltage drops in acceptable levels. It is the same as in PoE (power over ethernet) when voltage is (IIRC) 48V to keep energy waste in line.

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  • in reply to BigG

    cost of the cabling - lower voltage means higher currents -> higher diameter conductors are needed to keep the same voltage drop (percentage) across the installation. There is the saying that  there are DC powered server rooms somewhere (and maybe telecom switches were powered from 48V) but this involves very high diameter power lines to keep voltage drops in acceptable levels. It is the same as in PoE (power over ethernet) when voltage is (IIRC) 48V to keep energy waste in line.

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  • in reply to JWx

    Yes, scalability would be an issue in some larger buildings like apartment blocks. For homes though, I like the idea of having a 48V PoE as a backbone. It may not be perfect but it could be a workable solution. This will make setting up connected (smart home) devices so much easier for the not-so-smart end user.

    Maybe Single Pair Ethernet (SPE) with POE (not sure if this is actually viable) could also lower cost of cabling.

  • in reply to BigG

    Overall I think PoE saves energy, because it provides the granular visibility and control, super-easy to switch off power when it's not required!