undefined | Better HN

0 pointsCydeWeys9y ago0 comments

Yes, even light bulbs. A typical household LED is very easy to run off AC. You just need a capacitor big enough to hold the charge between each cycle of AC (which is very little). More information here: http://www.ledsmagazine.com/articles/2006/05/running-leds-fr...

It'd be vastly more expensive to wire up an entire house for low voltage DC than it is to include the simple rectification components in every light bulb. In a house you're talking about many wire runs of many dozens of meters. This is not a good environment for low voltage DC at all.

0 comments

1 comments · 1 top-level

taeric9y ago

I recall seeing IEEE articles talking about the DC wired home. I confess I stopped paying attention, as it will be a long time before this is actionable for me. Can't claim surprise to know that I had things that were wrong.

Of course, the cynic (and, ironically optimist) in me still has this as evidence that "technical debt" is often used in BS circumstances by people that just don't fully understand the reasons for the things they are talking about. :)

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse