DC versus AC in residential buildings: efficiency comparison

Abstract

DC energy solutions are gaining interest in recent years, due to improvements in power electronics. Some companies have developed solutions for the domestic implementation of DC power systems. This article analyzes the state of the art about domestic DC applications and compares the efficiency of these systems in comparison to conventional AC systems. Different loads of a building as lighting, elevator or heating and renewable energies as PV panels or small wind generator are modeled for both AC and DC connections. With these models the power consumption of the building is simulated to compare the performance of both systems.