check out http://www.homepower.com/

buy a trailer - some have 12V lights, water pump, furnace, fridge, radio,
etc.

> ----------
> From:         Ghetto Scientist[SMTP:GhettoScientist@GMX.NET]
> Reply To:     pic microcontroller discussion list
> Sent:         Saturday July 14, 2001 7:38 AM
> To:   PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
> Subject:      [OT]: The 12 Volt Home
>
> For sometime I've been thinking about the merits of wiring a house with a
> low voltage bus (12 volts).
>
> There are a number of reasons I think this could be beneficial.  First I
> really don't like the switching power supplies in PCs.  They are noisy not
> to
> mention the fact that they seem to go bad on a semi-regular basis and when
> you
> put a few of them in one room they generate a nontrivial amount of heat.
> If
> I wired my house for 12 volts I could run a PCs off a simple voltage
> regulator / DC-DC converter.  Another benefit would be small power
> supplies for
> embedded systems (home automation components) are much smaller when the
> primary is
> only 12 volts as apposed to 110 volts.   Once white LEDs come down in
> price
> they could replace the [hot, inefficient] incandescent lights currently in
> use.  Also I could build a big UPS for all low voltage items in my house.
>
> Another reason I am interested in low voltage home systems is I have often
> though of living "off the [power] grid".  12 volt systems would largely
> eliminate the need for expensive power inverters.
>
> What I am wondering is what would be the best (most efficient) method of
> stepping down enough power from line voltage to 12 volts?  Would a
> "simple" wire
> wound transformer due?   Maybe a switching power supply.
>
> Sorry for the odd questions, I know next to nothing about power
> conversion.
>
> --adam
>
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