Dario Greggio wrote:
> I planned to have (as I already did in my previous home) 12 or 24Vcc
> around the house to be used for remote device, small actuators and
> such.

I would use the highest you can get away with and stay under the regulatory
limit where anyone cares.  I think that is 48V around here, but I haven't
really looked.

If allowed, 48VDC sounds like a good tradeoff.  It is low enough to be safe
in most circumstances, but high enough that you significantly cut down the
size of the conductor for the same power delivered.  Put a small buck
regulator on the front end of all devices.  60V transistors are still small,
cheap, and efficient, so this will be easy to do.  Even a poor buck switcher
will be more efficient than linearly regulating 12V down to 5V.  48V is also
high enough that a diode drop isn't a large fraction, but low enough that
Schottky diodes are still realistic.  80% efficiency should be possible
without doing anything particularly fancy, like synchronous rectification.


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