Charging off of Truck's 220 outlet

[MP3Mike]

As for wiring what devices do you have that actually need 240V or 110V to run?

You mean things like:

• Cooktop
• Oven
• Dishwasher
• Toaster
• Water heater
• Computer
• TV
• DVR
• Lights
• A/C
• Furnance

Sure, they don't have to all be 120/240V, but they do have to be wired. Nobody is going to live where they have to keep changing battery packs on everything in the house. Not to mention battery packs don't last forever and you have to keep replacing them. And there are charging losses so you are wasting energy by doing that.

I'm sorry you got frozen in the shower dear, didn't you remember to replace the battery pack on the water heater first?

Our house goes through ~24kWhs of power on an average day. That would be lugging around ~275lbs of batteries everyday just to keep the house going.

 

[JBee]

@MP3Mike

Well your consumption is fairly high which is the first thing to fix before going DC. Does that electricity include your climate control heating and cooling, and water heating? Passive homes are the go. Note I'm still talking about an end to end solution not a modification of legacy devices.

Cooktop: DC induction cooktop with thermally insulated cookware will bring this down to a few 100Wh

Oven: Insulated oven with triple glass door - or slow cooker - or even better low temp vaccuum cooker again in 100s Wh range

Dishwasher: Only needs small water pump and hot water from household thermal store

Toaster (and grill): yeah ok but only occasional use?

You need a fridge too: easy to do DC at under 100W.

Most of these are kitchen devices btw...

Water Heater: must be a heat pump with thermal store so it can "charge" directly during the day or use a ice heater in cold winters - multi season capable
Furnace: same as above with 12V DC circulation pump for hydronic circuit
A/C: same system as the above two but in reverse heat pump mode. Can be direct drive without electrical store except for the DC circulation pump, energy is stored in thermal boiler using water only. Cold can be stored for cooling, or use the ice you made for heating in winter to cool in summer. (This is being done with off the shelf systems btw)

Computer, TV, DVR (really?) and LED lights are all DC already and low power use capable devices that can easily run off batteries without being inconvenient. Ideally using POE or USB PD for connectivity as well.

It's actually surprising what you don't need to have 240/110V for when you look at it.

 

[israndy]

For baking cookies yesterday the wife used 3.9kWhs in our brand new insulated oven. The lasagna last week was 2.1kWhs. Would be nice if these capabilities were actually possible, but I don't see it dropping to a few hundred watts.

 

[JBee]

For baking cookies yesterday the wife used 3.9kWhs in our brand new insulated oven. The lasagna last week was 2.1kWhs. Would be nice if these capabilities were actually possible, but I don't see it dropping to a few hundred watts.

Cook when the sun shines. No batteries required. Vaccuum cooking works. Cooking is a function of air pressure not just temperature. Sucking a vaccuum uses less energy than heating. Doesn't have to be for everything but it does lower the energy used overall. Slow cooking up to 100C can be done hydronically without electricity at all.

The main household consumer of energy is thermal, by either making or removing heat. The main output of all fossil derived electricity is also heat. All heat usage can be managed much better resulting in lower energy losses overall. The trick is to use the energy types we require instead of our infatuation with converting everything to electricity first and then wasting most of it through poor thermal control.

The point is if you take out thermal energy you can easily manage everything else in the household with batteries. Especially so if battery wnergy density continues to improve along with a lower cost. It will happen in the next decade or so I'd say.