[pomian]

Look into country cabins, boats and campers. Especially the first though. Many are built with only solar for power. They have 12 volt wiring for 12v lights, and 12v outlets. The only AC is if someone plugs in an inverter to a 12v outlet. If course there are many builds with a main inverter next to the ' battery shack', and often 110 AC wiring from that. But there is a lot of information about pure 12v systems, and it is very doable. The problem is if you are not doing it yourself and are in a city, to find a contractor. If you do a dual setup - I suggest using a different colour of wiring, for the 12v system. ;)

[lbriner]

That isn't a great analogy because the expectation for electrical appliances in a boat/camper/cabin is much lower than it would be in most homes.

I had a battery fridge in a caravan (trailer) and it was very small and pretty rubbish, certainly not suitable for home. However, for a short stay, it could keep some basic foods cool enough to be safe.

As others have said, although it is fine on paper, as soon as you start talking about significant power, you are talking lots of amps, which means more risk of overheating and fire, potentially significantly larger (and therefore expensive) cabling and all of the switchgear that can support a few amps AC will not support the same current at DC so all your switchers are larger/electronic. There is also an issue of RFI which could be significant if you are switching high current DC loads.