[pkulak]

Exactly. The problem here is that everyone will just switch to gas for everything. Dryer, stove, water heater, car, etc. That’s terrible!

The 380-volt DC sounded nice, so long as DC to DC is more efficient than AC to DC, but I have no idea if that’s true.

[Reason077]

The article overstates the conversion losses anyway. Modern solar inverters are something like 95%+ efficient.

Consumer devices vary, but it’s a safe bet that modern cool-to-the-touch GaN power adapters are far more efficient than those old black bricks from the 1990s.

Saving a few % just isn’t worth all the incompatibility and inconvenience of rewiring your entire house for.

380-volt DC sounds dangerous!

[xxs]

DC-DC actually converts DC to high freq. AC 1st, then uses a transformer and then rectifiers, smoothing, feedback, etc. If no isolation, i.e. common ground is fine, a choke instead of a transformer is fine too.

[elcritch]

One possible benefit of a DC-DC circuit is that the converter can choose its switching frequency. That can give some room for optimizations for power or size.

[stephen_g]

So do AC-DC converters. They rectify the incoming AC, then it’s basically the same as a DC-DC converter. They have a switch that produces basically PWM in the hundreds of kHz to low MHz range, that it punches through a transformer.