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by orf 1538 days ago
Why won’t it replace it, out of interest?
1 comments
wbsss4412 1538 days ago
Same reason why it didn’t win out 100 years ago. It isn’t as efficient.
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sabareesh 1538 days ago
I don't think it is efficiency, we had no way to step up and step down DC as we can do AC
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WorldMaker 1538 days ago
Yup, transistors especially have given us major breakthroughs in the ability to step up/step down DC.

Also, there have been huge breakthroughs in High-Voltage DC: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-voltage_direct_current

At certain huge (grid) scales they have found that AC and DC swap "efficiencies" again and we're increasingly starting to see current flows as DC-AC-DC "sandwiches" with DC used by the majority of consumer electronics and DC used for extremely high scale grid transport, and AC still useful in the mid-range transport.

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dhdc 1538 days ago
> DC-AC-DC "sandwiches"

Couldn't have said it better, I had a good laugh.

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vegetablepotpie 1538 days ago
Yes, this is true. To step up/down AC voltages, you only need a transformer, a pair of coiled wire. This is very simple tech.

To step up/down DC. There are ways to do it with solid state electronics. One of the ways I’ve seen is to transform the dc to ac internally, change the voltage, and convert and output DC.

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