Technology and Wisdom = Better Humanity
We should be wiser in using technology for human happiness.
Monday 9 July 2007, 1:02 AM
A DC-based culture is growing.
In 1880 approximately, Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse contended between two kinds of electricity: Direct Current and Alternate Current. DC lost because there were no good ways to transport it to distant places without huge losses. AC has the advantage of being transformed to higher voltages and transmitted at lower currents.
One and quarter century later, we don't even pay attention when we see the huge towers with electrical conductors on top at 160 kilovolts or higher. It is a necessary evil that one has to put with in order to live in a "civilized" world. AC has other disadvantages: every village needs a transformer substation to lower the voltage from kilovolts to 220 or 110 volts, depending on the country. Voltage in Japan is 100 volts, and in a ship it is 400 volts. In a place where heavy motors are used, the installation is three-phase. That makes home appliances purchased in Europe incompatible with houses in the U.S.; one has to buy a transformer to accommodate the difference.
Since 1970 or so, however, a growing number of electrical devices have been produced, requiring low DC voltage, due to semiconductors: electronic gadgets and appliances, such as radios, cameras, recorders, toys and computers. To solve the incompatibility, AC to DC power supplies and batteries have been developed. Today, some of the thriving industries are in the category of power supply, battery and battery-charger manufacturers. Batteries allow the devices to be portable, because they are not connected to the "power grid", so they give the user of the device freedom of locomotion while doing useful work: cellphones and portable computers, for example. What would be the next step to tip the balance toward DC? Lighting. The solution is before us: Light Emitting Diodes--LEDs. If one takes a look at LEDs Magazine, one sees that in 2006 superLEDs came into existence, single LEDs that can emit more than 100 lumens. That is a significant achievement, if one considers that a 100-watt incandescent bulb outputs 1200 lumens. It is even more compelling to know that the energy transduction efficiency of a LED can reach higher levels than even the Compact Fluorescent Lamps--CFLs. LEDs are better than CFLs because they work at low voltages and contain no mercury. It is harder to make CFLs work with batteries, and when they do, they produce high ElectroMagnetic Interference--EMI. Therefore, LEDs for illumination are here to stay, and they will push the balance toward a DC culture in the world.
The gigantic AC power grid has no reason to grow any more, one of the last outposts of megacorporations, after telecommunications. DC culture makes people independent from powerful multinationals.
One and quarter century later, we don't even pay attention when we see the huge towers with electrical conductors on top at 160 kilovolts or higher. It is a necessary evil that one has to put with in order to live in a "civilized" world. AC has other disadvantages: every village needs a transformer substation to lower the voltage from kilovolts to 220 or 110 volts, depending on the country. Voltage in Japan is 100 volts, and in a ship it is 400 volts. In a place where heavy motors are used, the installation is three-phase. That makes home appliances purchased in Europe incompatible with houses in the U.S.; one has to buy a transformer to accommodate the difference.
Since 1970 or so, however, a growing number of electrical devices have been produced, requiring low DC voltage, due to semiconductors: electronic gadgets and appliances, such as radios, cameras, recorders, toys and computers. To solve the incompatibility, AC to DC power supplies and batteries have been developed. Today, some of the thriving industries are in the category of power supply, battery and battery-charger manufacturers. Batteries allow the devices to be portable, because they are not connected to the "power grid", so they give the user of the device freedom of locomotion while doing useful work: cellphones and portable computers, for example. What would be the next step to tip the balance toward DC? Lighting. The solution is before us: Light Emitting Diodes--LEDs. If one takes a look at LEDs Magazine, one sees that in 2006 superLEDs came into existence, single LEDs that can emit more than 100 lumens. That is a significant achievement, if one considers that a 100-watt incandescent bulb outputs 1200 lumens. It is even more compelling to know that the energy transduction efficiency of a LED can reach higher levels than even the Compact Fluorescent Lamps--CFLs. LEDs are better than CFLs because they work at low voltages and contain no mercury. It is harder to make CFLs work with batteries, and when they do, they produce high ElectroMagnetic Interference--EMI. Therefore, LEDs for illumination are here to stay, and they will push the balance toward a DC culture in the world.
The gigantic AC power grid has no reason to grow any more, one of the last outposts of megacorporations, after telecommunications. DC culture makes people independent from powerful multinationals.
