iwasforcedtopickausername
New Member
- Joined
- Oct 13, 2022
- Messages
- 41
I've been looking into 12V to 5V/USB converters. From what I can see, a great number of them support up to 30V, making them suitable for 24V solar setups. Digging in some more, it seems like there's a lot of support for 24V, even with LED bulbs.
Obviously for a home or larger installation, most are going to benefit from 48V. But for say a cabin or something off grid where you have some DC appliances, 24V may be a special niche.
There is some stuff like USB buck converters that can supposedly handle up to 60V making them suitable for 48V, but they are harder to find and I would be a little more skeptical of the claims.
When using 12V, you may have laptops and other devices that want 19-20V. It's supposed to be more efficient to buck (drop the voltage) than to boost. Whereas with 12V, you may need the odd boost converter.
I did see some LED bulbs that claimed they could handle 48V, but far more that could do 12V or 24V (usually with a 30V max).
Anyway, just thought this was interesting. 12V does have the widest compatibility for radio and definitely makes sense in some cases. 48V, as great as it is, does seem to have less compatibility than 24V, though. Of course you can always use a buck converter to drop from 48V to 24V or 12V. Could maybe wire a cabin with 48V with 12V buck converters for smaller electronics at various "outlets".
Edit: One more advantage to lower voltages is that with some inverters, the standby current is lower. For the Victron Phoenix 1200W inverter, the 12V unit uses 7W, 24V unit uses 8W, and 48V unit uses 10W. If in eco mode, it's more dramatic. 12V uses 1W, 24V uses 1.5W, and 48V uses 3W. It may not be enough to matter, but could also add up. Now the 48V is the most efficient while under power, so it may even out depending on your use.
Edit again: One more advantage, this one is more practical, is that there's a ton of solar charge controllers for 12V or 24V. You have to pay a fair bit more to get 48V most of the time. You may be able to get 2x 24V solar charge controllers for less than the price of one 48V. Obviously, 24V is not the answer for everyone, but if you *know* that you're not going to need more than a certain amount of power and your wire runs are fairly short, 24V may make more sense for you than 48V. But if you want to expand, which may well be the case, 48V is probably worthwhile.
Obviously for a home or larger installation, most are going to benefit from 48V. But for say a cabin or something off grid where you have some DC appliances, 24V may be a special niche.
There is some stuff like USB buck converters that can supposedly handle up to 60V making them suitable for 48V, but they are harder to find and I would be a little more skeptical of the claims.
When using 12V, you may have laptops and other devices that want 19-20V. It's supposed to be more efficient to buck (drop the voltage) than to boost. Whereas with 12V, you may need the odd boost converter.
I did see some LED bulbs that claimed they could handle 48V, but far more that could do 12V or 24V (usually with a 30V max).
Anyway, just thought this was interesting. 12V does have the widest compatibility for radio and definitely makes sense in some cases. 48V, as great as it is, does seem to have less compatibility than 24V, though. Of course you can always use a buck converter to drop from 48V to 24V or 12V. Could maybe wire a cabin with 48V with 12V buck converters for smaller electronics at various "outlets".
Edit: One more advantage to lower voltages is that with some inverters, the standby current is lower. For the Victron Phoenix 1200W inverter, the 12V unit uses 7W, 24V unit uses 8W, and 48V unit uses 10W. If in eco mode, it's more dramatic. 12V uses 1W, 24V uses 1.5W, and 48V uses 3W. It may not be enough to matter, but could also add up. Now the 48V is the most efficient while under power, so it may even out depending on your use.
Edit again: One more advantage, this one is more practical, is that there's a ton of solar charge controllers for 12V or 24V. You have to pay a fair bit more to get 48V most of the time. You may be able to get 2x 24V solar charge controllers for less than the price of one 48V. Obviously, 24V is not the answer for everyone, but if you *know* that you're not going to need more than a certain amount of power and your wire runs are fairly short, 24V may make more sense for you than 48V. But if you want to expand, which may well be the case, 48V is probably worthwhile.
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