Power to the People's Devices (new USB Power Delivery spec)

CIO ^ | March 24, 2014 | Bart Perkins

[Cboldt]

i think not much distance involved, on the order of 5 meters. Found this description of the specifications ...

"So with this new specification, you can go from very small devices with 5 volts, 2 amps or 10 watts -- where USB starts -- up to 20 volts 5 amps and 100 watts," Ravencraft said. "This power delivery capability is going to extend the ease of use for consumers, reduce clutter in the work and home environment, but also reduce electronic waste filling up landfills with custom chargers."

Consumers toss out millions of battery chargers every year. In fact, cell phone chargers account for almost 100,000 tons of trash annually in the U.S. In the E.U., chargers represent about 51,000 tons of landfill waste.

[Cboldt]

Google "hvdc" for a view of high voltage DC pwoer transmission, which is practiced commercially, but not widepread.

[roadcat]

The next obvious step is microwave wireless power distribution that you can sync into and not even have the necessity of a cable.

People have already created wireless power distribution. That's the goal of some inventors. Some devices can "grab" energy from all the electromagnetic force that penetrates our airspace. My wife looks at this as a bad thing. She believes all this unseen stuff criss-crossing our airspace is causing illness in people, possibly even causing cancer. After all, our bodies are partially electrical and prone to interference from electromagnetics. Get exposed to a high-energy microwave burst and your body will get cooked. Get exposed to high-energy electromagnetics and your cells will go haywire. So perhaps wireless power distribution is not such a good thing. Incidentally, she worked for our utility company, PG&E, was exposed to a lot of EMF and retired early due to cancer (several types of cancer).

Regarding Edison and Tesla, I'm well aware of the history, having read much of the wars between them. Edison was not afraid of AC, he was an opportunist who wanted to make money and tried everything to discourage use of AC in favor of DC. He hired goons to kill animals under AC power lines and then influenced media to report that AC was dangerous to people as well as animals; that unseen AC energy was killing the animals. Edison was an evil man. DC has always been in use within short distances of the power generation, but AC ruled for distances greater than a couple miles. Reason being, energy loss of DC being converted to heat by wiring resistance. Devices that convert from AC to DC are still inefficient, perhaps converting only 80 percent of the energy. Have you ever pulled a wall wart from the wall outlet and noted how hot the brick is?

[Red Badger]

Yes, the wall wart is warm because the transformer is still operating and dissipating heat even if nothing is connected to it. Loss of energy thru heat generation is part of the problem with linear power supplies, which most wall warts are if they are not simply AC transformers that step down the 120VAC to 10VAC which is then rectified and converted within the device being powered. That is why AC Switcher-type power supplies are so dominant in today’s electronics; they can operate on 88-250 VAC and some on DC inputs as well, usually in the 80-90% efficiency range...............