Smart DC Wall Outlet Design with Improved Load Voltage Detection

Abstract

A standard home in the United States has access to the 120V AC power grid for use with home appliances. Many electronics used at home are powered by a DC power supply, which loses energy in the conversion from AC power. The DC House project avoids any conversion between AC and DC by storing energy in batteries as DC power and supplying it directly to DC appliances. While AC systems feature a standardized output voltage, no such standard exists for DC systems. The Smart DC Wall Outlet solves this by automatically adjusting its output voltage to meet any required DC load voltage.A hardware solution was developed using a microcontroller in tandem with a DC to DC Buck converter to monitor trends in the output current and set the output voltage accordingly. The Smart DC Wall Outlet features two 100W output channels that were able to correctly identify the required output voltage of five out of seven test devices.Results indicate that it is possible to generalize the turn on characteristics of DC devices, but that other solutions may find more success. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my advisor Dr. Taufik for showing me the true utility of power electronics. I would also like to thank my mother and my sister, Barbara and Rebecca Granieri, along with the rest of my family for helping me through university and encouraging me every step of the way. Last, but not least, I would like to thank my friends for being my support when I was in need. Without these people, none of this would have been possible. vi