Comparative Study of the Electrical Energy Consumption and Cost for a Residential Building on Fully AC Loads Vis-a-Vis One on Fully DC Loads

Abstract

The inability of direct current (DC) to transform voltage levels and the ability of alternating currents (AC) to do such during the first war of currents are the reasons why power system networks are AC designed today. However, since the growing need for energy systems to be green and efficient, DC is crawling back to the scene. This paper proposes the use of DC lighting and household appliances as DC applications are diverse and hold the promise for efficient power consumption and easy integration of renewable energy. For this work, AC and DC systems are set up and the systems which consist of lighting and household appliances, and these are compared in terms of energy demand and energy cost. It was seen that using DC lighting and household appliances reduces energy consumption and energy cost by 55.44% in residential buildings. Seeing that residential building accounts for 80% of energy consumption in Nigeria, making residential building household appliances and lighting all DC is highly encouraged.