DChouse

DC distribution in the Homoe

As more "alternative" intermittent sources are added to the grid, stability and availability may become an issue. Due to horrible customer service, spam calls, and slow backhaul, we recently moved from Frontier FIOS to Comcast Business, and our phones from Frontier to Ooma.

A downside is that the Ooma Telo base station, and the base station for our cordless phones, and the internet access point will all fail if incoming power fails. Since our power is supplied via 70kV lines on poles along Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway, and traffic accidents are increasing as drivers flout traffic laws and distract themselves with dodopaddles, a 70 kV supply pole will come down sooner or later, which translates to a week or more without electricity while major repairs are scheduled, provisioned, and implemented.

To supply essential communications, we will need standby battery/generator power to these items:

I would like to distribute 24V through a "standard" connector that cannot be confused with house AC power, and use buck converters to drop the voltage from 24V to the various low power appliances.

In addition, a "nice to have" would be keeping the refrigerators, a microwave oven, and the gas furnace motor and gas water heater running.