All of our homes use AC (Alternating Current) and all of our trailers, boats and cars use DC (Direct Current)
Thomas Edison was the inventor of DC and Tesla was the inventor of AC... If we would have stayed with Direct Current we could have all been running our homes with a localized Power Source rather than over long Transmission lines.
I wonder if we had stayed with the DC model we would all be much happier than paying all these extra "Delivery Fees" to have AC power delivered to our homes .... If we were all running DC appliances with Solar Power at our homes we would not need a Grid or DC to AC Inverters.
Hmmmm.... Did Tesla create this whole mess ?
"War of Currents! Edison’s least favorite of Tesla’s “impractical” ideas was the concept f using alternating current (AC) technology to bring electricity to the people. Edison insisted that his own direct current (DC) system was SUPERIOR, in that it maintained a lower voltage from power station to consumer, and was, therefore, safer. But AC technology, which allows the flow of energy to periodically change direction, is more practical for transmitting massive quantities of energy, as is required by a large city, or hub of industry, say. At the time, DC technology only allowed for a power grid with a one-mile radius from the power source. The conflict between the two methods and their masters came to be known as the War of Currents, forever immortalized by the band AC/DC.
The Bet. Tesla insisted that he could increase the efficiency of Edison’s prototypical dynamos, and eventually wore down Edison enough to let him try. Edison, Tesla later claimed, even promised him $50,000 if he succeeded. Tesla worked around the clock for several months and made a great deal of progress. When he demanded his reward, Edison claimed the offer was a joke, saying, “When you become a full-fledged American, you will appreciate an American joke.” Edison offered a $10/week raise, instead. Ever prideful, Tesla quit, and spent the next few months picking up odd jobs across New York City.
The rift. Tesla eventually raised enough money to found the Tesla Electric Light Company, where he developed several successful patents including AC generators, wires, transformers, lights, and a 100 horsepower AC motor. Always more of a visionary than a businessman, Tesla ended up selling most of his patents (for the healthy but finite sum of $1 million) to George Westinghouse, an inventor, entrepreneur, and engineer who had himself been feuding with Edison for years. In fact, Westinghouse was a more economic participant in the War of Currents than was Tesla. Their partnership, one can imagine, made the eventual popularizing of AC that much more bitter for Edison.
“Post-war” history. In the end, AC won out. Mostly. Westinghouse fulfilled Tesla’s dream of building a power plant at Niagara Falls to power New York City, and built upon its principles the same system of local power grids we use today. Edison’s original point about the practicality of DC is well-taken, however: The average person can’t have alternating currents flooding massive amounts of energy into their household appliances, so most plug-in devices must internally convert AC back to DC (that’s what’s going on inside the brick of your laptop cord). That conversion wastes a lot of energy (think of all the heat coming from the brick of your laptop cord). Major studies are beginning to examine ways in which AC and DC power can work together with modern energy-harnessing technology, to run our overall grid more efficiently.
Tesla on Edison: "If he had a needle to find in a haystack he would not stop to reason where it was most likely to be, but would proceed at once, with the feverish diligence of a bee, to examine straw after straw until he found the object of his search. ... I was almost a sorry witness of such doings, knowing that a little theory and calculation would have saved him ninety per cent of his labor."
—New York Times, October 19, 1931 (the day after Edison died)"
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