Balcony solar panels can save 30% on a typical household’s electricity bill and, with vertical surface area in cities larger than roof space, the appeal is clear
Personally, a remnant of that. Being able to use standard lead acid batteries is a perk, but primarily I find that that voltage range of < 20-50>vdc in terms of equipment is in those 12v increments too. With the powedelivery (PD) extended power range (epr) going up to 48v right now, and the fixed voltages in that spec being multiples of 12 again matching the industry it is now.
With adjustable voltage supplies (AVS) it might matter less (because it can increment in 100mv instead of a couple fixed voltages) but I haven’t messed with that yet myself
The PC industry has been trying to get rid of those 3.3V and 5V rails for over a decade now, trying to get everyone on board with 12V only. The only hold-out in a modern PC should be SATA, at 5V, the mainboard already doesn’t care and GPUs definitely don’t. Also no -12V any more. Any year now, not that SATA will die that quickly but the mainboard knows how many SATA connectors it has and can provide sufficient 5V to power your disks.
Is the multiple of 12 thing just for ease of lead-acid storage?
Personally, a remnant of that. Being able to use standard lead acid batteries is a perk, but primarily I find that that voltage range of < 20-50>vdc in terms of equipment is in those 12v increments too. With the powedelivery (PD) extended power range (epr) going up to 48v right now, and the fixed voltages in that spec being multiples of 12 again matching the industry it is now.
With adjustable voltage supplies (AVS) it might matter less (because it can increment in 100mv instead of a couple fixed voltages) but I haven’t messed with that yet myself
The PC industry has been trying to get rid of those 3.3V and 5V rails for over a decade now, trying to get everyone on board with 12V only. The only hold-out in a modern PC should be SATA, at 5V, the mainboard already doesn’t care and GPUs definitely don’t. Also no -12V any more. Any year now, not that SATA will die that quickly but the mainboard knows how many SATA connectors it has and can provide sufficient 5V to power your disks.