Yes, one of the biggest cons (in practice) with DC is the lossy and fragile voltage regulation (both up and down). It is a far simpler form of power delivery though, for better or worse.
AC is amazing for that due to the ease of making/using transformers, as well as efficiency in situations with simple spinning motors, and due to the way it behaves is ‘more safe’ in a number of fault condition.
AC is much easier to manage with fault protect as it has a zero volt crossing point each cycle, and safer for humans from a shock/electrocution hazard perspective due to the reversing voltage/zero crossing point. Muscles won’t ’freeze’ in a given position like with DC, but rather spasm (though it can be so fast it’s basically the same thing), and the zero voltage crossing point tends to allow arc self extinguishing at much lower thresholds.
But the same thing that makes it much easier to voltage regulate (using transformers) is also what creates inductive losses and complicated in some other scenarios (like conversion to DC for non-motor loads, PF issues, etc.).
No one needs a bridge rectifier for a DC to DC power supply, for instance, and DC to DC ripple is dramatically easier to deal with than typical half phase residential AC.
Commercial can have the luxury of 3 phase AC at least, but that is also typically at power levels that it still isn’t going to be cheap building a AC to DC power supply. And god help that power supply if you get phase imbalance.
AC is amazing for that due to the ease of making/using transformers, as well as efficiency in situations with simple spinning motors, and due to the way it behaves is ‘more safe’ in a number of fault condition.
AC is much easier to manage with fault protect as it has a zero volt crossing point each cycle, and safer for humans from a shock/electrocution hazard perspective due to the reversing voltage/zero crossing point. Muscles won’t ’freeze’ in a given position like with DC, but rather spasm (though it can be so fast it’s basically the same thing), and the zero voltage crossing point tends to allow arc self extinguishing at much lower thresholds.
But the same thing that makes it much easier to voltage regulate (using transformers) is also what creates inductive losses and complicated in some other scenarios (like conversion to DC for non-motor loads, PF issues, etc.).
No one needs a bridge rectifier for a DC to DC power supply, for instance, and DC to DC ripple is dramatically easier to deal with than typical half phase residential AC.
Commercial can have the luxury of 3 phase AC at least, but that is also typically at power levels that it still isn’t going to be cheap building a AC to DC power supply. And god help that power supply if you get phase imbalance.