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this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2026
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No Stupid Questions
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Almost everything is powered by AC. The things that actually work on DC like electronics, have power adapters to convert AC into DC for the device, like the little brick that comes with your laptop or phone charger.
There are rare exceptions, but EILI5 doesn't care about those.
If you have examples, we could clarify.
Even at ELI5, I'd nuance this. Big things like fridges and washing machines use AC, most small things like phones and laptops use DC, and have to have the AC that comes out of our wall sockets converted to DC before they can use it. This wastes a bit of energy. If you can, run small appliances straight from DC to avoid those conversion losses
This is going to sound exceedingly lame, but the foremost example is a box fan. I sleep with a fan at night and if there's ever an outage I just want to be able to plug it in and go back to sleep.
The other use case for me would just be consumer electronics: tablet, laptop, phone.
All AC plugs.
Anything that you plug into a household power outlet is designed for ac. If it plugs in directly to usb it's dc
if you're like me and just need the noise from the fan, and not the air circulation, there are other, more efficient ways to get white noise.. some of which would have battery power available.
for instance, i use an old laptop (with an internal battery for 'backup') and usb powered speakers (the ones built in aren't loud enough when the lid is closed (it runs that way). if the power goes out, the laptop runs for several hours (even with the old battery) before it hibernates due to a low battery.
Thank you for the suggestion, but I definitely need the air circulation. For whatever reason my body runs hot.
Are you looking for suggestions for a battery backup? How much are you willing to spend?
You can use DC for electronics like a phone. You just remove the wall plug portion and use the cable by itself. This should help conserve power since you aren't converting AC into DC, but if thats not a concern, you can use either.