Here at the Science Museum we plan to change the way we light our buildings.
Most electrical appliances are driven by a form of electricity called direct current (DC).
This is the same as the electricity we get from batteries or renewable sources of energy such as solar panels or wind turbines.
Traditionally, however, big power stations have produced, transported and delivered our electricity to us in a totally different form, known as alternating current (AC).
Whenever we plug our electrical appliances into the socket, the electricity has to be changed from AC to DC before we can use it, and some energy is lost as waste.
The Science Museum is cutting back on wasteful switching. We're looking into a special multi-source power unit that allows a variety of AC and DC energy sources to be connected together with no need to waste energy changing from one form to another.
Lighting systems joined up to the unit can be powered by a combination of solar panels and batteries, as well as regular electricity from the National Grid.
We hope to test this unit soon at our Wroughton site in Wiltshire to power the lights in one of our new buildings.
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Fascinating fact
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National Grid
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Click on image to enlarge
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Watch: Nextek electric
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