The motor in my LG washing machine is actually DC [1,2]. Sure, lots of other motors in my house are AC, but perhaps they neednt be?

Also, San Francisco has a DC power grid downtown, mainly running large DC motors [3]

Brushless DC motors are typically very efficient, and long lasting [4]

[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsNUyD6Nr5s [2] http://www.google.com/patents/US6396190 [3] http://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/the-smarter-grid/san-francis... [4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_motor#Brushless_DC_mot...