Friday, April 10, 2015

Issue 567 Hybrid Homes April 10, 2015

With Hybrid technology growing, the concept is being explored to make a hybrid home.  Essentially, you charge your battery in your basement and then use it to power all your electrical needs throughout the day.  Here is how this interesting concept works.

How it works:  Basically, a large battery is stored in your basement.  It however charges itself at night when prices for electricity are at their lowest.  Then in the morning, the house consumes power from the battery rather than the electrical grid throughout the day.  The idea is in part to save money for consumers of electricity, but at the same time store up enough electrical energy that there is less need for the home to consume any amount of electrical energy from the grid at all.  This lessens the stress on the electrical grid, and thus makes it less likely for a black out to occur.  It also has the potential to reduce the need for the electrical grid to produce power at facilities that burn fossil fuels which in turn puts less greenhouse gases and more importantly less toxins into the air.  Thus, the consumer not only saves money, but the environment gets cleaner too.  The battery can be augmented with solar panels and small wind turbines which again reduce the need to rely on the electrical grid, which thus saves even more money for the consumers and protects the environment further.  Overall something to look forward to as we can have the battery power our electric water heaters, and heating systems as well.


Conclusion:  The only issue is the battery itself.  They are expensive to make and thus expensive to buy and that is not including the issues with electrical storage capacity and space in the home for such big equipment.  In addition, they are made using toxins as well that also pollute our environment.  However this is all being worked on for the obvious goal of making it all consumer friendly.  It is my guess that the goal of this technology is to make it so that power generation plants can be reduced, or shut down for extended periods throughout the day while establishing a foundation for homes to produce all their own electrical needs on their own without the need for a power plant in the first place. Very cool indeed.


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