Coming soon: Battery-powered homes?
If you can create your own electricity, this new battery will be able to store enough to last about a day.
This new battery featured in Popular Mechanics is a reminder that there are definitely incentives that go beyond being green if you're thinking about adding solar panels or wind turbines to your home.
Sure, you'll save money by using less power, and you'll also get tax incentives and possibly make some money by contributing to the power grid. Or you can go the opposite route, and attempt to get entirely off the grid if you have the $2,000 needed for this new Ceramatec battery.
Imagine a future with no electricity bills ... it's like our first step toward Utopia!
So how's it work? Turns out the battery can only hold as much as 20 kilowatt-hours. That's enough to power an average home for about a day, which the article notes could also make the battery a price-cutting option for people who want to stock up on electricity during off-peak hours.
The battery runs on sodium-sulfur, which typically runs hotter than 600 degrees, making it virtually inaccessible for residential use. But this new prototype would be much safer for homes, with a temperature at lower than 200 degrees. I'll let Popular Mechanics explain it:
The secret is a thin ceramic membrane that is sandwiched between the sodium and sulfur. Only positive sodium ions can pass through, leaving electrons to create a useful electrical current.
The Utah-based company expects the batteries to be available for market testing in 2011, so that gives you plenty of time to think about adding wind turbines or solar panels.
While you're at it, you might want to consider some of the new government incentives available to potential homeowners willing to do some energy-efficient improvements to their new home.
Borrowers can get a 5% bigger mortgage through the Federal Housing Administration if they plan on making their home more energy efficient. And the L.A. Times also mentions proposals though Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to reward developers and borrowers who make energy efficiency a priority.
If you have or are considering adding solar panels or another kind of power generator at your home, do you see a future for yourself that is free of electricity bills?
You need to get a clue. If there is no global warming why are the ice caps melting? The Scientists you speck of are on some republican pay roll. The temperature is not what we should be worried about. As a 1/2 a degree change is not noticeable to most people, but this will change weather patters.( check out all the flooding here in the midwest, Strength of hurricanes, and droughts around the country)
If my mind there is no good reason we should not prepare for the inevitable future even if it is aledgedly 100 years away.
As we Speak.
Polar Bears are becoming extinct because of the melting Ice Caps.
Greenland is Shrinking at 1000x the rate Scientists originally thought it would.
Instead of taking about 3000 years to melt off, it will take less that a century.
In fact, it's listed as the #1 danger to humans, it surpasses Asteroids hitting the earth, and even the latest Virus threats. Even Nuclear Holocaust.
It isn't real? Yes.
And we can totally prevent it.
We are the biggest threats to ourselves.
Firstly, I've seen safety advisories to keep your water heater set to no higher than 120 degrees to prevent burns/scalding. Even a </=200 degree version of this new battery in a typical residential water heater would be much too hot. (Water boils at 220 degrees, IIRC.)
Yes, I could see it maybe being used to provide radiant heating for floors, and other heating purposes, but it would have to be somehow regulated or cooled going into or coming out of a water heater, before it went to your faucets.
Perhaps encasing it in a water-tight heat sink, (remember, water and electricity don't mix well! That's my second point...) which would dissipate the heat into the water in a more regulated manner? It is an interesting idea, nonetheless.
It is true that we are our own biggest threat. We keep talking about going green and conserving energy... The real answer is to curb the birth rate worldwide. We have overpopulated this planet and it appears that we will not slow down before it is too late. If we have a disaster that affects the food supply in an adverse way we will all be scrambling to survive. If we limited our procreation that alone would do more to save the planet than any technology or conservation effort. Think about it now!
About Mai Ling Slaughter
Mai Ling Slaughter is a veteran journalist based in Seattle who has worked around the Northwest and abroad. She keeps a close eye on multimillion-dollar real-estate follies as a distraction from her own home's falling value.
