A battery to Power Your Whole House?

[Ken_McE]

Utah based "Ceramatec" company says they have a new sodium-sulphur battery that might run an entire house. No word on when the flashlight model is due:

http://www.heraldextra.com/news/article_b0372fd8-3f3c-11de-ac77-001cc4c002e0.html

"Inside Ceramatec's wonder battery is a chunk of solid sodium metal mated to a sulphur compound by an extraordinary, paper-thin ceramic membrane. The membrane conducts ions -- electrically charged particles -- back and forth to generate a current. The company calculates that the battery will cram 20 to 40 kilowatt hours of energy into a package about the size of a refrigerator, and operate below 90 degrees C."

 

[n3eg]

That one's gonna be fun when it goes

 

[John_Galt]

Is all of that 20-40 Kw's usable, though? Biggest question I have is how effective is this when compared to cheap and readily available SLA batteries for home energy storage? Is it cheaper per Kw hour of storage potential? Does it last longer? Not self discharge as fast? Realistically, a refrigerator is pretty big.

And I agree, pretty bad when it goes POOF!!!

 

[Illum]

keep the battery in the outhouse then feed the lines to the house

There's a fine line between appealing interior design to actual practical lighting. It costs a lot to light the entire house, but if you focus the lighting needs to a certain number of areas you could potentially decrease your lighting consumption to 1-3kw or perhaps even less if LEDs are used. Set up a timer circuit to those xitaniums and its all set to go

 

[old4570]

Lead acid Forklift batteries x 2 ...

Two 6v forklift batts to make a single 12v system ..

Convert your Fridge to 12v , buy a 12v TV .. 12v hotplate

Solar recharger + windmill = possible free energy for a long time .

 

[Bones]

This really does appear to be serious energy storage for the home.

As importantly, it's backed by serious resources.

Think Coors beer:

The battery breakthrough comes from a Salt Lake company called Ceramatec, the R&D arm of CoorsTek, a world leader in advanced materials and electrochemical devices. It promises to reduce dependence on the dinosaur by hooking up with the latest generation of personalized power plants that draw from the sun.

Solar energy has been around, of course, but it's been prohibitively expensive. Now the cost is tumbling, driven by new thin-film chemistry and manufacturing techniques. Leaders in the field include companies like Arizona-based First Solar, which can paint solar cells onto glass; and Konarka, an upstart that purchased a defunct Polaroid film factory in New Bedford, Mass., and now plans to print cells onto rolls of flexible plastic.

The convergence of these two key technologies -- solar power and deep-storage batteries -- has profound implications for oil-strapped America.

The essence of Ceramatec's breakthrough is that high energy density (a lot of juice) can be achieved safely at normal temperatures and with solid components, not hot liquid.

Ceramatec says its new generation of battery would deliver a continuous flow of 5 kilowatts of electricity over four hours, with 3,650 daily discharge/recharge cycles over 10 years. With the batteries expected to sell in the neighborhood of $2,000, that translates to less than 3 cents per kilowatt hour over the battery's life. Conventional power from the grid typically costs in the neighborhood of 8 cents per kilowatt hour.

Re-read that last paragraph and let the information really sink in. Five kilowatts over four hours -- how much is that? Imagine your trash compactor, food processor, vacuum cleaner, stereo, sewing machine, one surface unit of an electric range and thirty-three 60-watt light bulbs all running nonstop for four hours each day before the house battery runs out.

That's a pretty exciting place to live.

 

[rushnrockt]

I love the idea, but the article has some serious issues with the way it's reporting

1. They don't clarify that it's not the type of battery that's new, but the fact that this particular type of battery can be ran at 90C. It's an important improvement, but the difference should still be noted.

2. Here is a quote

Ceramatec says its new generation of battery would deliver a continuous flow of 5 kilowatts of electricity over four hours, with 3,650 daily discharge/recharge cycles over 10 years. With the batteries expected to sell in the neighborhood of $2,000, that translates to less than 3 cents per kilowatt hour over the battery's life. Conventional power from the grid typically costs in the neighborhood of 8 cents per kilowatt hour.

I don't think I have to point out how incorrect that statement is for any battery.


Still, I'd like to see something like that implemented, if not everywhere, then at least in areas with easily available secondary energy sources.

 

[GPB]

The comparison of 8 cents vs. 3 cents is VERY misleading. The 3 cents is just the cost for the battery....it doesn't include the cost for the actual electricity !! You'll still need a solar panel, windmill, herd of hampsters on wheels with little magnetic coils....some source of electricity to charge the battery.

What I didn't see in the article was any discussion of the future of electric rates. The time is coming when electricity during the day is going to costs 5-10 times what electricity will cost at night. So even if you get your juice through the traditional electric grid, being able to charge at night and use stored power during the day will be positively HUGE in the near future.

 

[TorchBoy]

Re: A battery to power your Whole House?

That one's gonna be fun when it goes

I bet Apple is already planning to use one in their next iPod.

keep the battery in the outhouse then feed the lines to the house

So when it goes the s*** will really hit the fan.