Home Energy Station

Honda Smart Home Produces More Energy Than It Consumes

Making energy efficient devices is a big debate among the researchers all over the world. As the environment is getting polluted more and more, the emphasis on this concept is increasing. How does it sound to you if someone tells you about an energy producing home? Wow! It sounds great to listen. Luckily the scientists at University of California, Davis, along with Honda Company have done this. It is calculated that 44% of the greenhouses gas emission in USA is because of homes and vehicles.  Honda Smart Home US is the name of the project that is turning this dream of saving energy into a reality. They have constructed a home that is able to provide enough energy to run both the house and a light weight vehicle. Furthermore, the rest of produced energy is transferred to grid.

It is the successor of Honda Smart Home System which was launched in Japan back in 2012. This system is driven from HEMS (Honda Energy Management System), a system retained in garage. It keeps tracking the energy consumption in the households.  It is basically the brain of the whole system whose task is to optimize and regulate the energy intake. This system comes with a 10kWh battery. The purpose of the battery is to save energy for the night time energy consumption. The photovoltaic cells at the roof are the source of energy.

Home Energy Station
A concept of Home Energy Station
Proposed HEMS based Home
A View of an Energy Producing Home
Energy Producing Home
A Prototype of a Honda Smart Home
Heating/cooling system
One System Providing Heating/Cooling and maintaining the Home’s Temperature

Laying a foundation of a home requires an ample amount of energy from making cement to chemical reaction. Instead of cement an element called Pozzolan found in volcanic ash has been used. This material is available abundantly on the surface of the earth. Furthermore, it requires very less amount of energy as compared with cement.

HEMS
HEMS: Honda Energy Management System to Manage the Energy of the whole Home
HEMS based home
Real HEMS based Home in USA

This home is equipped with a machine that can provide both the hot/cold water and maintains the temperature. A water tank is used for storing the water and through this tank, water is sent to the shower. A car is also provided with the home which takes energy directly from the solar panels and that could be charged only in two hours. LED lighting, as we know, is energy efficient hence, is used in the home. The lighting combination is chosen very carefully under the consideration of energy saving. Blue rich light is used during the daytime while amber tone is used in the evening.

A Showcase of HEMS based Home
A Showcase of HEMS based Home

Let’s see how much this technology will help in controlling the pollution and work in real world. But We can say that such sort of researches must be promoted so that one day we are able to breath in a pollution free air!