As things stand, the advancement in battery technology has already made inroads into the sustainable energy industry. Furthermore, it has also become a part of many power grids. However, there is currently no municipality that is 100% powered by batteries. There are though several where battery power is an important supplementary source for use in outages; and it can also be a way to store excess energy for sale.
Batteries themselves are not carbon neutral power sources (the energy needs to be put into them first) but they are often counted as “sustainable energy” for precisely this reason. Moreover, if battery energy is already a part of power grids, then it follows that batteries have made their presence felt around the home. It has been like this for decades, of course; we all know about the AA, AAA, and 9v batteries around the home. They are still there, say tech startup Pale Blue Earth, but now they offer rechargeability, smart battery management systems, and a massively increased power output. These AA, AAA, and D rechargeable smart batteries are a good example of how the home already relies on a fair bit of battery power.
Consider also solar panels. These were once pretty pricey and not a very common sight on houses. This is something that has certainly changed, with millions investing in solar power for their homes – and batteries are how that power is stored. In fact, a solar panel can be considered a sort of sustainable battery. Power can be released in the same way, the only difference being it “recharges” with the sun.
So, battery energy and the home are no strangers, but now we come to the big question: can you power a whole home – every light, appliance, boiler, and heater – with 100% battery power?
It Depends
Naturally, it depends on how much energy your home uses and whether this can be realistically provided by batteries. The number of energy-using devices your home contains (and how often you use them) are naturally the major factors to consider.
Remember also that rechargeable batteries get their power from somewhere else, and so it might even be technically wrong to say “batteries” are powering your home. If you employ solar batteries, isn’t it instead the sun doing this?
This distinction is important, but from now on we will leave aside the question of where the battery power comes from. Is it at least feasible and practical to power your home with batteries?
The Batteries Themselves
As mentioned, everything depends. And one of the things they depend on is the technical specs of the battery. There are a few parameters to consider, but the most important one is storage capacity. What is the storage capacity of your battery?
If you’re hoping to power a home, then you are going to need enough capacity. There also exist battery management devices – some of them very hi-tech – that can improve the functionality of the batteries automatically. The actual amount of power that your batteries can hold is one thing, but it’s also wise to use it as efficiently as possible.
Supplementary Power
Another especially important thing to consider before investing in a whole-home battery system is when it’s going to be running. Powering a home with batteries is quite the eccentric idea (at least for now) but backing up your home’s power with batteries is a commonly chosen option.
If all the power suddenly goes down, then your batteries are suddenly needed – to power the whole home. Indeed, when it doesn’t need to be running 24/7, the answer to the title question is much more likely to be a resounding “yes”.