Honda Home Energy System overlooked in Detroit
My family is a Honda family. I drive an Accord; My brother a Pilot; My sister a Honda Odyssey; My mom a CRV; My Dad, an Acura MDX. Even though I was at the Detroit Auto Show to cover some of GM’s events, I took some time to take a look at Honda (and everyone else actually, but this post is about Honda). But Honda was a bit of a disappointment at today’s auto show. They had only one new concept announced - a revamped Honda Pilot. But that was about it. But there was one thing that was interesting in the Honda display that has not been widely reported.
Attached to Honda’s FCX was a home hydrogen production system. It is essentially a combined heat and power application for the car and the home. It uses natural gas to produce hydrogen and heat. The heat can be used to heat water (or air) for the home. The hydrogen can go into your Honda FCX Clarity.
This seems like a rather under-appreciated application. While there is a lot of interest in electricity plug-ins, natural gas could also serve as a clean, plug-in option. It doesn’t particularly manage the fossil fuel issue - although western countries tend to be ok wtih their natural gas reserves. But there are opportunities for producing natural gas synthetically in the future as well; so the green issue isn’t off the table.
The real interesting feature would be the impact for the home efficiency applications. In many ways, the GHG epidemic is tightly integrated between how we live and travel.
Currently, these are separate channels - we get energy to our home and we go out and buy energy through retail outlets. This system is essentially an iTunes for Auto-fuel application that could have a huge impact on our life style if it got adopted. While it clearly has some question marks in terms of market acceptability, I think it’s certainly a worthwhile project to continue to watch.
The Honda website makes the following claim:
Honda has worked in cooperation with technology partner Plug Power, Inc., to reduce size and increase convenience in each subsequent generation of the Home Energy Station. In 2007 Honda developed Home Energy Station IV—which is even less expensive and better suited for home use than previous versions. CO2 emissions for a household using the Home Energy Station are 30% lower than those for an average household using a gasoline-engine car and commercial electricity.
One question mark is weather any type of vehicle-to-grid type applications could also be developed.
Honda has obviously put a lot of energy into developing this (and similar devices) over the years. It’s a shame that it hasn’t garned the amount of critical attention from broader sources.
And just to be complete, here’s the Pilot Concept:
That is kinda neat!