| | | | | Illustration by Emily Sabens/The Washington Post; iStock | | The most expensive part of my new induction stove? The $3,800 my electrician wants to charge to plug it in. Perhaps there's a better way: batteries. | |  | | Appliances like stoves, water heaters, washers and dryers may soon come loaded with batteries. To switch from fossil fuels, we'll need to plug in a bunch of new things: our cars, our stoves, our heaters and more. But many homes were not designed to carry this kind of load. Retrofitting them is expensive — if you can manage to get someone to do it. | | So instead of rewiring our houses, appliances with batteries will allow us to stash energy around the house for when we need it. This is one of our best shots to decarbonize existing buildings. In the transportation and electricity sectors, only a few hundred companies, automakers and utilities, must change their practices to phase out fossil fuels. But tamping down buildings' emissions requires millions of individual households. | | Here's how little batteries will help: Induction stoves go first. Adding a 240-volt outlet for an induction stove can cost thousands of dollars. Battery-enabled stoves avoid this by plugging into an existing 120-volt outlet. When a burst of electricity is needed, the battery discharges energy. No new wiring necessary. These little batteries are not quite here yet. But start-ups are rushing into this space. San Francisco-based Impulse Labs plans to sell its first battery-enabled induction stove this year. | | Eventually, appliances with batteries will help back up the grid. They could soak up cheap power when renewables are plentiful, and dispatch it during peak hours in the mornings and evenings when electricity supplies are tight. That will help manage spikes — and maybe even earn you money from selling power to the grid or dodging peak electricity prices. To learn more, read this week's Climate Coach column. | |  | | Did you know I read all your emails? Be part of the Climate Coach community. Write with clever ideas, bad jokes and ways I can make this newsletter better for you at climatecoach@washpost.com. | | Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here to get The Climate Coach in your inbox every Tuesday and Thursday. | | See you on Thursday, Michael Coren, Climate Coach | | | | | | | | | |
No comments:
Post a Comment