The Honda Smart Home US was apparently to show people what "sustainable, zero-carbon living and personal mobility" looks like to Honda. Or maybe they just saw the houses Toyota builds and thought they could do better.
Anyway, Honda unveiled their home today at the University of California, Davis, complete with a Honda Fit EV parked in the garage. Built in just under a year, someone from UC Davis will actually be selected to live in this home and experience the zero-carbon lifestyle.
Fitted with Honda's "home energy management system" (I had no idea they made one), it uses the 10kWh lithium-ion battery system storing solar energy to minimize the home's impact on the electrical grid as much as possible, even supplying energy back to the grid at times.
To charge the Fit EV inside, Honda has made a DC-to-DC charging system. Why have they done that? Honda:
The Honda Fit EV included with the home has been modified to accept DC power directly from the home's solar panels or stationary battery, eliminating up to half of the energy that is typically lost to heat during DC-to-AC and AC-to-DC power conversion. When the solar panels are generating electricity at full capacity, the vehicle can fully recharge in approximately two hours directly from sunlight.
Like a car, it's filled with a ton of LEDs and has a metal roof, which is apparently more sustainable.
Here's a Honda video explaining more about the Honda house.
Photo: Honda