Honda builds smart homes to make EV charging more convenient

    Honda has combined its various new energy technologies to build a home energy management system (HEMS), also known as the Honda Smart Home System, at the University of California West Village campus. Honda will demonstrate its latest technologies in energy monitoring, management, and optimization in the building using a microgrid.

    Renewable energy is used to power the building, including charging a Honda Fit electric car. It is estimated that the Honda Smart Home generates more than 2.6 megawatt-hours of surplus electricity per year (the electricity generated is greater than the electricity consumed). In a traditional home, 13.3 megawatt-hours of electricity would be consumed each year. It is reported that the energy consumption of the heating, cooling and lighting systems in the smart home is only half of that of a traditional home. Compared with the average American home, the water consumption of the smart home is only one-third.

    A 10 kWh battery energy storage system is installed in the garage to power the Honda Fit electric vehicle. During the peak hours of electricity consumption in the evening, the energy absorbed by the solar panels on the roof during the day is used.

    Honda's HEMS system uses batteries to balance the load of the entire home grid, suppressing power fluctuations to the minimum. The HEMS system can reuse electric vehicle batteries, for example, as H2G (home-to-grid).

    The HEMS system can automatically adjust the power supply according to power demand and grid signals. When the energy in the home smart grid is too full, it can even reversely transfer excess energy back to the grid.

    The main systems in a smart house are as follows:

Solar Photovoltaic Panels

    The roof of the house is equipped with a 9.5 kW solar photovoltaic panel system, which can generate more energy per year than the electricity consumed by the home and the Honda Fit electric car. The air conditioning system, ventilation equipment, lighting system, water heater and other household appliances as well as the Honda Fit electric car are all powered by the solar photovoltaic system.

DC-DC Electric Vehicle Charging System

    Through a special port design, the Honda Fit electric car in the smart house can directly obtain power from solar panels or batteries through DC-DC charging. The traditional DC-AC or AC-DC conversion process will cause a lot of heat loss, that is, energy loss. The new solution can save about 50% of energy consumption.

Geothermal radiant heating/cooling (commonly known as "floor heating")

    In traditional homes and cars, air conditioning systems consume a lot of electricity, whether for cooling or heating. In the backyard of the Honda Smart House, there are eight 20-foot wells drilled for a large geothermal heat pump to be successfully installed. Researchers are currently evaluating the practicality of geothermal heat pumps to ultimately decide whether to adopt them.

Volcanic ash concrete building material

    The production of concrete materials for construction will emit a large amount of carbon dioxide, accounting for 5% of the world's total carbon dioxide emissions. Concrete binder is obtained by heating limestone to more than 1000℃. The heating process requires burning fossil fuels, and the chemical reaction products of combustion include carbon dioxide.

    Honda Smart House uses a material called volcanic ash concrete, which is formed in the natural environment. More than half of the concrete binder in the Smart House is replaced by this material. Honda also uses post-tensioning (a construction method in which cement concrete is poured first, and then prestressed steel is tensioned to form prestressed concrete components after reaching more than 75% of the design strength) to save on the amount of concrete and steel.

Advanced lighting system

    Honda and the California Lighting Technology Center jointly explored a new light physiological color control logic to make the lights in this smart home less harmful to human health. The home uses full LED lighting, and the energy consumption rate is 80% lower than that of ordinary home lighting systems.

    The Energy Efficiency Strategic Plan of California stipulates the electricity consumption standard for households in 2020, and Honda's smart home has reached this standard by relying on advanced energy distribution and reuse strategies. Honda began to build Honda Smart Home in April last year, and will select a group of trial users to test the advanced system this year, and further improve the technology through information feedback obtained from the trial users. Honda will equip the trial users with a Honda Fit electric vehicle for daily commuting.

    "Energy saving and environmental protection" has always been Honda's car-making concept. However, now it has begun to implement this idea in a more macro field.