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Title: Power out? Plug your house into the new Honda Hydrogen Car
Source:
Honda
URL Source: http://mashable.com/2015/10/27/honda-clarity-fuel-cell/#GZfEWH7zFGqX
Published: Oct 27, 2015
Author: Nick Jaynes
Post Date: 2015-10-28 19:50:14 by Operation 40
Keywords: Hydrogen, sustainable, Energy
Views: 1905
Comments: 8
Honda's hydrogen fuel cell sedan can power your entire house Honda unveiled its first production hydrogen-powered fuel cell sedan, the Clarity Fuel Cell, at the Tokyo Motor Show on Tuesday. Though Honda has dabbled in hydrogen power since the late 1980s, the five-passenger Clarity Fuel Cell sedan is the first hydrogen-powered model that the Japanese carmaker has intended to offer up to the public. A quick refresher on hydrogen fuel cell vehicles: The cars transform hydrogen — in a unit called the fuel cell stack — into electricity, which is fed to a lithium-ion battery pack and out to an electric motor that turns the drive wheels. Essentially, think of it as an electric vehicle that can be refilled in three minutes and emits only water vapor out of its tailpipes. The Clarity Fuel Cell represents a leap forward for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (FCVs). Honda has managed to shrink the size of the hydrogen fuel cell stack by 33%, down to the size of a V6 gasoline engine. This compact shape allows designers to fit it underneath the hood of the car — a first for FCVs. Until this point fuel cells have been so large that they needed to be packaged elsewhere in the vehicle, like in Toyota's Mirai, which has its fuel cell stack in the center of the vehicle, cutting into interior space...snip Acceleration aside, Honda has revealed another cool feature of the Clarity Fuel Cell. When plugged into another Honda gizmo called the Power Exporter 9000, the Clarity Fuel Cell can produce enough electricity to power an average home for approximately seven days — perfect during a natural disaster or run of the mill power outage. Granted, Honda likely means an average Japanese house, not an American home. So that number will likely come down a bit when the Power Exporter 9000 comes Stateside...snip Car and Driver: Tomorrowland: We Drive Honda’s New Clarity Fuel-Cell Vehicle Visiting Japan from the United States means crossing the International Date Line—quite literally traveling into the future. This was not lost on us when we visited Honda’s research and development center in Tochigi in advance of the Tokyo Motor Show for an extremely limited drive of its third-generation fuel-cell vehicle, which is known as the Clarity Fuel Cell (note: no FCX prefix)... 
The Honda Power Exporter
Read full article: http://mashable.com/2015/10/27/honda-clarity-fuel-cell/
http://blog.caranddriver.com/tomorrowland-we-drive-hondas-new-fuel-cell-vehicle/
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#1. To: Operation 40 (#0)
Where is the Hydrogen going to come from? If it comes from coal or oil it is an inefficient method to power a car. If it comes from nuclear I believe that hydrogen is a byproduct usually vented to the atmosphere? If so it is a good deal. Now if we only would have built next gen nuclear power plants with the $1T wasted on "good to go" projects imagine what the 20 brand new plants would do for our carbon footprint? Wait, greenies don't want a solution? Shocked....I am truly SHOCKED.
"Hydrogen can be prepared in several different ways, but economically the most important processes involve removal of hydrogen from hydrocarbons. Commercial bulk hydrogen is usually produced by the steam reforming of natural gas.[83] At high temperatures (1000–1400 K, 700–1100 °C or 1300–2000 °F), steam (water vapor) reacts with methane to yield carbon monoxide and H2." Even so, there are consumers who will like this option. However, when you think it through, a rural homeowner needing power to keep his pipes from freezing during an extended outage won't like having to choose between keeping his car at home to keep the heat on (and the pipes and/or pets/kids from freezing) and taking the car to work. In multi-vehicle families this may not be a big problem but your biggest users, ranchers and farmers, are going to feel happier with their 300-gallon gas tanks and a reliable standalone generator that can be purchased for well under $2,000. So I have some doubts about large-scale adoption of a car-as-emergency-generator. It might make more sense in a suburban setting where the homeowner has solar on the roof and something like the Tesla battery system (or one of the other forthcoming house battery solutions) and the owner could use the car to make up for power deficits in the house battery in cloudy weather. So maybe this would make more sense for a suburban Ed Begley type than a farmer/rancher rural type.
Maybe,but I sure don't see it. Who can afford to pay 30 grand or more for a mobile furnace that has the added advantage of also being a bomb?
#7. To: sneakypete (#6)
There are people who might like it. You could use it to power a mountain cabin (assuming you could drive it there). A lot cheaper and more effective than lugging in a generator and a bunch of gasoline to run it. Also, it would make camping with pure 110V convenience far more attractive. Going to Burning Man would be nice if you bring enough 110V for a big air-conditioned tent with power to spare for your buddies and their gadgets. Lots of people with lots of different scenarios means it would hard not to find people who would see this as a bonus to the car, a feature that they have a specific use for.
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#4. To: jeremiad, Operation40, sneakypete (#1)
Where is the Hydrogen going to come from?
#6. To: TooConservative (#4)
So maybe this would make more sense for a suburban Ed Begley type than a farmer/rancher rural type.
Replies to Comment # 6. Maybe,but I sure don't see it. Who can afford to pay 30 grand or more for a mobile furnace that has the added advantage of also being a bomb?
End Trace Mode for Comment # 6.
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