Last week, the world gathered at CES 2024 to get a first look at technology that may be coming to your home in the near future. Most, if not all, of the technologies on display, from the coolest to the weirdest to the most cutting edge, had one thing in common: electricity.
Electricity powers all kinds of technology, but this year there was even more of a focus on electricity itself. There were plenty of solar-powered gadgets, portable power stations, and visions for the future of energy. If 2024 is the year you take control of your home’s electricity, here are the technologies we saw at CES that might help you make it happen.
Portable whole-house backup battery
EcoFlow showed off the Delta Pro Ultra on a cart at CES, and moving the battery, which weighs nearly 200 pounds, is surprisingly easy.
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The variety of backup batteries has exploded in the past few years. Other companies have introduced competing products to rival Tesla’s famous Powerwall batteries, but the small portable power segment is even more competitive. EcoFlow, a company that makes some of the best portable power sources, has just announced a new battery model that aims to be somewhere between portable and whole-home backup.
EcoFlow’s Delta Pro Ultra Power Station, when paired with the Smart Home Panel Pro 2, can power your home or be unplugged and moved to provide power on the go. EcoFlow touts that it’s easy to set up; just have the smart panel professionally installed. While most home backups are permanent, EcoFlow can take you with you when you move, saving you installation costs and eliminating the need to buy new batteries when you move. It’s another step toward more reliable and flexible energy use in the home.
Solar powered rooftop tent
Jackery solar panels for rooftop tents are a dramatic way to power your camping adventures.
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Jackery, a company that offers a range of portable power solutions, is set to launch its most ingenious product later this year, when you could get a pop-up tent with built-in solar panels that can be mounted on top of your car. While the final specs and design are still being worked out, a company spokesperson said the solar tent will be priced at around $6,000 once it’s available.
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Jackery also showed off a solar-powered Mars rover (not that it’ll be sent to Mars) and a tiny power station with a capacity of just under 100 watt-hours, meaning Jackery’s Explorer 100 falls just under the limit for battery capacity you can bring on an airplane, the company told CNET, which might draw some extra attention at security if you’re a bit nervous about flying.
Control your home’s energy with the push of a button
Savant’s smart energy system allows you to switch your home from on-grid to off-grid with just a tap.
Savant
Savant is one of several companies that can help you understand and control your home’s energy usage. Through sensors and controllers installed in your breaker box, Savant’s system lets you see where your power is flowing from your solar panels, your battery, or the grid. Newly introduced features make it easier than ever to control the flow of power.
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Modes and Scenes are settings that let you customize what’s on or off in your home. Modes like “Eco Mode” prioritize power from your solar panels, while “Storm Watch” ensures your batteries charge during a power outage. Set scenes to turn off all but the essential circuits when you’re not working, or power certain circuits depending on the season. You can change all of this with the touch of a button, making it even more convenient to save energy.
Power station with replaceable batteries
The battery packs on the Bluetti AC180T portable power supply are hot-swappable, meaning you can remove one battery pack while it’s running.
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Bluetti has made some of the portable energy products that CNET has tested over the past few years, including portable solar power stations and solar panels, and at this year’s CES the company is showing off some concept products it hopes to sell in the future.
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For one, it’s a bit of an unusual portable power station. Instead of a single battery fixed inside the power station’s wall, the AC180T has battery packs that can be swapped out while the power station is running devices. This makes charging on the go even more flexible. CNET’s Jon Reed said swapping batteries is “oddly fun.” The AC180T has an energy storage capacity of 1,433 watt-hours (about 1.4 kilowatt-hours). Bluetti plans to crowdfund development of the device with an Indiegogo campaign in February.
Indoor solar cells for a variety of uses
Rather than batteries or cords, this mechanical keyboard is powered by a solar cell located on the right side of the keyboard.
John Reed/CNET
Solar cells that work indoors aren’t new; you may have used a calculator that powered under fluorescent lights in middle school. Ambient Photonics’ latest version can provide about three times as much energy as the previous model, which means it could potentially power some slightly energy-hungry devices like a computer mouse, TV remote, or any other gadget that uses AA or AAA batteries.
Portable refrigerators gain new functionality and efficiency
Goal Zero’s Alta 50 portable refrigerator can apparently run on just 8 watts of power if you keep the temperature consistent, so even a small power station can run for long periods of time.
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Blueti’s swappable battery technology also lends itself to other Blueti devices, such as the MultiCooler portable refrigerator. This fridge can keep things cold or frigid, from 68 degrees to -4 degrees. It even has a built-in ice maker. Whether that’s an absolute necessity for a portable fridge is probably up for debate, but it’s not hard to imagine this device making for some truly luxurious camping.
Goal Zero, a leading portable power company, also introduced other portable refrigerators. The Alta refrigerators come in 50 liter and 80 liter capacities. The smaller version requires just 8 watts of power to maintain the temperature once the target temperature is reached, meaning Goal Zero’s smallest power station can run the refrigerator for over a day. Goal Zero introduced three new portable power stations and a home battery backup, joining a trend of other energy storage companies that started small but are now offering larger, whole-home backup solutions at more affordable prices.
Electricity-generating stained glass
Do you know what a solar panel is? It captures the energy of light.
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CES is great for finding weird but cool little gadgets, and the solar power sector is no exception. Japanese solar power company inQs is promoting its transparent solar power technology with a series of solar-powered, transparent devices that include solar-capable silicon crystals (pictured above). A company representative told CNET’s Jon Reed that their technology can also be deployed in clear or tinted windows.
Transparent solar panel technology is still developing and not widely available, so the recycling challenges are not as great as for traditional opaque black or blue panels mounted on rooftops. Still, inQs says its silicon quartz-based technology is easy and safe to recycle and does not contain rare earth materials.
Electronics company Panasonic has also been talking about see-through solar technology this year: perovskite. Perovskite solar technology is still in the research and development stages (Panasonic isn’t alone), but it could open up a variety of solar applications, like putting solar on windows or the sides of buildings. Or you could stack solar. In the lab, stacking perovskite solar on top of a silicon solar panel has produced much higher efficiency ratings than either technology would get by using alone.
Durable battery
Xing Mobility tested their battery cooling technology by sticking three needles into the side of a battery pack, and you can see where a cell has ruptured, but the rest of the pack appears fine.
John Reed/CNET
Batteries are a key component in electrifying everything and transforming the power grid. Making batteries more durable and safer, especially in an environment like electric vehicles, could be a key way to conserve the resources needed to manufacture them. CNET’s Jon Reed saw a battery cell from Xing Mobility that was intentionally damaged. The cell caught fire, but it quickly went out, thanks to a non-conductive petroleum-based lubricant that put out the fire and quickly cooled the battery. The majority of the battery actually maintained its charge. Batteries with such capabilities could be useful in cars, tractors, trucks, and other vehicles that are more likely to sustain some damage.
A heat pump that can withstand the cold
Bosch says its new IDS Ultra cold-climate heat pump can meet a home’s heating needs even when outside temperatures drop as low as 5 degrees Fahrenheit.
Bosch
Heating and cooling your home is often your largest energy-related expense. Heat pumps are the electric heating and cooling solution of the future because they are efficient and can be powered by clean energy sources. One drawback is performance in cold climates, but as technology improves, heat pumps are performing increasingly well in sub-freezing temperatures.
Bosch’s new heat pump, the IDS Ultra, is the company’s first heat pump designed with cold-climate performance in mind. Unveiled at CES this year, the IDS Ultra can keep your home warm down to -5 degrees Fahrenheit (-15 degrees Celsius) and keep working down to -13 degrees Fahrenheit (-25 degrees Celsius). The Bosch model joins models from companies such as Daikin, Midea, Johnson Controls, Lennox International, Carrier, Trane and Rheem that have made it through the first phase of the Department of Energy’s Residential Cold-climate Heat Pump Challenge.
Water agriculture in the 21st century
The Genesis Systems WaterCube is a large steel box that pulls water out of the air.
John Reed/CNET
It may sound like technology from a galaxy far, far away, but we may soon be able to harvest water directly from the air. Genesis Systems’ WC-100 WaterCube is an 800-pound machine that can harvest 100 gallons of water per day at 80 degrees Fahrenheit and 50 percent humidity. The company says it can also operate in humidity levels as low as 10 percent. The company says it plans to make it about 200 pounds lighter by the time it hits the market.
The WC-100 WaterCube is useful if your water supply is interrupted or if you want to offset your water bill. To recoup the cost, you would need to reduce your water bill significantly, which can cost as much as $20,000.
AI at CES 2024: A look at the coolest tech at the show
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