The world convened at CES 2024 this past week to get its first look at the tech that could be coming to your home in the near future. Most, if not all, of the tech on display — from the best of show to the wacky to the cutting edge — had one thing in common: electricity.
While electricity keeps all your tech running, it’s also more of a focus itself this year. There were more than enough solar-powered gadgets, portable power stations and visions for the future of energy to go around. If 2024 is the year you take control of your home’s electricity, here’s the tech we saw at CES that might help you do it.
A whole home backup battery you can take with you
Jackery’s rooftop tent solar panels are a dramatic-looking way to power a camping adventure.
Jackery, a company with plenty of portable power solutions, is looking to launch its most inventive product later this year. That’s when you might be able to get your hands on a popup tent with built-in solar panels that can be mounted to the top of a vehicle. Final specs and design are being hashed out, but a company spokesperson said the solar tent is likely to cost about $6,000 when it’s available for purchase.
Savant’s smart energy system allows you to switch your home from on-grid to off-grid with a tap.
Savant is one of several companies that gives you insight into and control over how your home uses energy. Through sensors and controllers installed in your breaker box, Savant’s system lets you see where power is flowing, from your solar panels, your battery or the grid. With newly introduced features, controlling that flow is easier than ever.
The battery packs in the Bluetti AC180T portable power station are hot-swappable, so you can just take one of these things out of the station while it’s operating.
Bluetti has made some of CNET’s favorite portable energy products, like power stations and solar panels, since we’ve been testing them over the last few years. The company is at CES this year demonstrating a few concept products it’s hoping to sell in the future.
One is a portable power station with a twist. Rather than one battery stuck inside the walls of the power station, the AC180T has battery packs you can swap in and out, while the power station is running your devices. This could make for even more flexible charging on the go. CNET’s Jon Reed said swapping the batteries was “weirdly fun to do.” The AC180T has an energy storage capacity of 1,433 watt-hours (or about 1.4 kilowatt-hours.) Bluetti is planning to crowdfund the device’s development with an Indiegogo campaign in February.
Indoor solar cells with a ton of applications
Goal Zero’s Alta 50 portable refrigerator can supposedly run on just 8 watts of power once it’s holding at temperature. That can last a long time on even a small power station.
Bluetti’s swappable battery tech will be useful in other Bluetti devices, like the MultiCooler portable fridge. The fridge can keep things cool or downright frigid, from 68 to -4 degrees Fahrenheit. What’s more, it has a built-in ice maker. Whether that’s strictly necessary for a portable fridge is probably up for debate, but you can imagine the device making for some truly luxurious camping.
Other portable fridges from another portable power stalwart were debuted by Goal Zero. The Alta fridges come in 50- and 80-liter capacities. The smaller version can maintain temperature using just 8 watts of power, once it’s reached the targeted temp. That means that Goal Zero’s smallest power station can run the fridge for over a day. Goal Zero introduced three new portable power stations and a home battery backup, joining the trend of other energy storage companies that started small, but are now offering larger, whole-home backup solutions at a more affordable price.
Stained glass that generates electricity
Xing Mobility tested its battery cooling technology by driving three needles into the side of a battery pack. You can see where those cells blew up, but the rest of the pack looks alright.
Batteries are a key element in the electrification of everything and the transformation of the power grid. Increasing their durability and safety, especially in settings like electric vehicles, could be an important way of stretching the resources needed to make them. CNET’s Jon Reed saw battery cells from Xing Mobility that, when intentionally damaged, caught fire but quickly extinguished. That’s thanks to a nonconductive, petroleum-based lubricant that extinguished the fire and cooled the battery off quickly. Most of the battery actually kept its charge. Batteries with this ability could be useful in cars and tractors and trucks, where they’re more likely to get a little roughed up.
A heat pump that can keep pace in the cold
The Genesis Systems WaterCube is a big steel box that pulls water from the air.
It sounds like tech from a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, but you might soon be able to pull water right from the air. The WC-100 WaterCube from Genesis Systems is an 800-pound machine that can harvest 100 gallons of water per day at 80 degrees Fahrenheit and 50% humidity, although the company says it can work all the way down to below 10% humidity. It should get about 200 pounds lighter before it reaches the market, the company says.
The WC-100 WaterCube could be useful if your water supply is disrupted or to offset your water bill. You’d have to shave a lot of that water bill to recoup the cost, which sits at a hefty $20,000.
