This week, we are bringing you a mini-series about the key differentiators that set the PowerBloc apart from mainstream home battery systems (a.k.a. “garage art”). To kick things off, let’s focus on the core of our value proposition: Independence.
Before you do your propeller head and take flight and delight in Direct Current (DC) grid technology, we must ground you with some “power” politics: Europeans and Americans cannot agree. The American EMerge Alliance attempts to make 380 V DC the new standard, while Europe’s CurrentOS Foundation advocates 350 V DC.
The PowerBloc is powerful. It is not merely a piece of hardware but a smart independent power system. DIYA is its stunningly beautiful user interface. One user interface (“UI”) designer noted that “DIYA is lightyears ahead of the competition.”
“The inhabitants of planet Earth are quietly conducting a gigantic environmental experiment,” wrote Wallace S. Broecker, then at Columbia University, in an article, “Unpleasant Surprises in the Greenhouse”, in the science magazine Nature in 1987. He continued: “We play Russian roulette with climate [and] no one knows what lies in the active chamber of the gun.”
I was always an engineer at heart. As a teenager, I built and repaired model trains, all sorts of radio-controlled vehicles, mopeds, and cars. I was a regular at the local hardware store and for years, my fingernails were constantly black from engine oil.
Global investment into clean technologies such as wind, solar power, electric vehicles and batteries is expected to hit $1.7 trillion this year according to the I.E.A., compared with just over $1 trillion in fossil fuels. For the first time, investment into solar power will surpass investments into drilling for oil.
The YouSolar PowerBloc uses lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries. LFP batteries have about half the energy per mass, 150 Wh/kg, compared to nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) batteries, which have 300 Wh/kg. NMC batteries are therefore preferred in automotive and other mobile applications.
The Northern hemisphere is being hit by a catastrophic heat wave and all bets are off for the Australian summer. Billions of people will have to live with and fight climate change. It will take an “all of the above” approach to slow and then stabilize greenhouse gas emissions. Even millions of PowerBlocs will not be enough. We need to eat less animal protein. Fly less. Insulate our homes. And buy white paint.
Wildfires are on the rise, and obtaining fire insurance for the home is not a matter of course anymore. Citing an increased risk of natural disasters, two of California's largest property insurers, State Farm and Allstate, are no longer selling new homeowners insurance in California.
The home is going all-electric. EV charging, heat pumps, and induction stoves are coming, and they generate huge loads. The resulting power needs can quickly exceed the typical residential 100 or 200 Ampere utility service that have served the typical American home well for decades.
