How your next home might run off a battery
ROCKVILLE, Md. — The future of home energy sits in Josh and Susan Fried’s basement near shelves of old tools and canned soup, an unadorned box the size of a wine cooler filled with a dozen silent batteries.
Annoyed by blackouts, the retired dentist and his wife paid $50,000 for the batteries and other technology that could keep their suburban home supercharged. Now, if their cul-de-sac loses power, they can run the air conditioning, the treadmill, even the espresso machine for three days before breaking a sweat.
Their power bill is smaller, too, because they can stockpile energy from their solar panels and Pepco’s lines for when the sun isn’t shining or prices are high. When the batteries are fully charged, the couple can even sell some juice back, sometimes making $30 a month.
“The sun is out,” said Josh Fried, 67, one day last week. “I’ve been selling all day.”
