Archinect - News 2024-12-23T07:38:39-05:00 https://archinect.com/news/article/138958669/powering-your-som-designed-house-with-your-car-and-reverse Powering your (SOM-designed) house with your car (and reverse) Nicholas Korody 2015-10-14T14:55:00-04:00 >2015-10-14T14:55:30-04:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/5g/5g1uo7dnghveity0.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><em><p>A research team from Oak Ridge National Laboratory's (ORNL) Department of Energy has created a new model for how we can connect the way we power our homes and vehicles. Dubbed AMIE... the platform features special technology that allows a bi-directional flow of energy between a dwelling and a vehicle. In other words, the house can fuel the car and the car can fuel the house. What's more, ORNL used 3D printing technology to build the dwelling and the vehicle...</p></em><br /><br /><p><img title="" alt="" src="http://cdn.archinect.net/images/514x/by/byivttigdzww6pxy.jpg"><br><br>AMIE, or Additive Manufacturing Integrated Energy, is a hybrid of different futuristic technologies, mashed together into a single platform. First, both the house and the vehicle were 3D printed.<br><br>The former, a single-room structure, was designed in collaboration with Skidmore, Owings and Merril and features vacuum insulated panels, a micro-kitchen, and a rooftop photovoltaic system.<br><br><img title="" alt="" src="http://cdn.archinect.net/images/514x/er/erdd8t820dfhxu3g.jpg"><br><br>The car, despite looking a bit like something from Mad Max, can be modified with new, 3D printed parts. It includes an electric hybrid power-train that uses natural gas to supplement the energy provided by the house.<br><br>Right now, it's a heavy vehicle, but researchers are working to make it lighter, as well as experimenting with external combustion engines, bio-fuel powered internal combustion engines, hydrogen fuel cells, and flow batteries.<br><br><img title="" alt="" src="http://cdn.archinect.net/images/514x/mo/moipyasc2glekg30.jpg"><br><img title="" alt="" src="http://cdn.archinect.net/images/514x/hf/hf5evkq8h2ikz6u3.jpg"><br><br>The real jaw-dropping element of the prototype is that it allows a bi-directional flow of energy: from the car to the house, and vice versa.<br><br>Today, many electric cars can b...</p>