There’s an interesting fact about electric cars that hasn’t made it to the news yet – the electricity stored in the big batteries that power the car can also be used to power your home. In places where you pay a lower rate for overnight electricity demand, powering your home’s electrical needs from your car during the day and recharging the car at night can reduce your electricity bill.

When this idea gains traction, it won’t be long before someone takes the battery out of the car and puts it in a box in the garage with an automatic switch to power the house on low-cost nighttime electricity during the peak demand hours for business (8-5 PM) and residential (5-9 PM) usage.

The net effect of this development will be very good for everyone, because we’ve seen general power shortages in high-demand areas, including rolling blackouts during heat waves in California. This is just one more way that the advance of technology can help use more efficiently use the energy we already have.

PC World has the full story.