New Dutch home battery is fire-safe and 95% recyclable

Eindhoven-based ESS4U has launched a sustainable home battery, the Qurmit. The Qurmit home battery is made of gel battery cells and is therefore non-flammable. Furthermore, the Qurmit is 95 percent recyclable and the customer gets a portion of the investment back at the end of its life.

Lithium-ion batteries are safe if they are properly installed and if they are in a safe place. However, if they become damaged, there can be a fire hazard. Even that danger is not there with the new battery from ESS4U of Eindhoven, Netherlands. The company has years of experience using gel technology for large industrial off-grid energy projects, and is now bringing the technology to the consumer market. "After thorough research and an extensive testing period, we are now ready to offer this fire-safe technology in the form of a home battery," said Dop Brzesowsky, Managing Director at ESS4U. The battery is being developed and produced in collaboration with the VDL Groep.

For those industrial applications, the company has developed a charging regime that it now also uses in its new home battery. A good charging system or charging regime takes into account not only the battery's technology but also its capacity, temperature and state of charge. The charging regime developed by ESS4U is specifically designed to extend battery life by up to 25% and is controlled by means of the ESS4U Booster, which is integrated into the Qurmit.

Local recycling process

The Qurmit's battery cells consist of 50% recycled material and the home battery is 95% recyclable at the end of its life. The recycling process itself is also designed to be as green as possible. In Europe and even within the Netherlands, the complete recycling infrastructure is in place to process gel battery cells. At the end of the service life, which according to the manufacturer can be up to 20 years, the user gets a portion of his investment back for a returned home battery.

Inside and outside

Home battery Qurmit has a charging capacity of 2000 W and a discharging capacity of 2400 W and ensures sufficient availability of power. A backup option allows the battery to switch on automatically should the power grid fail. Thus, users are energy-independent and supplied with power even during power outages.

With its size of 128 x 73 x 48 cm, the Qurmit can be placed indoors, but it is also fine outdoors. The Qurmit is weatherproof, if it freezes the Qurmit continues to work down to -40º C. and during hot summers the Qurmit functions well up to +55º C. The battery cell of the Qurmit requires no active cooling or heating, so no energy is lost unnecessarily and no humming fan is needed.

Easy installation

The Qurmit is easy to install with only one Ethernet cable between inverter/charger and meter box. The home battery is also easily linkable with other Energy Management Systems, existing PV systems and smart meters.

Users can easily access the Qurmit via the Internet. All energy flows of a home, office or small business can be visualized with a free app, which provides full insight into energy consumption and energy yield.