Tesla wants to power your home

Tesla wants to get in your house.

The company this week revealed plans to take the kind of battery technology that powers their electric cars and apply it to running your home.

"The idea is to have a battery that will charge some of your home, if not the entire thing, for an extended period of time," CNET's Jeff Bakalar told CBS News.

How long? That question remains to be answered, but Toyota says the hydrogen fuel cell in its 2016 Mirai could power a typical Japanese home for a week, so it's fair to think Tesla head Elon Musk is aiming for the same thing.

"I would assume people would use this as some kind of back up generator," Balkalar said. "I would imagine being able to hook up anything running inside your home."

CNET reports that Musk said last year he was hoping to build a battery, similar to the one found in the company's Model S car, that would sit on the wall in a home and be used for power whenever a person required it. Since it would be placed in the home, Musk said, he'd want it to have a "beautiful cover" and be "plug and play" to make it easy for consumers to use.

Speaking to investors Wednesday, the company's chief technology officer, J.B. Straubel, said the battery could be coming "fairly soon," according to CNET. He went on to say that it's possible the product could be unveiled "in the next month or two" and that production on the batteries will begin in approximately six months.

Michael Casey

Michael Casey covers the environment, science and technology for CBSNews.com

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