Not ready to install a personal nuclear reactor in your backyard? Listen up. A new hope for living off-grid may be around the corner, called Bloom Box. [More recently the company has been calling the large units "energy servers"].

Bloom Boxes look un-remarkable – large silver enclosures that resemble supercomputers from a few years ago. Despite the lack of style they can boast a NASA pedigree. Some of the underlying Bloom Box technology was developed to support a proposed NASA manned mission to Mars. The mission was later scrapped but from the ashes has risen an interesting gadget.

Each Bloom Box contains specially manufactured discs that convert common elements in the air, principally oxygen, into power once the box is fully warmed up (to a sultry 1,000 degrees C).

Corporate-sized units sell for $700,000 – $800,000 USD, and founder/CEO K.R. Sridhars claims these are in use today at major corporations, including FedEx, Walmart, Staples, Google, Coca Cola, Bank of America, Cox and eBay.

The fuel may be free but there are downsides to consider. First, the energy-producing process produces carbon emissions. Carbon neutral power generation however can be achieved by choosing to use bio-gas from landfill waste (as eBay is doing). Second, the fuel savings must be weighed against the high price of the generators. eBay claims to have saved $100,000 in energy costs over 9 months, but that is with 5 Bloom Boxes installed at a total investment of roughly $4M USD. It will take eBay 30 years to recoup that investment, and it’s unclear what maintenance will cost or what life expectency these units will demonstrate.

Smaller Bloom Box units may be on the way – adequate to power a typical American household, and presumably at a price much, much lower than the corporate-sized giants. Sridhar, likely speaking idealistically, would like to see household units cost as little as $3,000.

CBS News has an extensive interview with K.R. Sridhars, for those interested in more information.