Standing in front of me was a huge piece of metal, the biggest thing in the room here at a press event at CES 2024, the largest tech conference of the year. It stands more than 3 feet tall and weighs 800 pounds -- and it's designed to extract water from the air, even here in the arid Las Vegas desert. Meet the WC-100 WaterCube.

The point of this massive piece of equipment? To do for your water bill what solar panels can do for your electric bill -- reduce it or even get rid of it completely. 

But that "water independence" will cost you: $20,000 on preorder, to be exact. "This is a whole new way of thinking. It's shifting the paradigm of how things are going with water," Genesis System's CEO Sharon Stuckenberg told CNET. 

Water from the air

The concept is familiar to anyone who's seen the original Star Wars and thought for a minute about what it meant that Luke Skywalker's aunt and uncle were "moisture farmers." There's humidity in the air, even if just a little, and if you condense it with the right technology, you can create potable water literally out of thin air.

Genesis Systems has made bigger water systems that can produce thousands of gallons of water a day, but the home-scale model is set to produce about 100 gallons per day. That figure depends a lot on the humidity -- the 100 gallons was benchmarked at 80 degrees Fahrenheit and 50% humidity.

If it's less humid, the machine will still make water (Stuckenberg said it will produce down into the single digits of humidity), but it won't make as much. If it's more humid, it'll make even more.

The WC-100 model comes with a 50-gallon tank, but Stuckenberg and Genesis Systems EVP Kevin Barton suggested that combining the WaterCube with a larger storage tank system could help a household effectively manage its water needs.

Ditch the water bill?

Eliminating the water bill may sound tempting, but there's that price tag to consider. Available financing would look like a monthly payment of $200 to $250 for several years, Barton said. Household water bills are variable and can range from $30 to $300 a month, for example.

Genesis Systems said the price tag will likely come down in the future. Right now, the best you can do is reserve a model for $500. 

With the rise of wild weather and climate change, technology like solar panels, a home battery on wheels and, yes, maybe even water harvesting, are likely to gain momentum. Or at least -- in the case of an 800-pound, $20,000 water harvester -- attention.