Tesla's Powerwall | Page 2 | GTAMotorcycle.com

Tesla's Powerwall

Tesla cars are a fad, not their version of the battery bank. Until the price point of an electric car comes down to the point that every day masses can afford it, and the battery technology progresses past the limitations we've been bumping up against for the last decade, nothing will change. Teslas will remain a play toy FAD for the rich and "look at me, i'm trending!" crowd.

The cars require a lot of juice to recharge. If you want quicker charges it requires a **** ton of amperage draw, even on the 220v plug.

You think air conditioners causing brown outs and the government screaming at us to cut down use will get better or worse with thousands of electric cars sucking on the grid at the same time? Our electric grid already is worn out and in dire need of upgrades. No way would it be able to sustain hundreds of thousands of cars in a metropolis plugging in at the same time.

Onto the Tesla power pack. 7kwh battery bank. Excellent. You cant do squat with it. First of all, they are built using Lithium Ion batteries. Wanna discharge that thing using its full 7kwh? 100 charges give or take the pack is done. Discharge it 80%, what is recommended for hard use and you'll get about 500 recharges. But then you only get 5600 watts out of it.
Really want to make it last? Discharge 50% and you'll get approximately 4000 recharges out of it, but only 3500watts.

3500 watts cannot run anything. Average house hold uses 20kwh daily. So the battery bank will be able to provide two, maybe three hours of usable power.

Looking at other specs, it doesnt even include an inverter. That alone costs upwards of $1500 dollars for an okay one and 3000 up for a decent one. If you truly wanna be green then you have to recharge this bad boy using solar power. At cheapest being $1 a watt for solar panels, not including installation and brackets, chargers and other miscellaneous items needed you are looking at 5 to 6 grand for a basic 4500watt solar panel system.

So we've now invested between 7 and 10 grand so that we can do what? Have usable power during a black out for 2 to 3 hours, or offset my electrical bill from a high rate of 16c a kw to 8c a kw? Whats the break even point of that?

No, the solution is signing up for micro-fit program and getting paid 35c a kw. Thats where the future is.

You are obviously right. Not a shock that you know what we all do. But he is offering a simple packaged version. Old(ish) product, new packaging. Nothing new for sales industry. Did you happen to price out the install for your new house?
He mentioned that he was hoping that other companies do this exact thing he is doing to help drive the model forward, and since you are executing this idea on your own house, seems that you do like this idea. More so than anyone just stating they "want it". I guess its not a "big deal", but its a product that makes it easy to be off grid. Scalable for size. By a brand that is known for advancing battery technology.



LOL@mcmansion.. its true that habits and patterns must change but it has to start somewhere, and I don't see Duracell offering this type of system for homes. If these systems already exist, they are by small companies, and they systems are nowhere as refined. Arguing about how shipping and manufacturing globally causes more harm does not detract from this technology AT ALL.

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I don't understand how you of all people could call this a passing fad when you are planning on doing a variation of this on your own home. I can't see how removing yourself from the energy grid (effectively) could be seen as negative in any way. Now the question is how much does your system cost in comparison and effectiveness to this system.

I suppose to a point if this tech becomes more prolific there will be other brands to choose from giving people choice, and certainly price variances.

Tesla-Wall-Battery-Specs.jpg
 
Tesla's real purpose in putting out these things is to drive up the production at their new battery plant so they can improve their economies of scale and drive down the cost of the batteries. It's their stated long term strategy to lower the cost of the batteries so that the cars can be cheaper and thus more people can afford them. These are still early days, the systems will improve greatly over time and as more people and companies adopt them.
 
There's a Canadian company doing a new type of battery banks in the US. They have rights to some rare mineral in Nevada or something.
 
Tesla cars are a fad, not their version of the battery bank. Until the price point of an electric car comes down to the point that every day masses can afford it, and the battery technology progresses past the limitations we've been bumping up against for the last decade, nothing will change. Teslas will remain a play toy FAD for the rich and "look at me, i'm trending!" crowd.

The cars require a lot of juice to recharge. If you want quicker charges it requires a **** ton of amperage draw, even on the 220v plug.

You think air conditioners causing brown outs and the government screaming at us to cut down use will get better or worse with thousands of electric cars sucking on the grid at the same time? Our electric grid already is worn out and in dire need of upgrades. No way would it be able to sustain hundreds of thousands of cars in a metropolis plugging in at the same time.

Onto the Tesla power pack. 7kwh battery bank. Excellent. You cant do squat with it. First of all, they are built using Lithium Ion batteries. Wanna discharge that thing using its full 7kwh? 100 charges give or take the pack is done. Discharge it 80%, what is recommended for hard use and you'll get about 500 recharges. But then you only get 5600 watts out of it.
Really want to make it last? Discharge 50% and you'll get approximately 4000 recharges out of it, but only 3500watts.

3500 watts cannot run anything. Average house hold uses 20kwh daily. So the battery bank will be able to provide two, maybe three hours of usable power.

Looking at other specs, it doesnt even include an inverter. That alone costs upwards of $1500 dollars for an okay one and 3000 up for a decent one. If you truly wanna be green then you have to recharge this bad boy using solar power. At cheapest being $1 a watt for solar panels, not including installation and brackets, chargers and other miscellaneous items needed you are looking at 5 to 6 grand for a basic 4500watt solar panel system.

So we've now invested between 7 and 10 grand so that we can do what? Have usable power during a black out for 2 to 3 hours, or offset my electrical bill from a high rate of 16c a kw to 8c a kw? Whats the break even point of that?

No, the solution is signing up for micro-fit program and getting paid 35c a kw. Thats where the future is.

7 Kwh won't cook a turkey in a conventional oven, never mind the mashed potatoes.

Also keep in mind the growth of condos. Less land area per occupant so less solar cell area available and more power needed for garage lighting, elevators, central facilities.

Off the grid might work for a 600 square foot home on a large lot with a wind turbine. Then the economy will collapse because you haven't got any room for stuff and you'll stop buying stuff so the stuff manufacturers will go belly up.

Sell power back to the grid at 3 to 8 times what they sell it for. Do the long term math on that.
 
Also keep in mind the growth of condos. Less land area per occupant so less solar cell area available and more power needed for garage lighting, elevators, central facilities.

How about all that empty space on the roof? I'm sure there can be solar arrays placed on top of buildings / condos. I see more and more people set up solar in my neighbourhood in the last few years. I'm thinking of doing it on my flat roof as it's just empty space up there being unused.
Unfortunately it's not economically feasible in my case yet.

The solar doesn't have to be to power the whole condo tower so long as they can take something off the grid it helps....but needs to make $ sense.
 
I hear it all the time. People who have no clue what a kilowatt or amp hour or AC or how much power their appliance/toy takes talk about renewable energy and just throwing up a wind mill or a solar panel and call it a day. I researched it, i crunched the numbers. Its insanely expensive compared to the grid. Only reason i want to do it is for self reliance.

Although for 10k i can get a diesel genny and a crap load of diesel to do the same thing, i also understand that one day diesel may not be available.

Food for thought so some people can grasp what all these numbers mean.

One liter of gasoline has 9.1kw of potential energy. So currently that 7500watt battery bank will have enough potential energy as the loose change you can dig up out of your couch.
 
We use on average 430 kWh per month (family of four). We do our best to conserve and I bet we are on the low end for our demographic. Based on this we are on average around 14 kwh per day, so even the big one would only get us part way through a day of no hydro power. Even as storage during no sun times it will be pushing it for off grid.

Same dollars in lead acid would give me three full days of back-up. Again, who cares about the extra space (double) and weight (four times) in a house.
 
How about all that empty space on the roof? I'm sure there can be solar arrays placed on top of buildings / condos. I see more and more people set up solar in my neighbourhood in the last few years. I'm thinking of doing it on my flat roof as it's just empty space up there being unused.
Unfortunately it's not economically feasible in my case yet.

The solar doesn't have to be to power the whole condo tower so long as they can take something off the grid it helps....but needs to make $ sense.

When flat TV's came in they were $13K. Now they're 1/20th of that. We need to see the same reduction in solar cell and battery prices to make it $$ feasible. Then we will have to find out how to finance the grid maintenance.
 
"Currently there are few storage options for off-grid users. Deep-cycle lead-acid batteries are the most common since they’ve been around for a long time. But lead-acid batteries require maintenance several times each year and degrade when exposed to extreme temperatures. They also have a lower energy density than Li-ion, so the same capacity will take up much more space and won’t hang on a wall easily. Finally, lead-acid batteries suffer greatly when the depth of discharge exceeds 50%, which means that a customer would have to purchase twice as much storage as he expects to use. Many off-grid users need a dedicated battery room. Tesla’s Powerwall is clean, scalable, and maintenance-free, and it hangs unobtrusively on a wall."

It seems there are CERTAIN reasons that this is a good idea. It may need to be scaled to suit individual needs, but its a choice. If the only argument is that model revealed is underpowered, it doesn't really mean much because its scalable to your exact needs. If it becomes too pricey for most, that's fine. Save up or move on.. not everyone drives a Bentley to drop their kids off to get haircuts.. The mass produced unit will be for anyone who can make use of them. The "latte sippers" "hipsters" etc..

This item, packaged in the way it is, will appeal to some. If not..perhaps a variation from a competitor. Either way the idea, and technology finally get a well deserved push.
 
Dont hold your breath. 13K Flat screens were astronomical mark up so they appeal to the uber rich who can say they have them and you dont. Large scale manufacturing and competition dropped the price.

Both solar cells, mono and poly have been around since the 1980's. There's not going to be a breakthrough in those cell types any time soon. Perhaps a few more percentage point increases in efficiency but thats about it. Millions of solar panels are produced so the manufacturing scale is already there. North America is only in the last few years really adopted solar panels. They've been in regular use in Europe and the rest of the world for a very long time. I remember seeing them in Yugoslavia back in the 90s!

Lithium Ion batteries are the same. We've been using Lipos since 2000's on a large scale....There have been improvements but nothing ground breaking. Scale of production as well is there. I mean, every one of us has at least one device powered by Lipo batteries, and most have 4 or 5. Laptops, cell-phones, cameras etc

This idea that Tesla is ground breaking new battery technology is laughable. They are nothing but Apple of the electric cars. Take everyones ideas, put a nice logo and a snazzy release and watch the trend wanna-bes flock.

They use Panasonic 18650 cells. So support Panasonic not Tesla if you really need to worship a company.

there are 6831 NCR18650 Panasonic batteries in the "Battery pack". 11 moduals in series each with 9 "bricks" in series and each brick with 69 18650's in parallel. So 69 * 9 * 11 = 6,831.

Next big electric storage breakthrough will come from the super-capacitor technology. Thats the next step forward

Just to add. Someone mentioned earlier that other companies are making electric cars and yet no-one is really buying them? Why is that? What has Tesla done that no other manufacturer can pull off? Marketing....simple as that. And like any well marketed but run of the mill product, Once the hype is gone, so are the sales.

When flat TV's came in they were $13K. Now they're 1/20th of that. We need to see the same reduction in solar cell and battery prices to make it $$ feasible. Then we will have to find out how to finance the grid maintenance.
 
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We use on average 430 kWh per month (family of four). We do our best to conserve and I bet we are on the low end for our demographic. Based on this we are on average around 14 kwh per day, so even the big one would only get us part way through a day of no hydro power. Even as storage during no sun times it will be pushing it for off grid.

Same dollars in lead acid would give me three full days of back-up. Again, who cares about the extra space (double) and weight (four times) in a house.


When i saw this battery bank thing announced it got me thinking that I could start with a small battery system to work say my lights (least draw) and then slowly expand to handle small appliances and eventually the whole house. Big ticket items are the water heater which when cold i think takes about 10 minutes to heat up, the well pump, the clothes drier (which pretty much only gets used minimally in winter) and the stove. secondary would be the fridge, freezer, dishwasher and clothes washer, then things like microwaves/kettles/other 110 v appliances.
 
I'm liking this simple hillbilly device, would be good for light use in an emergency.
Since it produces power, i assume you could use it to charge battery banks etc.

[video=youtube;Fv53K9MnDuM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv53K9MnDuM[/video]

In a major emergency, i'm heading for redliners place. :cool:
 
I'm liking this simple hillbilly device, would be good for light use in an emergency.
Since it produces power, i assume you could use it to charge battery banks etc.

[video=youtube;Fv53K9MnDuM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv53K9MnDuM[/video]

In a major emergency, i'm heading for redliners place. :cool:

Except free energy devices cant work.
 
One liter of gasoline has 9.1kw of potential energy. So currently that 7500watt battery bank will have enough potential energy as the loose change you can dig up out of your couch.
You forgot to factor in inefficiency. The best combustion engine is only 30% efficient. But I do understand your point
 
Except free energy devices cant work.

I used to work for a magnet company. If you know magnets and need one you know the terminology, MGO, orientation, composition etc.

When someone called asking for a really strong magnet they were either trying to trick a roulette wheel, make a magnetic medical cure all device or create a perpetual motion device. None worked.
 
No i didnt. I said POTENTIAL energy. I realize internal combustion engines are extremely inefficient.

Electricity has inefficiencies as well. AC to DC back to AC. EaSy 30% loss.

You forgot to factor in inefficiency. The best combustion engine is only 30% efficient. But I do understand your point
 
tesla has announced a new car that should price out around 36k, so that's that. economy electric with style. electric battery walls aren't a fad, its the future. it may not be the incarnation we are being shown, but its coming fast and hard. you can giggle and mock, but its where all the engineering and investment dollars are going right now.
 
No i didnt. I said POTENTIAL energy. I realize internal combustion engines are extremely inefficient.

Electricity has inefficiencies as well. AC to DC back to AC. EaSy 30% loss.

You're equating 9.1Kw of potential to 7.5Kw of electrical. That chemical potential energy or I like to call it chemical because bonds need to be broken in order to harvest them.

My point is you can't equate them. Electrical energy is more easily utilized & more efficiently converted to useful products. Electrical motors are much more efficient & heating water is more efficient given the same amount of energy.
 
No, i'm equating potential to potential. You wont get 7.5kw of electricity out of that battery bank. Guarantee it. Ohms law guarantees it.

Besides, where did that electricity come from? Power plant? Ooops there goes that theory as again, we're burning inefficient fossil fuels to turn to steam to turn to electricity to transform to 110 000 volts, to carry it long distance, with tons of loss, to step it back down, to convert AC to DC to put into battery cells... Gee, all of a sudden 30% combustion engine doesnt sound so bad.

Solar cells? Umm best solar cells output in the rage of 19% efficiency. Only saving grace there is that sun energy is free...

Best solution is what locomotives use. A diesel power plant which runs at optimal Volumetric efficiency rpm, turning generators which produce AC current which power AC motors. No AC to DC loss back to AC loss, no battery discharge loss, no idling and non-optimal engine rpm.

Want to see the future.

http://fortune.com/2015/04/28/audi-just-invented-fuel-made-from-co2-and-water/

That technology has room to grow and scale, is renewable and in infancy. Lithium ion batteries have hit a wall. Without a major breakthrough in battery technology which doesnt rely on hard and dirty to mine Lithium, no, these gimicky "power wall" is not the future.

Just to EDIT:

I dont want to sound like a debbie downer, but as someone who has looked closely into off grid and electricity offsetting, reducing energy consumption and overall keeping $$ in my pocket i know fully well whats needed and whats just propaganda and marketing.

I dont want people to think that they'll slap this thing on the wall and see any significant reduction in their electric bill. Also, wanna save the earth? Turn **** OFF! Reduce your usage, dont try to offset it or change the source.
 
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I dont want people to think that they'll slap this thing on the wall and see any significant reduction in their electric bill. Also, wanna save the earth? Turn **** OFF! Reduce your usage, dont try to offset it or change the source.

Take a M/C ride to Amish Ohio. Very peasant roads and cheap.

Talk to some of the Amish who live off the grid and see how they do it. Simply put they do without stuff we couldn't live without.

They look so peaceful in their buggies. Yeah in the spring and fall. They freeze in the winter and fry in the summer.

I was talking to one older Amish farmer and he commented that his wife was a good woman. However it bothered him that she wanted to visit her family every weekend and they lived THIRTEEN MILES away.

I wonder how an electric vehicle does stuck in a traffic jam in the heat of the summer or a deep freeze snow up to the axles winter traffic snarl. What's the range under those conditions?
 

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