Tesla PowerWall

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qube_TA

Original Poster:

8,405 posts

252 months

Tuesday 5th May 2015
quotequote all
What are folks views on this, looks interesting.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/tesla-s...

So basically whilst you're out at work and not using any power the solar panel on your roof charges the Li-Ion batteries for free, when you come home you can utilise this power thus reducing the amount of power you pull from the mains. The batteries seem to be of a size where they're storable without taking up a whole room. Obviously the amount of charge you'll get day to day will depend upon the amount of daylight you get, but they're suggesting a 10kWh unit for $3500, that's quite a lot of autonomy for not a huge amount of coin.

Obviously you need the other bits to go with it and to generate 10kWh worth is going to need a big panel. But in principle the biggest problem with 'renewables' was the ability to store the energy generated so it could be used when required, I wonder if Elon and his crew are onto something.



ikarl

3,739 posts

206 months

Tuesday 5th May 2015
quotequote all
Yep, definitely on to something, but it's where it will be in 5/10 years time that interests me!

I think it would work better for a development of housing that has it built as part of the scheme rather than as an add-on for individual houses. Each house would have a battery pack that would be charged by community solar panels/hydro/wind (probably a combination of the 3) - that way you can only use what you have stored.

I work in the power industry and I'm keen to see how the future network will look, and how the balancing of the network will work.

If you use all your power from your battery pack do you instantly switch onto taking your power from the network? if so, what impact will that have when hundreds of homes switch from battery power to grid power at roughly the same time? instead of lights on, tv on, kettle on, washing machine on.... there could be an instant switch of everything on at once once the battery runs out. Is the grid we have designed for that?

ewenm

28,506 posts

252 months

Tuesday 5th May 2015
quotequote all
Note it can only output power at 2kW, so it won't run your whole house with lots of appliances going at the same time anyway.

qube_TA

Original Poster:

8,405 posts

252 months

Tuesday 5th May 2015
quotequote all
ewenm said:
Note it can only output power at 2kW, so it won't run your whole house with lots of appliances going at the same time anyway.
Yeah it's not going to run a kettle or oven but you can run a lot of other stuff on 2kW.

For example a 55" Samsung UE55H8000 4K TV set uses 101W to run.



ewenm

28,506 posts

252 months

Tuesday 5th May 2015
quotequote all
qube_TA said:
ewenm said:
Note it can only output power at 2kW, so it won't run your whole house with lots of appliances going at the same time anyway.
Yeah it's not going to run a kettle or oven but you can run a lot of other stuff on 2kW.

For example a 55" Samsung UE55H8000 4K TV set uses 101W to run.
Indeed, so the concern above about everyone using them up and then switching to the grid is less important. The grid would be used to top up the 2kW as needed - dual source rather than PowerWall 100% then Grid 100%.

qube_TA

Original Poster:

8,405 posts

252 months

Tuesday 5th May 2015
quotequote all
yes, both would run in parallel, so the grid would see what you use less 2kW.


ikarl

3,739 posts

206 months

Tuesday 5th May 2015
quotequote all
Which is why I started with 'where it will be in 5/10 years time is what interests me' etc

eldar

22,793 posts

203 months

Tuesday 5th May 2015
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Just a UPS with expensive batteries?

qube_TA

Original Poster:

8,405 posts

252 months

Tuesday 5th May 2015
quotequote all
eldar said:
Just a UPS with expensive batteries?
Yes but the difference is the size of the batteries don't take up the usual amount of space as they do in a ups and last longer


Podie

46,645 posts

282 months

Tuesday 5th May 2015
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If prices are sensible, then I think we'd be interested.

eldar

22,793 posts

203 months

Tuesday 5th May 2015
quotequote all
qube_TA said:
Yes but the difference is the size of the batteries don't take up the usual amount of space as they do in a ups and last longer
Certainly true, and the size/mass matters in a car. Domestically, not as important. How much would lead/acid equivalents weigh?

TonyToniTone

3,674 posts

256 months

Tuesday 5th May 2015
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