Power Wall Pricing

[IXLR8]

^^ That's something that laws need to change. Lots of things now require the ability to 'phone home' to work normally. Can you imagine a whole home of 'smart things' that you can't use when the web goes down? You might not even be able to turn some lights on/off.

Early Tesla cars 'phoned home' to unlock the car. When Tesla's server farm went down for a few hours, folks couldn't get into their Tesla cars. About that time Tesla added a key lock to be able to get into the car.

 

[Frankenkubota]

I'm looking for some place else to live. Odds are I can't sell my place so, either stay, donate or abandon it.

The rain here, to me, is overwhelming. Each to their own. I left Oregon for this? A friend lives in the caribbean, on a American Virgin Island or something.

He and many of his neighbors have put in personal generators with storage and completely abandoned the grid. He says they lose power many times a week and it just caused havoc with all his gadgets.

He said it rains there too.

 

[ericm979]

Early Tesla cars 'phoned home' to unlock the car. When Tesla's server farm went down for a few hours, folks couldn't get into their Tesla cars. About that time Tesla added a key lock to be able to get into the car.

PowerWalls have wifi and open SSH ports, with a fixed login and password. Anyone near by can connect if they know it. Once in, it's possible to damage it or set it on fire if you set the right settings. They may have fixed this recently, it was discovered a couple years ago. Tesla had similar terrible security in the Model 3 cars- anyone from Tesla could SSH in to your car and change or stop it.

Until I'm convinced they have fixed their security issues in a complete and systemic way I'm staying away from their products.

 

[MossRoad]

^^ That's something that laws need to change. Lots of things now require the ability to 'phone home' to work normally. Can you imagine a whole home of 'smart things' that you can't use when the web goes down? You might not even be able to turn some lights on/off.

Why do you need a law to change that? Don't buy the product. It's your choice.

 

[ponytug]

Did you know that the power wall requires a live internet connection to work? If you live in the internet third world like me (aka Not in a big city in Canada), when your internet goes down your powerwall doesn't work.

They do use an internet connection. The Powerwalls upload production/consumption data to the cloud for use in your app, and they download firmware updates, and toggle into and out of Stormwatch charging mode.

However, nothing that I have seen from Powerwall users indicate any issues with no internet during blackouts. Do you have a link for that being an issue?

All the best,

Peter

 

[not2old]

^^ That's something that laws need to change. Lots of things now require the ability to 'phone home' to work normally. Can you imagine a whole home of 'smart things' that you can't use when the web goes down? You might not even be able to turn some lights on/off.

This is the reason I've been looking for electrical switches controlled by bluetooth and won't install any that require wi-fi.

 

[ponytug]

Funnily enough Tesla just emailed out the following link explaining how best to use Powerwalls in outages.
https://www.tesla.com/support/energy/powerwall/own/best-practices-during-power-outages

One of the last lines makes it clear that Powerwalls are fine without having internet access.

All the best,

Peter

 

[ning]

I installed solar (10kW} & batteries (30kWh) this past year (largely DIY - hired a trencher and pestered an electrician here and there). The batteries I went with are the Enphase ones; they're more pricey per kwh than the Tesla, but I didn't have to pay someone to install them, plus they're more serviceable (each of 4 microinverters per battery unit can die with only partial power loss, trivial to replace), and finally, they're actually available (I initially had spec'd 20kWh and decided after installing the 20 to add another 10, had the unit delivered in a week).

My system can charge batteries from solar or grid, and it has a variety of operating modes such as full backup (use battery power only if grid is down) or "saving mode", where battery power is used during the peak electric price time period and is recharged later (when power is cheapest, or from solar).

The funny thing is we don't know when the utility grid goes down any more, until we look across the valley and don't see lights on in the house across the way - or we hear generators running off in the distance.

The Enphase switch ("Enpower") has connections to attach a backup generator as well, though they haven't released the feature yet. Considering we've had PSPS events (blackouts to prevent another power line from burning down another city) last a few days, I'd consider getting a generator that would occasionally run to recharge batteries, especially useful for hot summer (A/C) or dark winter (lousy solar) outages.

 

[mikester]

I installed solar (10kW} & batteries (30kWh) this past year (largely DIY - hired a trencher and pestered an electrician here and there). The batteries I went with are the Enphase ones; they're more pricey per kwh than the Tesla, but I didn't have to pay someone to install them, plus they're more serviceable (each of 4 microinverters per battery unit can die with only partial power loss, trivial to replace), and finally, they're actually available (I initially had spec'd 20kWh and decided after installing the 20 to add another 10, had the unit delivered in a week).

My system can charge batteries from solar or grid, and it has a variety of operating modes such as full backup (use battery power only if grid is down) or "saving mode", where battery power is used during the peak electric price time period and is recharged later (when power is cheapest, or from solar).

The funny thing is we don't know when the utility grid goes down any more, until we look across the valley and don't see lights on in the house across the way - or we hear generators running off in the distance.

The Enphase switch ("Enpower") has connections to attach a backup generator as well, though they haven't released the feature yet. Considering we've had PSPS events (blackouts to prevent another power line from burning down another city) last a few days, I'd consider getting a generator that would occasionally run to recharge batteries, especially useful for hot summer (A/C) or dark winter (lousy solar) outages.

Can you post a link to the system you used?

 

[IXLR8]

Can you post a link to the system you used?

I did a search for "Enphase switch" and "Enpower" and found pieces and parts that sound like his system.