| Author | Message | ||
     Patrick Lockyer. Grand Master Username: pat_lockyer Post Number: 1511 Registered: 9-2004 |
The Tesla Powerwall 2 is fitted with a solar array just need a little more sun as to-day the solar electric powered the house and charged the powerwall to 85%.  | ||
| Graham Watson Frequent User Username: graham508 Post Number: 62 Registered: 3-2016 |
Very cool, Do you use an inverter or use DC power? | ||
| Patrick Lockyer. Grand Master Username: pat_lockyer Post Number: 1512 Registered: 9-2004 |
Graham, use a Solis mini 2000 4g inverter [white in the pix] with the Tesla Powerwall, A SB 4000 Sunny boy inverter is also used for the original solar array installed in 2010.  | ||
| David Gore Moderator Username: david_gore Post Number: 2664 Registered: 4-2003 |
Pat, Did you get any information on the estimated loss of capacity over time for the Power Wall Li-ion battery? I understand Tesla indicate 8 years for their car batteries with normal usage of 30,000km p.a. before the range reduction becomes a problem. In early stages of evaluating a 15/20kW solar installation for our country home to go off-grid and recharging a future EV [most likely a P100D]. | ||
| Patrick Ryan Grand Master Username: patrick_r Post Number: 1680 Registered: 4-2016 |
Patrick, I'm very interested in how this runs your house hold. The Tesla wall is getting very popular in a very sunny country like Australia. | ||
| Robert Noel Reddington Grand Master Username: bob_uk Post Number: 1516 Registered: 5-2015 |
Where battery packs are stationary domestic then weight is not a problem then imo lead acid is the most cost effective. I have seen the large rooms full of jars (cells) in telephone exchanges. worn ev batteries could be used as off grid power supplies, plenty of room at my home to install say 10 used Tesla batteries. At the moment it appears that 99% percent of electricity storage research is about chemical methods. Maybe we are looking at the wrong methods. | ||
| Patrick Lockyer. Grand Master Username: pat_lockyer Post Number: 1513 Registered: 9-2004 |
David the Tesla Powerwall has a full guarantee of ten years, this is without any reduction loss with duty cycles etc, we will see. Patrick, to day the weather is mostly cloudy but have been off grid all the time cooking lights etc but do use econ 7 at night for immersion heater and washing machine. The powerwall should have an automated intelligent way to top itself up on econ 7 [cheap rate] but development on this part is still in progress, sometime early next year maybe. I turn the Powerwall unit off manually when time for eco 7 to kick in to conserve storage, still seeing if an app will do the turn the unit off. Pix 1st is showing 5.9kw generated and where it go's, a little back to the grid!  2nd showing 2.3kw solar 0.6 use 1.7 to Powerwall.  Powerwall today midday.  | ||
| Patrick Lockyer. Grand Master Username: pat_lockyer Post Number: 1514 Registered: 9-2004 |
Thought I would check the Tesla App as the sun has come out on the western arra, storage up to 95% so put the immersion on and this is the reading:  Don't know if this pix is clear but this is the system set up.  | ||
| Graham Watson Frequent User Username: graham508 Post Number: 63 Registered: 3-2016 |
Hi Patrick, Thanks for the block diagram. I am very interested in how it ends up working out in the long run. | ||
| David Gore Moderator Username: david_gore Post Number: 2668 Registered: 4-2003 |
Thanks Patrick, The benefits from installing photovoltaic systems are a "no-brainer" here with an average pay-back period of 5-7 years depending on the size of the system and domestic power usage. The probable future problem will be the imposition of a "service availability tax" by the government as demand for power from the grid drops and the privatised investors who paid ridiculously high prices to purchase the previously State government-owned distribution grids find their monopoly profits disappearing as more home owners self-generate their own power instead of purchasing it from the grid. We are living in interesting times.............. http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/massive-jump-in-solar-energy-rollout-means-scarcity-fears-unfounded-council-20170914-gyhd8k.html . | ||
| Patrick Ryan Grand Master Username: patrick_r Post Number: 1682 Registered: 4-2016 |
That is fantastic info Patrick. Thank you. | ||
| Randy Roberson Grand Master Username: wascator Post Number: 770 Registered: 5-2009 |
After years of working in an industry which is largely made possible by demand or capacity sales, I offer this: large-scale public utility projects as water, telephone, sewer, gas, and electric power, require huge amounts of capital to construct and therefore depend on people being willing to invest a lot of money for the long haul to get them built. They are in their own way the ultimate "mass production". They are expensive, but, other than energy costs, relatively cheap to operate. Unless one is completely "off the grid", one may have a system which is capable at times of supporting the home energy needs, and yet it must be connected to the Grid to make it work and to make 24-7-365 operation possible. Financing of the projects depends on a lot of people paying a relatively small amount in each bill for construction and support, and if one is connected yet not buying much or any power, one might be taking advantage. | ||
| Brian Vogel Grand Master Username: guyslp Post Number: 2409 Registered: 6-2009 |
Randy, While I understand what you're saying, in the area where I live, where a lot of people (but not me) get their electricity produced by electric cooperatives all of them are more than willing to buy any excess capacity that those who've installed solar or wind are producing at any moment in time that's not going into immediate use or long-term storage (read: batteries) at the individual's home. Given the demand even some of our large commercial producers are going this route. I don't think that anyone's getting taken advantage of with solar or wind for individuals who elect to go that route. It seems to be a win-win which allows commercial electricity producers to avoid building additional capacity that is only needed at peak times. Brian, who's big on the idea of individuals pursuing renewables because the US energy industry seems to be quite slow about doing so (on the whole - I'm aware of wind farms spread across various locations, but overall the desire for coal, gas, and nuclear seems to be "the winner.") | ||
| Patrick Lockyer. Grand Master Username: pat_lockyer Post Number: 1518 Registered: 9-2004 |
Randy, at the moment I use econ 7 from 12.30 to 7.30 am, this at the moment powers the immersion heater and washing machine etc and tops the Nissan leaf to 85%. The other 15% is for charging during the day instead of exporting the surplus. In time the Powerwall will have firmware to allow it to top up if needed with econ 7 @ 6p per unit if cloudy conditions persist during the day. All electric that I produce is paid to ourselves by way of a feed in tariff 50.67P per unit index linked for 25 years from the start date of April 2011. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWLzlrGGuxQ | ||
| Christian S. Hansen Grand Master Username: enquiring_mind Post Number: 615 Registered: 4-2015 |
While nuclear plants seem prevalent especially in the developing countries (India and China specifically) and they are building hundreds of them to meet expected future needs as their economies grow...for the life of me and given that nuclear produces radioactive waste, I cannot understand what part of "deadly toxic for 10,000 years" is so difficult to understand and why the human hubris thinks that storage is not a problem in the long run, even if not in the short. . | ||
| Randy Roberson Grand Master Username: wascator Post Number: 772 Registered: 5-2009 |
Solar has some great applications now and technology is developing; perhaps the economics will shape up nicely as well. There are several large solar projects in the western USA which are visible on GoogleEarth. A pal went with me to Gardnerville, Nevada, to pick up a car in 2015 and we passed a huge project outside Tonepa, NV, which has a tower with a huge array of mirrors focused on it. According to their web site it uses molten salt as a heat transfer and storage medium. Interesting! | ||
| Mark Luft Prolific User Username: bentleyman1993 Post Number: 104 Registered: 10-2016 |
Christian: Storage of the spent fuel rods is not a problem. They are blasted off to the moon to be stored on the far side. It is monitored by the folks at Moonbase Alpha. As long as the nuclear waste does not explode...... Oh wait, that was 18 years ago.  |
