9 years ago
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Tesla's $13,000 battery could keep your home online in a blackout
Elon Musk is a man who likes to make waves. Whether it’s privatizing space exploration or shaking up commuting with the Hyperloop high speed transport system, the billionaire technocrat aims big. Now his electric car company, Tesla, is planning to change the way people power their homes. In a tweet last month, Musk announced that Tesla would be unveiling a new product on 30 April. It is now widely thought to be a large battery capable of powering a house...
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http://www.theguardian.com
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A home generator would make more sense.
The battery packs would be able to recharge themselves whenever power rates are lower. Generators currently do not re-fill themselves whenever they run out of fuel. An additional feature would be to run the house off of battery during the day and recharge at night- effectively giving you an overall cheaper electrical rate. Upgrading a Powerwall would be as simple as connecting another battery pack to the existing unit. If you outgrow your generator, you need to toss it and get another one.
They both fulfill different needs. I like the Powerwall concept quite a bit better than a generator.
The whole point is to use the same battery for both car and house (if needed).
The home battery is not the same size as used in a car. If you are referring to using the home battery to charge the car, so could a generator.
Gotcha.
for the individual, yes, but not for the whole. If these batteries are grid-tied, it could change the way power is stored and delivered. For nuclear power, power is delivered consistently throughout the day, but the demand fluctuates. If most homes had these, power plants wouldn't need to rely on another power source when demand increases.
Also, every home that is off-grid needs to have a battery bank. I'd like to know the voltage and amp-hr ratings of the battery, but it could be useful for off-grid setups too. However, I don't think Musk intends on using the battery for off-grid installations since he wants to monitor them. I think I'll stick with conventional deep-cycle off-grid batteries for now.
Um. I think this is wrong.
Musk said in his presentation that the Powerwall would be 3k, not 13k. A little dubious about the reporting. Can't see Elon presenting something that ends up 4x what he said it would. Now, there may be additional costs for installing a transfer switch in the home. Intelligent transfer switches are pretty pricy- but you only need one to handle the entire house, and have unlimited batteries sitting on one side of it.