Power wall

That's my understanding as well, basic system Power Wall 2, 7Kw is $5900, + $700 for supporting hardware, + $800-$2000 installation charge, not including any electrical modifications, taxes or permit costs. Not  mentioned is service costs, I'm sure to stay within warranty, any service would have to be peformed by a registered dealer.

Yes how long?  You can always give Elon more money up front and get 2 or more....

southfork said:

 Powerwall can recharge from your solar power system and has the potential to run your home indefinitely? From Home Depot web site on the sales of powerwall. What's the story here it will work during an outage but how long? 

Sort of and no.  You can "charge from solar" but that's because your existing solar inverter generates AC, and the Powerwall takes in AC.  As long as the power generated and the power used by the Powerwall to charge are equal you can claim "charging from solar."  But there's no direct link.

You can't run your home indefinitely.  There's no 'hooks' to allow AC coupling, and there's no option to do DC connection (i.e. direct connect to solar.)  So once the grid goes out you can't use solar.

You can run an average efficient home (~12kwhr/day) for about a day before the battery dies.

southfork said:

mike95490 said:

southfork said:

Home Depot's sales person said about 7 plus days ? the cost is high but it would be nice to have power too pump water during a fire. I have a generator but fuel could be a problem in a disaster. They also claimed the powerwall would work with my Enphase grid tied system ? But in order to get more info I will need to sign up for a sales call.

And last week that sales person was flipping burgers at Tommy Tomaines.  Most homes would get less than 24 hours out of the single wall.

This is what I found on Tesla's web site. Powerwall can detect an outage, disconnect from the grid, and automatically restore power to your home in a fraction of a second. You will not even notice that the power went out. Your lights and appliances will continue to run without interruption. If you have solar and Powerwall, then solar energy will continue to power your home and recharge Powerwall. Without Powerwall, solar will shut down during an outage. Claims 7 days or more this is why I came over here looking for the truth. 

Yep, that's a great claim.  Sounds awesome!  But as always the devil is in the details.

The Powerwall contains a bidirectional inverter and a big battery.   So let's say you buy one to complement your existing solar power system.   You find a very good deal and sign up for it.  Powerwall is installed and commissioned, and you get a sexy app on your phone that shows power flows.  It shows the power flows from battery, solar and grid, and they change dynamically.  You can even charge during the day from solar and discharge at night!  Great!

Then the power goes out for a day and your house goes dark. The battery is still charged - you _know_ it's charged, and the light is on, but there's no power.

You call the installer guy.

"Yeah, well, you got the special deal.  To give you real backup power we'd need to install a subpanel and move all your critical loads to that.  That's a lot of work.  We can do that but it's going to be another thousand."

"I don't want just critical loads - I want to power my whole home, like it says in the ads!"

"OK, well, we can move all the loads except the solar to the subpanel.  But that's going to be more than a thousand."

So you pay the $$$ to move all the loads to the subpanel.

Then the power goes out again.  This time, you have power for your home!  But the display shows the solar generating nothing, even though the sun is out.  You call the installer back again.

"Yeah, well, see, the solar is tied to the grid on the main panel; that's how we have to do it.  So you can't charge from solar when the power is out.  Power has to be on for that to work."

"But the ad said that . . . ."

"You might want to give Solar Experts Inc a call.  I think they have a way to do that, but it's not normal."

So you call them.  They tell you that there is a way, using AC coupling - provided your inverter and the Powerwall are compatible.  To do that they are going to have to install yet more gear, specifically a big relay that will disconnect the solar power when the battery is close to fully charged, along with some specialized control gear.  So you pay even more $$$ for that.

Then you have another blackout and the system works - and it charges from solar.

So all of that is doable.  But I've seen three Powerwall installations so far, and none of them were AC coupled, and only one of them had a subpanel for backup loads.  Make sure you know what you are getting.  (And it's pretty much a guarantee that if you get a "great deal" on a Powerwall it's not going to include all that other stuff.)

so      is the power wall set up for off grid  now ?

I think that U-tube is one of the absolute best things out there. If you sign in with an account it is pretty hard to not just really like all the features. Without an account it is a wasteland.

When I responded to this previously we took the powerwall2  apart and just used the battery with an XW and some mppts. It works great but no warranty. It is still working just fine and easily stores 13kwh.

I never found his video #3, did you Ivor?

THX !  Number 3 was very useful for someone who really needed this system with all of it's quirks to work more than a day. Tesla has had on their battery web page for over 3 years now that they intend to release an offgrid model.

ok....what about NEC....those switches didnt look NEC approved

wheres the emergency shutoff....new rules that say each panel has to be disconnected individually ....does it also disconnect the high voltage battery from the system
arent lithium batteries explosive in a fire.....did he just put a bomb in his basement ( the fully charged guy)

elon musk runs his company like apple
steve jobs wanted end to end control of the hardware and software...same for elon musk.....he doesnt want you to know what is in it....and wants you to pay for anything other than basic functionality and doesnt want you to be able to fix it when it breaks

I understand wanting to make a profitable company.....but he goes too far

the xw system when I first got it...I didnt get the system control panel...its listed as an accessory
however, if you diont have it, you cant set any of the functions up and are at the mercy of basic functions....it will still work and if you had it installed, the installer probably used a config tool to set each function so no need for the SCP

extra $200 for the SCP...yup...not quite like apple or tesla....but you still had to buy extra to get more functionality

Dave Angelini said:

So, did you get that XW to be reliable after your winter issues?

yup...been working good so far, thanks for asking