311–320 of 492 posts
I want to like this product but it’s far too limited for me. I really wish someone would make something like this for my AC though because that’s the biggest energy draw by far (aside from the EV). A cost effective battery system for the AC system during peak use hours would be very interesting for me.
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Huh, I hadn’t seen ConnectDER before. That’s cute. It’s not entirely clear to me how it interacts with power sources in the house, and it’s also not clear to me whether it’s standardized enough so that a different MID could be used in its place with the same inverters/batteries/whatever. I would love to see the industry standardize on a MID protocol well enough for applications like V2H/V2G to work without absurd lev…
I agree we need a universal option for both home batteries & V2H. ConnectDER is working to be that standard. Tesla’s Backup Switch was supposed to be open, but unfortunately hasn’t been opened for others to integrate with.
- Some services cannot be switched at the meter ring. This includes services that use a current transformer separate from the meter. (As far as I know, this includes all services over “Class 320”.)
- Some apartments aren’t separately metered. Fortunately, this is rare.
- Some users will want to back up only part of a service.
A friend recently had a house fire from a handheld battery bank catching fire in a cupboard. She was ok but there was a lot of smoke damage in the house. This UPS has LFP cells so that is a huge improvement on safety of LiPo but I am still not sure about a large capacity indoor UPS. Edit: I am not sure why I am attracting so many downvotes.
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That could actually be a bigger problem for the company, since it means that any competitor can label their competing product the merely descriptive term "Pila", and the company won't be able to register the trademark in the US, according to the Trademark Manual of Examining Procedure §1209.03(g): https://www.bitlaw.com/source/tmep/1209_03_g.html > The foreign equivalent of a merely descriptive English word is no mor…
> I'm pretty sure that in any city in the US there is a store where you can walk in today, ask for a "pila", and walk out with a battery. Being 2nd most common language does not mean this, by a long shot. It definitely won’t work in most of the Seattle, Portland, Denver, Salt lake, Minneapolis, stores for example.
(If you go to the deli section and say “costillas marinadas” to the right person, you will be given a bag of deliciously marinated short ribs.)
I love the design, but I wonder about the "selling feature". How many people regularly experience power outages (ok, if you're American relying on Canadian electricity, you might have a right to be concerned). I'm surprised you're not touting the "save on your power bill" benefits. Could this not store power when rates are low, and use the battery when rates are higher, while maintaining a balanced minimum storage am…
Offsetting power usage to the cheaper time is also the only possible utility I see here. Unfortunately, last time I ran the numbers (against a $10k battery) it would be incredibly difficult to recoup your investment over a reasonable timeframe. Having to limit this to a single room (fridge, AC, whatever) makes it seem even more difficult as the consumption you can push is limited.
Traditional UPSs don't tend to advertise capacities, so I may have an incorrect perception of what a good Wh/$ is, but isn't 1.6kWh really damn good for a $1k UPS? How'd you guys manage to pack that much capacity in at that price point? Might be suitable for a rack assuming all the cloud bullshit can be turned off.
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That could actually be a bigger problem for the company, since it means that any competitor can label their competing product the merely descriptive term "Pila", and the company won't be able to register the trademark in the US, according to the Trademark Manual of Examining Procedure §1209.03(g): https://www.bitlaw.com/source/tmep/1209_03_g.html > The foreign equivalent of a merely descriptive English word is no mor…
> I'm pretty sure that in any city in the US there is a store where you can walk in today, ask for a "pila", and walk out with a battery. Being 2nd most common language does not mean this, by a long shot. It definitely won’t work in most of the Seattle, Portland, Denver, Salt lake, Minneapolis, stores for example.
This is fantastic to see - I've been thinking about the need for something like this for a while. I think there are two markets for this and I feel like you are already addressing the homeowners. Have you reached out to utilities who are looking to shave peak loads with DER?
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But with the added benefit that it charges during the day on solar and then powers device during the night. My one question would be: does it work with home assistant? It would be great to integrate in te energy dashboard.
>But with the added benefit that it charges during the day on solar and then powers device during the night. As an important caveat on solar: if I'm reading correctly, it appears that the main unit only has support for a small amount of solar input directly connected to it (100 W, which makes me suspect it may be using USB PD for input), while larger amounts need the expansion pack, or a separately installed system.
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The market exists - I have a product from another company - Bluetti - (1). The Pila is a beautiful device, but that beauty comes at a price - it's a lot more expensive than, say, Bluetti's range of portable power stations and others too. They are also expandable, connect to solar panels and so on, and apparently the German market has embraced batteries like this with solar panels to give your home a degree of indepen…
The DELTA EcoFlow is another line of similar products: https://us.ecoflow.com/collections/delta-series These are everywhere. You can even pick them up at Costco, Best Buy, and other retail electronics distributors. They're a lot cheaper than the linked product, too. I think people are getting misled by the Powerwall comparison. This isn't a powerwall competitor. It competes with all of the other battery power station…