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Show HN: We built a Plug-in Home Battery for the 99.7% of us without Powerwalls

pilaenergy.com

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Re: Show HN: We built a Plug-in Home Battery for the 99.7% of us without Powerwalls

#401

Post by chadconway »

maxerickson wrote: post #360
compumike wrote: post #348

I keep having multi-hour power outages a few times a year, so I decided to build a battery system a few months ago. I was happy with it during a recent four hour high-wind winter outage, powering my 120V furnace, fridge, desktop PC, some lights and chargers. Here's what I ended up with: - Bluetti Elite 200 V2 portable power station: $999, 2073 Wh LiFePO4, 2600 W inverter output (120 V only), 1000 W DC input at 60 V m…

If low cost is the goal, a box store generator is considerably cheaper. Even if you have to buy 2.

Generators in this price point are loud, low power, unreliable, & even require maintenance.

Re: Show HN: We built a Plug-in Home Battery for the 99.7% of us without Powerwalls

#402

Post by nikodunk »

compumike wrote: post #348

I keep having multi-hour power outages a few times a year, so I decided to build a battery system a few months ago. I was happy with it during a recent four hour high-wind winter outage, powering my 120V furnace, fridge, desktop PC, some lights and chargers. Here's what I ended up with: - Bluetti Elite 200 V2 portable power station: $999, 2073 Wh LiFePO4, 2600 W inverter output (120 V only), 1000 W DC input at 60 V m…

I love DIY solar and have built a few of my own systems too, long before Pila. I posted something called $200 solar self sufficiency to HN many years ago in 2017 and it got me onto this train. Will Prouse is the best, agreed!

Re: Show HN: We built a Plug-in Home Battery for the 99.7% of us without Powerwalls

#403

Post by dzhiurgis »

lucb1e wrote: post #270
nikodunk wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Definitely! It’s primarily backup, and secondarily an arbitrage device :) The average fridge loss is estimated at $300 per outage, and the average fridge outage insurance claim is $600 I just learned today from an insurance agent at SXSW at our booth (apparently a lot of lobster is bought the day of the outage :P).

> The average fridge loss is estimated at $300 per outage Holy crap, I don't think our fridge fits 300 dollars' worth of food. We have trouble fitting a ~140€ grocery run into the fridge and probably at least half of that is non-refrigerated products. Hard to say how many days' food this is, probably close to a week, so a 36h+ outage (where the fridge actually got warm for a while) would have an average occupancy of…

It's pretty simple - europeans are more frequently going to shop. US/AU/NZ drive and do a bigger shop to last half a week or so.

Also most of Europeans live in apartments - your power cables are underground. In suburbs, putting cables are underground is too expensive and overhead wires are easily damaged during storms.

Re: Show HN: We built a Plug-in Home Battery for the 99.7% of us without Powerwalls

#404

Post by ijidak »

Aurornis wrote: post #284
vessenes wrote: post #220

Judging by the negativity here you're going to be a massive success -- search up the dropbox, airbnb, coinbase and ethereum launch threads if you want to feel good about where you're at. :) That said, I like this idea -- a modern coordinated UPS. I live in an area where people have 3-10 days a year of no power; being able to pick and choose what power they'd use during an outage would be a significant benefit to them…

> Judging by the negativity here you're going to be a massive success -- search up the dropbox, airbnb, coinbase and ethereum launch threads This is not a new product, though. Battery power inverters with AC and solar input are a popular class of products. You can buy similar products with higher capacity and better solar input at Costco or Best Buy. I think people are confused by the "Show HN" tag and the misleading…

> This is not a new product, though...Battery power inverters with AC and solar input are a popular class of products.

Often "totally new product" == bad (or more accurately, "first mover" == bad)

I think there is a misconception that totally new products make the money. But the second (or later) mover is often in a better position [1].

Dropbox was not new. File sharing existed prior. AirBnB was not new. Vrbo existed prior. Ethereum was definitely not the first crypto.

The iPod was not new. MP3 players were popular enough to be found at most electronics stores.

My rule of thumb is I want competitors. I want a product category to have some existing popularity (so I know there is money to be made), but not universal.

I think we're far from battery storage being universal in homes and world-wide.

So, if someone can become the iPod or Dropbox of battery storage, that might be a $100+ billion company.

I don't know if Pila is it. But the idea of a battery mesh, instead of the all-or-nothing powerwall sounds interesting.

I would love to be able to build up my home battery storage 1-kwh at a time instead of financing a giant battery all at once.

I can especially see that having value in middle-income countries.

Edit: Adjusted my 10-kwh statement to 1-kwh to make the example make more sense.

[1]: https://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/the_second_...

Re: Show HN: We built a Plug-in Home Battery for the 99.7% of us without Powerwalls

#405

Post by chadconway »

empressplay wrote: post #231

We have Ecoflows and they're great for keeping the internet on when the power goes out, I have one I can actually boil a kettle of water with! So I kind of know what the size vs output ratio is and my concern is these units seem too small. Unless you've solved the heating problem you need some ventilation and a fan? They look cool, but it would need to be a bit bigger I think to realistically power an appliance like…

Great question, our device has a metal case that offers much better thermal performance than your typical camping battery.

Yes, you can boil a kettle with it!

Re: Show HN: We built a Plug-in Home Battery for the 99.7% of us without Powerwalls

#406

Post by chadconway »

lowbloodsugar wrote: post #229

I’ve got several Jackery batteries at this point and my wife complained that they were a waste of money right up until our breaker panel gave up the ghost and we were without power for several days. Your product is more expensive but not significantly so, and has some nice features the Jackery does not. For homeowners like me though, all of this becomes unnecessary once I can power the house from my car.

How will you power your fridge when the car isn’t home?

Re: Show HN: We built a Plug-in Home Battery for the 99.7% of us without Powerwalls

#407

Post by Suppafly »

crazygringo wrote: post #144

It looks beautiful. But I honestly don't understand what the market is. OP answered in one of the comments that it will run a single fridge for 32 hours. I understand the benefits of a UPS that will run your desktop computer during a brief power outage of a couple of hours. And I understand a generator that will keep your house running for 10 days after a natural disaster. And I understand a Powerwall that can suck u…

>It looks beautiful. But I honestly don't understand what the market is.

People who are willing to buy several individual UPS devices for appliances but aren't willing to pay an electrician to install a grid cut off switch so they can power their whole house with a slightly bigger UPS.

Honestly, I could see someone buying one or two of these for their fridge and another for their home office or similar, but they are competing with existing companies that sell a similar product without the UPS feature, like you see nearly every youtuber advertise.

Re: Show HN: We built a Plug-in Home Battery for the 99.7% of us without Powerwalls

#408

Post by chadconway »

cantrecallmypwd wrote: post #199

As far as I know, backfeeding is illegal and not allowed by the NEC because of how dangerous it is to linepeople without a disconnect switch. A local transformer when energized by backfeed creates high voltage on lines that should be deenergized.

Pila can only back feed on-grid. Pila has a built in Microgrid Interconnect Device (MID). When an outage is detected, like Powerwall Pila opened the MID and continues to power downstream loads that are plugged into Pila.

Re: Show HN: We built a Plug-in Home Battery for the 99.7% of us without Powerwalls

#409

Post by chadconway »

zackify wrote: post #286

I guess what makes this different than EG4’s all in one inverter plus a 5kwh server rack battery, is the integration of software and hardware. I think you have a great shot at being successful. Because the cheaper options, software isn’t great or fully integrated with the hardware. These systems are a fraction of the cost of powerwall though. I learned a lot about the DIY side of this from Will Prose on YouTube. It’s…

Correct, integration is key for a seamless consumer experience.

Re: Show HN: We built a Plug-in Home Battery for the 99.7% of us without Powerwalls

#410

Post by jve »

downrightmike wrote: post #330
vessenes wrote: post #220

Judging by the negativity here you're going to be a massive success -- search up the dropbox, airbnb, coinbase and ethereum launch threads if you want to feel good about where you're at. :) That said, I like this idea -- a modern coordinated UPS. I live in an area where people have 3-10 days a year of no power; being able to pick and choose what power they'd use during an outage would be a significant benefit to them…

Those others couldn't burn down your house based on a faulty code push. Also, 60% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. If that improves, it seems simple

I was quite amazed to learn that creditcard debt is such a plague in US... I mean you (not the one I'm replying to) are using money you don't own and hoping you will not only own it tomorrow but pay back the debt?

Don't buy things you cannot afford and won't have to live paycheck to paycheck.

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