Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

pilaenergy.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

431–440 of 492 posts

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

#431

Post by thyristan »

chadconway wrote: post #301
Aurornis wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But this product isn't actually a new concept. Competing products have been out for years with better specs and prices, even.

Which ones?

A bog-standard Uninterruptible Power Supply. Available from multiple manufacturers (big names are e.g. Eaton, Schneider/APC, but there are lots of choices) in all sizes from "powers your desk light" to "powers your whole house/datacenter/emergency room".

Maybe there is value in marketing such a product to ordinary people that are not in IT or electrical engineering. Maybe you can improve on existing control interfaces and design. But don't be surprised when an established UPS vendor copies your product and crushes you with better numbers because of size.

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

#432

Post by whazor »

It would be quite smart if this battery only runs on a single power group. You could get like 2 or 3 of these and put them on your most important power groups. But you disable the power groups of nonessential but heavily consuming devices such as your car charger, heating, washing machine, or drying machine.

That way, three small batteries that only power part of your house would be cheaper than powering your entire house.

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

#433

Post by parl_match »

kelnos wrote: post #379
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…

I think it can charge when power is cheap (or off solar if you have it), and then power a device (like a fridge) when power is expensive, even if you aren't in the midst of a power outage. So it's a bit more than a UPS, and isn't just for handling outages. Regarding cost, looks like this is $1k for a 1.6kWh battery. The Powerwall 3 is $9874 (plus installation costs) for a 13.5kWh battery. So Plia costs $625/kWh, whil…

powerwall load capacity is significantly higher. pila could never come close to the sort of load that pw3 can sustain

meanwhile, i can find battery solutions that output 120v on aliexpress, for $700 for a 1.8kwh battery

anyways this show hn post is clearly an ad for a not particularly novel product. sorry plia!

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

#434

Post by parl_match »

brianpan wrote: post #353
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…

My recently installed Powerwall 3 will only power my home for a few hours. If I don't stop HVAC and car charging, I may be out of power before I even wake up in the morning. What I really want is my milk not to spoil (keep my family fed, not opening the fridge is defeating the purpose) and to charge devices if the outage will last more than half a day. Pila is WAY cheaper and more targeted. I considered buying a Jack…

if your concern is keeping your family fed, consider the last time you had an extended outage. then run the numbers

if it was recent, such as living in certain parts of texas, you should be keeping large amounts of stable water for each person for at least a week (gallon jugs + water filter pens), fuel/burner/pot, rice/beans/etc in a water sealed emergency kit

if it was a long time ago, you should be keeping enough water, vitamins, and high density calorie bricks for 96 hours

it'd be nice to have fresh food, but it's way more practical and reliable to have sustenance stored in a closet somewhere

for a family of four, premade emergency kits for 7 days will run you about $150, and youll need about 25 gallons of water - $175 or a $1000 battery + $25 for water. idk choice is easy

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

#435

Post by parl_match »

chadconway wrote: post #151
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…

Backup can be extended to 62 hours through an expansion pack. A foldable solar array can be plugged in as well to extend backup indefinitely for long outages.

"foldable solar array" lmao how much do you think those generate. please, respond before you look it up

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

#436

Post by Symbiote »

altairprime wrote: post #43
Symbiote wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have frequent enough power outages that waiting an extra minute for tea is a concern?

> Do you have frequent enough power outages that waiting an extra minute for tea is a concern? I’ve had ten power outages in the past six months, one mile from an international airport. I’ve lived through hundreds hours of power outages due to PG&E’s fucking incompetence in the past ten years. You’ll have to judge for yourself whether that justifies my comment - but, if you were a startup considering a 240V outlet on…

I've never been in an American datacentre, and power provision looks more complicated than in Europe, but I guess there is 240V power available.

That should mean there are UPSs already available, although possibly they don't come in small sizes.

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

#437

Post by WillAdams »

kelnos wrote: post #381
WillAdams wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you looked at any of the integrated options? Apparently a company in San Francisco put together 110V electric stoves with induction cooktops and integrated batteries --- they then sold them to folks applying for tax rebates to replace gas stoves in kitchens which weren't wired for 220V. One notable appliance you don't mention on your website is electric water pumps for wells in rural areas.... Similarly, are you…

> One notable appliance you don't mention on your website is electric water pumps for wells in rural areas.... We had a well in one of the houses we lived in when I was a kid, and its pump was wired directly to our mains panel. So this sort of thing wouldn't work with a Plia, which assumes you're dealing with stuff that plugs into a normal electrical outlet. Certainly this type of setup could be rewired to have an ou…

After one lengthy power outage and no running water to flush a toilet, most homeowners would consider that a worthwhile investment.

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

#439

Post by hnaccount_rng »

apexalpha wrote: post #421

What's the use case here? Power outages? In Europe we have plug-in batteries that just cycle PV every day to lower your electrical bill. But these are usually 2,5kWh or 5kWh. In Europe you are hard limited to 800watt on a normal plug, no way you can do 2,4kW without a special fuse.

Do you have a link to such a plug-in battery that's marketed for lowering electrical bills?

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

#440

Post by danila22 »

kelnos wrote: post #379
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…

I think it can charge when power is cheap (or off solar if you have it), and then power a device (like a fridge) when power is expensive, even if you aren't in the midst of a power outage. So it's a bit more than a UPS, and isn't just for handling outages. Regarding cost, looks like this is $1k for a 1.6kWh battery. The Powerwall 3 is $9874 (plus installation costs) for a 13.5kWh battery. So Plia costs $625/kWh, whil…

Good points, I want to clarify that ~$9874 is just the price of one powerwall alone. Add in electricians, wiring, permits and you’re looking at an additional $10k in install costs. Pila’s whole point is that it’s a plug and play solution with no install costs.
Post reply on HN