Earlier quoted context omitted.
Does your insurance company allow you to keep one liter of gasoline in your garage? It has the same energy content as the Powerwall, is insanely flammable, is frequently implicated is home fires, and regularly causes human deaths. (Ok, a burning lithium battery will release more energy than its storage capacity, but I'm not finding a nice reference, Tesla knows all about containing cells to prevent chain reactions, a…
Gas fumes are very flammable, but the gasoline itself will flow down and out of my garage, and the fire would be very easy to contain with a simple garden hose. A gas can also will not light on fire just because it gets hit with a car. It would take malicious use of a gas can -- splashing it on a wall and then lighting it on fire -- to match the default configuration of a Powerwall.
Tesla Energy
481–490 of 590 posts
Re: Tesla Energy
#482Earlier quoted context omitted.
Does your insurance company allow you to keep one liter of gasoline in your garage? It has the same energy content as the Powerwall, is insanely flammable, is frequently implicated is home fires, and regularly causes human deaths. (Ok, a burning lithium battery will release more energy than its storage capacity, but I'm not finding a nice reference, Tesla knows all about containing cells to prevent chain reactions, a…
Gas fumes are very flammable, but the gasoline itself will flow down and out of my garage, and the fire would be very easy to contain with a simple garden hose. A gas can also will not light on fire just because it gets hit with a car. It would take malicious use of a gas can -- splashing it on a wall and then lighting it on fire -- to match the default configuration of a Powerwall.
edit: my karma http://i.imgur.com/rjNrXTc.gifv
Re: Tesla Energy
#483What I'd love to see is a ROI calculator that: * uses my zip code to figure out what my non-peak costs might be. * allows me to optionally calculate solar energy capture (so I can see what impact having solar would be, given the average sunny days in my area) * takes into account the wear and tear average cold weather would have on the lifetime of the batter and the payback period. For example, I live in Michigan, an…
I also live in Michigan, and can tell you it will be a money loser for one major reason: the full cost of the system you install will be added to your local property tax valuation, as the state tax exemption on renewable energy equipment was nullified several years ago and never replaced. In my case I had $500 in taxes added to my annual bill, which outpaces the value of the energy I produce and creates an infinite p…
> the full cost of the system you install will be added to your local property tax valuation
Why is that? And are you absolutely certain it's true?
I also live in Michigan, and I've never heard of this. I've replaced major appliances before without it impacting my property tax assessment -- including appliances that have cost more than the Tesla Battery pack and been inspected+verified by the city (such as a new 96% efficient furnace).
I don't see why adding a Tesla Battery would change property tax assessment any, when adding a $6,000 furnace, $5,000 air conditioner, or a $2,000 refrigerator doesn't.
Re: Tesla Energy
#484Earlier quoted context omitted.
What I'd like to see is an ability for me to provide a list of appliances that I tend to use in my house (makes/models) along with a "typical" use pattern like "washer, dryer, dishwasher, fridge, freezer, stove, 50" TV, 200W sound system and blu-ray player or cable box frequently get used at the same time" With a usage pattern like that, which of the two batteries would be most useful? would I need multiples wired in…
There are easy to use meters such as the Kill-A-Watt for 120V appliances to measure usage directly.
This is good for monitoring single appliances, but it's a pain in the neck to keep moving it from appliance to appliance. Do you know of one that I can attach to my power meter and it'll give me realtime usage, tracking, reports so that I can see my peak, minimum and average draw for the whole house?
Re: Tesla Energy
#485What I'd love to see is a ROI calculator that: * uses my zip code to figure out what my non-peak costs might be. * allows me to optionally calculate solar energy capture (so I can see what impact having solar would be, given the average sunny days in my area) * takes into account the wear and tear average cold weather would have on the lifetime of the batter and the payback period. For example, I live in Michigan, an…
I wish it did; we are very far from harmonizing all the different utility rates. Once that data is clean up and available, an interactive website should not be too difficult to build. If anyone is interested in doing a paid internship to help us build it, send me a note with a portfolio at dfong@lightsail.com -- I run a compressed air energy storage company.
Re: Tesla Energy
#486Earlier quoted context omitted.
While true for lithium fires, a venting lithium-ion battery is not a typical lithium fire. According to the MSDS for lithium ion batteries, fires involving them can be extinguished with a typical ABC fire extinguisher. Lithium batteries (not the rechargeable kind) are the ones that need a class D extinguisher. Edit: > CO extinguishers, halon or copious quantities of water or water-based foam can be used to cool down…
Using water on an electric fire sounds like a dumb idea to me. But yeah, the MSDS does seem to say that...
A venting lithium ion battery isn't usually an electrical fire.
Re: Tesla Energy
#487Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 9kW solar grid on my roof in the next couple of months - capital cost is ~$40K USD That's crazy expensive. My parents just installed 5kW last month in Australia for $10k AUD (and the government rebated them $5k AUD) so their out-of-pocket was $5k, or $1k / kW, fully installed, including the inverter.
As someone from a country that gets less sunlight, how do you know the difference between good solar cells and less efficient ones?
Get quotes from a few different places, and read the specs on the panels they're offering.
Re: Tesla Energy
#488Earlier quoted context omitted.
I did a quick bit of calculation on this. Assuming you use 10KWh per day and a perfect battery: Economy 7 KWh cost : 8.4p (Best deal I saw was 9.4 for me, but this was a figure on MSE) Standard tariff KWh cost : 14.5p (Best deal I saw was ~12 for me, but this was a figure on MSE) That'd be a £306/year cost on economy 7 and £530 on a standard, taking some more extreme figures. A $3500 (~£2300) battery would then have…
You are planning to charge the thing overnight and use it exclusively during the day, nearly exhausting it each time? The battery is going to wear out well before 10 years. If you oversize your battery so you are only pulling out half the charge in the battery[1], you can probably get 1500 cycles out of it[2]. That's still less than 5 years. (This is a common pattern if you are trying to price-compare an electric car…
It comes standard with a 10 year warranty, with an optional 10 year extension. If they don't have different numbers than you, I don't see why they would even attempt that.
Re: Tesla Energy
#489Earlier quoted context omitted.
I also live in Michigan, and can tell you it will be a money loser for one major reason: the full cost of the system you install will be added to your local property tax valuation, as the state tax exemption on renewable energy equipment was nullified several years ago and never replaced. In my case I had $500 in taxes added to my annual bill, which outpaces the value of the energy I produce and creates an infinite p…
> the full cost of the system you install will be added to your local property tax valuation Why is that? And are you absolutely certain it's true? I also live in Michigan, and I've never heard of this. I've replaced major appliances before without it impacting my property tax assessment -- including appliances that have cost more than the Tesla Battery pack and been inspected+verified by the city (such as a new 96%…
Yes, I am unfortunately. I am in the midst of protesting an assessment now for a system I installed last year. See this pdf (sorry), page 17: http://www.michigan.gov/documents/mpsc/marketbarrierssolarin...
Solar systems are considered "real" property, i.e. property that is permanently attached to the house, and thus subject to taxation.
Re: Tesla Energy
#490Earlier quoted context omitted.
I know people who spend $480 per month.
Electric bills in Hawaii can top $1000/month.
IIRC, that's because of the silly way (given Hawaii's abundant solar and geothermal resources) in which most electricity is generated in Hawaii: burning imported fossil fuels. If the local renewables were fully exploited, I can't think of a reason for costs to be so high.