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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

#271

Post by m463 »

sharemywin wrote: post #259
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…

I personally remember sh*tting on doordash...what a stupid idea.

The zune will do everything the ipod does at the same price.

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

#272

Post by Gustomaximus »

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 live in an area where we get a handful of outages every year. From a few hours to a few days.

My current setup is a 2.8Kv generator I haul our of the shed, run a few extension cords to core things like fridge/freezer, internet, office etc.

This is a nice fit between a generator and a Powerwall. Generator is a pain if you have to setup + if not home the fridge stays off or my wife will leave to me unless its urgent. A Powerwall (or similar) is a significant investment.

This product covers people like me with occasional outages but it doesn't have the setup or out of home hassle, and its a more financially accessible solution than a Powerwall. I could def see people interested in this.

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

#273

Post by quesera »

jodoherty wrote: post #187
quesera wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A suitable UPS for that application costs less than $100.

Do you have any examples? I haven't seen what you're describing despite shopping UPSes, but something less than $100 that could last 10+ hours would be amazing. My $200 1500VA/1000W CyperPower UPS could handle a short one or two hour storm, but storms can last for 10+ hours here during the wet season. One long power outage could cost me a lot more than $1000 in basement damages (my basement is finished). A comparable…

It depends on the wattage and duty cycle of your sump pump.

My experience with sump pumps is low wattage and intermittent use. Sounds like this does not correspond to yours.

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

#274

Post by CyberDildonics »

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…

If you can put a backup battery into an outlet and have it work well like an appliance there is a lot of utility there. Pumps and fans for gas hvac systems as well as sump pumps are more critical and less power hungry than a fridge. I would much rather have a web page on wifi to monitor it than another blu tooth app, but whatever.

That being said 1.6 kw/h for $1000 is WAY overpriced. Lithium Iron Phosphate battery prices are dropping like a stone. This should be a third of the price and eventually that's exactly what someone will sell it for.

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

#275

Post by teruakohatu »

lordofgibbons wrote: post #50

I've just been looking for a UPS for my home lab. Do your batteries need any kind of an internet connection to set up or operate? Assuming I wouldn't want to use the app.

I don't think the intended use-case is servers. The products they list are appliances and less critical electronics.

It has a 20 ms switch-over to battery backup. APC UPS' range from 2 - 6 ms.

There is a StackOverflow answer that says the upper limit for servers is 25 ms but 20 ms might be cutting it fine.

https://serverfault.com/questions/564156/what-is-the-interru...

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

#276

Post by kortilla »

kragen wrote: post #237
j-bos wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It also means battery in Spanish.

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.

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

#277

Post by lucb1e »

dharmab wrote: post #186
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'll stay cold enough on its own for a day without power as long as you don't open it much. Food in an unpowered fridge will be unsafe within 4 hours: https://www.foodsafety.gov/food-safety-charts/food-safety-du...

So when you have the pack of cheese on the table at 19°C for 45 minutes for perhaps a week before it's used up... you should drive to the hospital? Most of the continent does this as far as I know (having lived in and visited friends around northwestern Europe) and I have yet to hear someone tell a horror story of getting food poisoned after leaving the cheese/salami at room temperature for a cumulative 2 hours

This is not realistic, this is perhaps an "absolutely 100% guaranteed still safe for your baby while it is sick" value, which I guess makes sense for a government agency but they could communicate whom this advice is for

Edit: scrolling further down the table, also cooked pasta, rice, potatoes, vegetables, and sauce should be discarded. These products cooked, so they cooled down through optimal breeding temperatures while you had dinner for an hour, before they even started their journey from room down to fridge temperature. They should be discarded according to this table and never consumed in the first place (explicitly: don't even taste to see if it's still good). Not to mention what spoiled while it was on your plate

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

#279

Post by gothroach »

Gustomaximus wrote: post #272
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 live in an area where we get a handful of outages every year. From a few hours to a few days. My current setup is a 2.8Kv generator I haul our of the shed, run a few extension cords to core things like fridge/freezer, internet, office etc. This is a nice fit between a generator and a Powerwall. Generator is a pain if you have to setup + if not home the fridge stays off or my wife will leave to me unless its urgent.…

I looked through the material, but I'm still at a loss how this is different than any recent battery/inverter combination like Ecoflow/Jackery/etc or a UPS with an app. I'm an electrician, and very in to new electrical products but this one just makes me wonder how it's different.

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

#280

Post by teruakohatu »

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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