[GHung]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', '&')quot;Call Outback tech support. They've been outstanding in my experience...."

I don't have to call tech support. I rely on PGE to take care of problems that I do not have to know about. The above is why the personal power plant is dead on arrival. We can not all be system integrators and plant managers. (I do have a grid-tied system, but have no interest in learning it. And then I have to call in a technician when/if things go wrong. I don't like that responsibility. It is scary.)

[GHung]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('baha', 'T')he worst of the winter is about over in NC. The nights are around 30f and the days are getting warm. I saw less than -2f twice this winter two weeks apart. In hindsight I have a good feel for how this works.

........

I have 4 - 4x10 solar thermal panels. The rated output of each panel (during winter in NC) is about 25,000 BTU/day. So on a good sunny day they will make 100,000 BTU.

The plan is to heat my house with solar heated water. I won't need the heat pumps much at all. Then the battery only goes down to 60% each night and I am 100% grid free. I need to get with it. But I have been busy at work and I hate crawling around in a very tight, 60 year old crawlspace.

BTW - The solar PV has consistently made 25-35 kWhrs/day. If it's a reasonably sunny day. Still more than the house uses...

[Tanada]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('baha', 'W')e are slammed at work. We are booked up thru June and are hiring new folks as fast as we can find them. I am working basically full time and have started doing Internet connectivity for the install crews and installing usage meters. They hired me an assistant. He is younger, stronger, and eager to learn. My back feels better already I told him if he plays his cards right, in ten years he can have this damn job. I'll be cruising around in my EVW.

We have 25 Tesla Powerwalls on order, all of them already sold. I have been tasked with leading the installs. And these are not even part of the existing schedule. We should get them in May.

[KaiserJeep]

Be realistic about costs with the Powerwall. Not everybody is a solar installer like baha. The biggest uncertainty is the amount of markup on the battery and supporting equipment and installation. Other significant considerations are local electrical power pricing and whether or not your power utility allows the practice of "net metering".

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he list price for a new Tesla Powerwall 2.0 battery, which offers twice the storage capacity of the original Powerwall, is $5,500. Supporting hardware adds another $700 to the equipment costs, bringing the total to $6,200. Installation can add anywhere from $2,000 to $8,000 to the final bill.

It is important to note that the list prices you see don't include the cost of installing your Powerwall on your property. Tesla estimates that installation will add $800 to $2,000 to your bill. However, this estimate doesn't include the cost of electrical upgrades, taxes, permit fees, or connection charges. EnergySage users have reported installation costs that add anywhere from $5,000 to $8,000 (before any financial incentives are applied). The final number will be dependent on the specifics of your installation.

If you want to install the Powerwall as part of a solar-plus-storage system, battery costs are just one part of the equation. An average 5 kilowatt (kW) solar energy system costs anywhere from $8,500 to $16,000 depending on where you live and the type of equipment you choose. That may sound like a lot of money, but installing a solar-plus-storage system can be a worthwhile investment. Solar battery economics depend on a few different factors. Whether or not the Tesla battery pack makes sense for you depends on the way that your electric utility structures its rates, as well as your reasons for installing a solar battery.

[Tanada]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('baha', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tanada', 'W')ould it not be in the interest of Duke power and other utilities to encourage consumers to install Powerwall systems even on the grid? they would charge overnight from excess baseload capacity and level off the peak demand at around 2 PM every day by supplementing individual houses/businesses

[KaiserJeep]

Tanada, you don't appear to appreciate the term "smart grid". Distributed battery resources, as with distributed solar production, are considered part of the grid and are managed by the grid operator.

Here in Silicon Valley we don't as yet have much grid battery storage. However, shopping malls and schools have huge amounts of grid-attached PV panels above their parking lots. These exceed individual residence rooftop PV capacity considerably. There are also standby diesel generators that typically are controlled by the power company and can be brought online when needed to supplement grid power at peak consumption. My former employer HP had such. Then the utilities have their own (or more often leased from CALPINE) relatively large peaking gas turbine power plant facilities.

All of these are considered grid resources and are managed by the power utility, and most people want it that way. This operation scheme is in fact the very definition of convenience.

My rooftop grid-tied PV system is controlled and monitored by PG&E. I still get all the financial advantages I expected. But realisticly those advantages do not come close to paying for the addition of Powerwall batteries. My off-the-cuff estimate is that grid electricity would have to be 800% of present pricing for batteries to make financial sense. That assumes that battery pricing could remain the same when grid power has made an 8X price rise, which is a major assumption, battery production costs in an era of expensive grid power are hugely unknown.

Present Powerwall pricing, although relatively high, probably does not make a large profit for Tesla, any more than the EVs.

[KaiserJeep]

baha, is the $10k just the battery, or does it include the mounting mechanicals and electrical hardware? $10k would be a 45% markup if the retail cost of the battery alone is $5500 plus shipping, which is what I assume you meant by $6000.

My interpretation of "It will be my job to bring in some margin." is that the installation is time and materials. Does Duke charge a grid connection fee? PG&E waived my nominal $300 fee but then two months later everybody on my street got the same cellular SmartMeters for free anyways.

The SmartMeters offer the option of variable load shedding, but almost nobody in this area retrofitted the extra managed relays to enable this function. New Silicon Valley homes are being built "SmartGrid Ready" and housing contractors are offering PV options up to and including Net Zero Energy packages, but as yet PG&E does not offer a discounted rate schedule that would incent the retrofit for load shedding on existing homes. My interpretation of what I have read is that this may not even be required in this area, peak power consumption aligns nicely with peak solar power production because the highest consumption is Summer A/C loads.

Meanwhile every empty lot in Silicon Valley has been filled with medium-sized Solar PV, as with the Guadalupe Parkway Solar Project I wrote about:
http://peakoil.com/forums/solar-pv-for-215-homes-vs-ohlone-indian-burial-site-t73314.html
...and most public school parking lots were roofed over with solar PV, thanks to a General Obligation Bond Measure we passed a few years back.
https://www.borregosolar.com/commercial-solar-systems/santa-clara-unified-school-district

The mall parking lots were also built out with solar purely as a paying investment. These medium sized solar PV projects have better payback and lower costs than individual residence solar PVs, but (as on my own roof) we have that as well.

[KaiserJeep]

Baha, my own inverter is an SMA-3000US "Sunny Boy". I have been happy with it, and it is managed by an optional plug-in PCMCIA relay board connected to the cellular modem in the SmartMeter.

[Outcast_Searcher]

At the risk of stating the obvious, finances are the whole ballgame. And looking at the current total costs and at the variance in the way utilites bahave toward solar system owners (recalling what Nevada did to solar system owners recently, including reneging on long term pricing contracts for customers selling excess power to Nevada Power -- with the government's blessing), clearly the result is a big question mark for a LOT of homeowners, with solar situations less favorable than, say, southern CA.

I, for example, have a total monthly power bill (including all taxes and fees) of something like $60. Waiting for solar system prices to drop, and to see more instances of local working installations, and being able to see how people are faring, being treated, if they have installer recommendations, etc. seems like a no-brainer to me. For me, it's like buying a car -- getting ripped off or having a lot of hassles is NOT on my agenda.

Oh, down the road when I can actually conveniently buy and confidently maintain and service a long range, desirable, BEV, then I'll have real personal motivation for solar, as I'd just love to charge it off of solar and have relatively clean, guilt-free driving on area country roads -- which I can't do with an ICE.

The way things seem to be going in my red state, that looks to happen by 2025 or so, if BEV makers plans/claims can be relied on, which, IMO remains to be seen (given where we are with the Bolt and the Model 3, thus far).

[KaiserJeep]

Knowing that Tesla has a habit of releasing code when it is about 3/4 baked, and fixing it later (that's the pattern with vehicles anyways) I am wondering if the Powerwalls will be phoning home and if Musk is charging service or providing it under warranty.