Tesla announces "Powerwall" batteries

[donald]

Is it just the geek in me, or does this sound like the Borg? Resistance is futile.....

Why? You have 10kwh in your Powerwall. You tell Tesla Energy/Solar City they can sell 5kwh. They sell it and take a cut of the revenue.

Utility rules are changed to allow additional panel capacity as home storage is added. The world is saved.

I expect that giving the utility the ability to add power from thousands of distributed points is highly efficient. I think the solar city inverters have already been designed to function well in such as system.

[Amy@altE]

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articl...ith-homeowners

Is it just the geek in me, or does this sound like the Borg? Resistance is futile.....

[donald]

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/solarcitys-plan-for-tesla-batteries-share-grid-revenues-with-homeowners

[DanKegel]

I do not remember what it was called but there was someone on this Forum that was experimenting with a hardware/software package that worked from his I phone...

Thanks. Now that you mention it, my wife told me about something similar last year.

http://www.opower.com appears to be in that space, but it might be more about changing human behavior, not sure.

[Sunking]

I don't want just the battery, I want the system installed. And Bloomberg is reporting the lease price for the system including the battery from what I can gather.

Go buy one then.

[Ian S]

Go try to buy the battery. I dare you to.

I don't want just the battery, I want the system installed. And Bloomberg is reporting the lease price for the system including the battery from what I can gather.

[Sunking]

Radio Shack use to have something like this back in the 80's when people were looking for ways to reduce their electrical usage. That equipment would send a single over the house power lines to a device (like a lamp) that was plugged in to it and turn it on or off by command.

Utilizes had that ability too back in the 80's. They could turn off your air conditioner 15 minutes of every hour. In Oklahoma they called it the Good Cents Program. They still can if you are dumb enough to go along with it. Today it is called a Smart Meter that can turn off anything the POCO wants when they want if you allow it to happen.

[Ian S]

Absolutely; if demand is getting high, one should shut down loads if possible, and only then start drawing down the battery.

Examples of residential load shedding are interesting, as that's going to be part of any sensible solution.

Residential load controllers are not uncommon here in Arizona as APS has had optional demand rate tariffs for decades. If you have a lot of high power electric appliances, they can pay for themselves fairly quickly I'm told. I would have considered one except I had gas water heater, gas heat and later, a gas dryer. Also no pool with its pump. Load controllers elsewhere are often used for commercial buildings such as this example where you save big by keeping demand below a set-point.

[SunEagle]

Do you happen to have any names or links handy?

I do not remember what it was called but there was someone on this Forum that was experimenting with a hardware/software package that worked from his I phone. Not only would it identify your household loads and track them there were also devices that could be used to turn off certain loads by program or remotely from the phone.

Radio Shack use to have something like this back in the 80's when people were looking for ways to reduce their electrical usage. That equipment would send a single over the house power lines to a device (like a lamp) that was plugged in to it and turn it on or off by command.

[Sunking]

Examples of residential load shedding are interesting, as that's going to be part of any sensible solution.

That is not a Solution, that is a band-aide for a hemorrhage of a failed energy policy of not building enough capacity to meet demands.

[DanKegel]

you can now find relatively inexpensive systems that works for home or small business. Although the payback is longer...

Do you happen to have any names or links handy?

[SunEagle]

Absolutely; if demand is getting high, one should shut down loads if possible, and only then start drawing down the battery.

Examples of residential load shedding are interesting, as that's going to be part of any sensible solution.

Most of my experience has been in the industrial field where Demand Penalties from the POCO can get very expensive. I designed numerous systems that would "shed" loads to keep the demand from exceeding a specific kW limit during a 15 minute time period. When you are talking about $10/kw and you are using 1000 kw during a 15 min period that comes to $10,000 / month or $120,000/yr penalty just because you went over the limit for 1 minute.

While those systems were big and somewhat expensive you can now find relatively inexpensive systems that works for home or small business. Although the payback is longer since home and small businesses do not get charged or penalized for exceeding a specific Demand usage.

[DanKegel]

Go try to buy the battery. I dare you to.

Which ancillary equipment were you referring to? Or was that just a spurious and poorly-thought out objection?

[DanKegel]

My reference to "energy demand and control" was associated with "turning off" your loads not switching to battery power. Conservation is the cheapest and easiest way to reduce your electric bill.

Absolutely; if demand is getting high, one should shut down loads if possible, and only then start drawing down the battery.

Examples of residential load shedding are interesting, as that's going to be part of any sensible solution.

[Sunking]

What ancillary equipment? It already

Go try to buy the battery. I dare you to.