It got lots of media attention. The WaPo writes,
For the millions of consumers frustrated with their power companies thanks to frequent outages and poor customer service, the batteries could be a boon. In general, the choices for how people power their homes is relatively limited. Most have to rely exclusively on their local utility providers. Getting a generator can be expensive — some homeowners pay around $20,000 for back-up generators that run on natural gas. So Tesla is eyeing a market that might be ripe for innovation.
I would be happy to own a battery for that purpose. We looked into generators, and in order to meet safety codes they have to be situated so far from our home that they would not be within our property line.
More generally, if the batteries prove to be economical, they could really change the electric power industry. You can smooth out peak demand, make better use of solar and wind, etc.
Tesla has a market cap of about $26 billion, despite having lost $200 million last year. Nissan’s is only about $45 billion.
“We looked into generators, and in order to meet safety codes they have to be situated so far from our home that they would not be within our property line.”
One more reason that you live on the wrong side of the state line. We live close to GMU in a state with at least a semi-functional government, and our 20kW whole-house generator cost $5k and was legally located only a foot or so from the house wall. The noise is not a problem as the generator usually doesn’t run and, when it does, it is just a humming audible only in the kitchen.
This story is only interesting because of the information, and numbers, they don’t give you.
A new Tesla battery will cost $30,000. That’s just the battery, not shipping or installation. For which you get 85 kilowatt hours of charge, which after inversion losses will run a typical McMansion for 2 or 3 days, unless the owner modifies their power demand.
The gigafactory, if works exactly as Musk hopes, will knock 15% off the price *after* 3 or 4 years of full production.
Like so much of what passes for tech news, this isn’t journalism, just hype.
Is it just a battery?
I’m more intrigued by the Kamen Stirling generator, but that will not get any media attention.
This subject has interested me for a long time. It seems to me that if you have a gas line coming to your home and you live in a cold climate, combined heat and power is an interesting way to go. I do not think it is cheaper than getting electricity from the power company yet but it might add to reliability.
Honda Develops Household Gas Engine Cogeneration UnitHonda Develops Household Gas Engine Cogeneration Unit
Honda announced it will begin sales of a new model for its household MCHP gas engine cogeneration unit, which has an autonomous operation function that enables system use in a power outage or other emergencies.
The big Tesla battery stores 85kw. A standard outlet delivers only about 1 kw per hour, which is often too slow. You can get 3 kw per hour – still pretty slow – on the 240V outlet you use for appliances, buy nobody has that in their garage, so that’ll come with some installation costs that are pretty minor in comparison to the vehicle.
Or you can get three-phase at 44 kw/hour and charge your whole ‘tank’ in only two hours, which enables a pretty long regular commute. Thing is, that often requires installing a whole special ‘commercial’ / small-business substation and paying the local power company to drop a special line at your house. It’s not cheap.
@Handle I have a Tesla and a home charging station (which Tesla sells and installs for about $2k though you can get about a third of that back as tax credit). It fully charges the car from empty in about 3 or 4 hours and required no special installation from the power company. Plugin it in every night when you come home is about as much hassle as plugging in your phone on your nightstand when you go to bed.
What is more, the local utility offers (at no charge) to install a separate meter and tariff for your Tesla and you can set the Tesla to only charge itself between 1 and 5 AM when electricity is really cheap. With that arrangement, I calculate that a full tank of ‘gas’ costs me only about $5.
The Tesla is expensive, but if you are looking for a car in that price range, it really is a very good choice to consider, even if you are not a global warming apocalyptic.