Anyone regret having a Powerwall installed?

[GuyGadois]

I have a quote from Tesla and am seriously considering adding two Powerwalls 2.0 to go with my existing Solar and Model S. I have read a lot of positive things online and on the site but really would be interested in hearing if anyone regrets having a Powerwall installed and why. Thanks for your honest feedback in advance.

GG

 

[AEdennis]

I have a quote from Tesla and am seriously considering adding two Powerwalls 2.0 to go with my existing Solar and Model S. I have read a lot of positive things online and on the site but really would be interested in hearing if anyone regrets having a Powerwall installed and why. Thanks for your honest feedback in advance.

GG

Not regret, just a little disappointed that in my solar connected setup, I can only recharge the PowerWalls from Solar (located in California) I was told that this was a compromise that Tesla had to do for PowerWalls in the US. It's not a technical limitation, but a regulatory one...

 

[Dan123]

I regret only ordering two, instead of three.

 

[hodad66]

No regrets here...

 

[GuyGadois]

Not regret, just a little disappointed that in my solar connected setup, I can only recharge the PowerWalls from Solar (located in California) I was told that this was a compromise that Tesla had to do for PowerWalls in the US. It's not a technical limitation, but a regulatory one...

I am also located in CA and wasn't told this by Tesla. It does seem very limiting and seems to change the ROI for the system. It seems like charging the batteries while the electricity is cheapest makes a ton of sense. How much of a difference does everyone think this makes? Any way to tell on non CA installed system how much charge come from the grid?

BTW I have a 5.7kw system (33 panels each 175Wp ) and is 10 years old

 

[AEdennis]

I am also located in CA and wasn't told this by Tesla. It does seem very limiting and seems to change the ROI for the system. It seems like charging the batteries while the electricity is cheapest makes a ton of sense. How much of a difference does everyone think this makes? Any way to tell on non CA installed system how much charge come from the grid?

if you don't have Solar, then you can use TOU to charge the batteries. BUT, with Solar, you HAVE to charge the batteries from Solar.

I have a 3 PW system and I probably would have gotten less batteries because it takes my system several days to charge it to full.

 

[nomis_nehc]

Technically, that's not true. You can only charge residential lithium battery storage from solar because you're claiming ITC on the Poweralls. It's in the interconnection agreement for most utility companies that forbids you from charging from the grid.

 

[PBBear]

Any way to tell on non CA installed system how much charge come from the grid?

BTW I have a 5.7kw system (33 panels each 175Wp ) and is 10 years old

I'm in Australia, so my system can and does charge from the grid, especially during winter when the forecast for the next day's sun is dim.
I have a 7.3 kWp system (22 panels each 335Wp) just over 1 year old.

In this daily chart attached, the battery was at 30% at the midnight start of the day.

• It charged from grid at 1.2 kW in the small hours during offpeak time (up to 7am) to get to 84%.
• During the day the battery charged the rest of the way up 100% from the little bits of excess solar, and even exported some to grid until shortly after 4pm when the sun set.
• then during the night the house drained down the battery until 10pm (when off-peak starts again) - the battery was down to 6% at this point.
• Then from 10pm during off-peak cheap power the system switched to run the house from grid, and also the battery pre-charged from the grid to get back up to 30% by midnight.

FWIW, while the house used almost 40 kWh, the grid usage was 22.8 kWh during cheap off-peak, and just 2,2 kW during partial-peak.

 

[dotbombjoe]

Why are you considering the power walls? They are not generally a good financial investment without substantial subsidies, most of which are gone at this point. Every circumstance is different, but generally power walls aren't likely to save you more than a few hundred dollars a year unless you game the system a bit and max-out with a service like OhmConnect.

I've seen threads posted here with folks that haven't had great experiences but the majority of us seem to love these things...I'd just caution folks from thinking they're a similar "investment" like their solar panels were because generally, they are not. Unless they don't work, which I'd suspect is generally an installation problem, I'm not sure why anyone wouldn't "like" them...other than cost of course.

 

[SimonT]

Tottally happy. In our experience they have improved the efficency of our panels three fold. Before the battery 3/4 of our solar production just went to the grid.

 

[Don TLR]

if you don't have Solar, then you can use TOU to charge the batteries. BUT, with Solar, you HAVE to charge the batteries from Solar.

I have a 3 PW system and I probably would have gotten less batteries because it takes my system several days to charge it to full.

How much solar do you have?

 

[AEdennis]

How much solar do you have?

6.58 kW DC. Peak production in Summer is 40kWh in the past, have not reached that this Summer, but did reach it earlier in the year.

We have 3 PW2 for about 39.5kWh usable.

 

[miimura]

Why are you considering the power walls? They are not generally a good financial investment without substantial subsidies, most of which are gone at this point. Every circumstance is different, but generally power walls aren't likely to save you more than a few hundred dollars a year unless you game the system a bit and max-out with a service like OhmConnect.

I've seen threads posted here with folks that haven't had great experiences but the majority of us seem to love these things...I'd just caution folks from thinking they're a similar "investment" like their solar panels were because generally, they are not. Unless they don't work, which I'd suspect is generally an installation problem, I'm not sure why anyone wouldn't "like" them...other than cost of course.

You have given feedback from a very California-centric position. While it is accurate, there are other places where the economics work out differently, usually because they don't have net metering. What @SimonT didn't say above is that when his solar goes to the grid, he gets minimal credit for that energy. His batteries now allow him to self-consume a significant portion of his solar, so he buys much less from the grid. That savings is likely much more than "a few hundred dollar a year".

 

[NuShrike]

I regret:

• not getting into Step 1 of the SGIP
• being able to install only 2 instead of 3+, due to rebate restrictions
• it runs Tesla's inferior TBC software which shows little of Tesla's automobile's software prowess -- this really is the red-headed stepchild division of the company
  • only 1 peak, and only 1 off-peak period
  • there's no native IFTTT integration
  • can't configure the PWs to do partial offset instead of all or none
• PTO with the Utility takes forever vs Solar

Most people can live with the above, lol.

 

[groovidad]

Best purchase I’ve made, next to my 3!

 

[TheRedPill]

Will find out soon - having two Powerwalls installed this week.

 

[GuyGadois]

You have given feedback from a very California-centric position. While it is accurate, there are other places where the economics work out differently, usually because they don't have net metering. What @SimonT didn't say above is that when his solar goes to the grid, he gets minimal credit for that energy. His batteries now allow him to self-consume a significant portion of his solar, so he buys much less from the grid. That savings is likely much more than "a few hundred dollar a year".

That’s OK. I posted the question and I live in CA so it is very relevant information for me.

 

[GuyGadois]

Best purchase I’ve made, next to my 3!

Why is it the best purchase you have made since the model 3?

 

[miimura]

That’s OK. I posted the question and I live in CA so it is very relevant information for me.

If your local electrical grid is very reliable and you're not in an area where PG&E has warned of "Public Safety" outages, then it is hard to justify without big rebates or critical power needs.

In my case, my local grid is rather unreliable. My Powerwall Backup History shows 17 Events for a total of 13 Backup Hours in the last year. None of those were planned outages or "Public Safety" outages. There was maybe one event of about 30 minutes for my own testing. I also got into SGIP Step 1 and had already budgeted for a natural gas backup generator. So, I am very happy with my system and how much it cost me. After rebates and credits, it will pay for itself before the warranty is over through TOU arbitrage.

 

[shrike]

None. No regrets at all. Very happy with it.