Lost power for 5mins today (just now) - PowerWall2 keeps us up....

[EcoCloudIT]

Was running around like a turkey fixing customers offices, checking UPS etc. with a power outage that has just occured in Melbourne. However, it then occurred to me did we loose power at home? As it turns out we did loose power for 5mins (although we do have power back)....the thing is we didn't even notice until checked "Backup History"!

Man, PowerWall is soooo good....

 

[jamesgo]

1 min for me over here in inner east.

That said normally when it's 1 min it's a brownout and it kicks in until it restabilises on the grid side.

 

[Hairyman]

It is amazing. Not even a flicker from our lights when the power goes down.

 

[ICUDoc]

you all know it's a great feeling.....

 

[Blue heaven]

So you put on every outside light, then the neighbour pops over and says I thought the grid was down but...

 

[Shock-On-T]

Can you charge the power wall on an off-peak circuit? My house has so much tree shade it will be a battle to get solar, but I really want a financial excuse to get a power wall.

 

[EcoCloudIT]

@ShockOnT - I believe yes....not sure how to do it but I know that is an attactive option in the USA when Elon first introduced the PW.....not sure how it stacks up though....

 

[Hairyman]

Can you charge the power wall on an off-peak circuit? My house has so much tree shade it will be a battle to get solar, but I really want a financial excuse to get a power wall.

You can set it up through the app so it will go for maximum cost savings. Then you tell it when your peak, shoulder and low cost power times are during the week and on the weekend. Mine will charge itself overnight on the lowest rate if it thinks it will not get enough solar during the day.

People have reported their panels going offline (inverter fail etc) and not noticing for a couple of days because the battery is charging in the cheap times and covering against grid imports when power is expensive.

You do need to be on some sort of TOU arrangement to make it worthwhile. I’m on Powershop’s electric car tariff and that make power from midnight to 4am very cheap (about 7.6c/unit in NSW). I shift as much consumption into that period as I can - they don’t have a requirement for that tariff to be used only for the car. So 0000-0400 at our place the car charges, the dishwasher runs, a load of washing goes round and the battery suits itself. I sometimes end up exporting more power than I would because the battery has charged overnight, but the feed in tariff is more than the overnight tariff, so I’m still ahead.

 

[jamesgo]

You do need to be on some sort of TOU arrangement to make it worthwhile. I’m on Powershop’s electric car tariff and that make power from midnight to 4am very cheap (about 7.6c/unit in NSW).

Yeah I was going to say the same, AGL and I think Origin do electric car charging plans as well.

 

[Onshore]

You do need to be on some sort of TOU arrangement to make it worthwhile. I’m on Powershop’s electric car tariff and that make power from midnight to 4am very cheap (about 7.6c/unit in NSW). I shift as much consumption into that period as I can - they don’t have a requirement for that tariff to be used only for the car. So 0000-0400 at our place the car charges, the dishwasher r.

7.6c per unit is very cheap. What are they charging around the shoulder times?


I’m using an AGL TOU plan which is a bit more expensive, around 11.5c per unit, but they give you a longer window: 10pm to 7am.

Full peak is something like 50c/unit and applies 2pm-8pm on business days only. The battery nearly always bridges this period.

 

[jamesgo]

7.6c per unit is very cheap. What are they charging around the shoulder times?
I’m using an AGL TOU plan which is a bit more expensive, around 11.5c per unit, but they give you a longer window: 10pm to 7am.
Full peak is something like 50c/unit and applies 2pm-8pm on business days only. The battery nearly always bridges this period.

AGL's peak 3pm-9pm in Vic is around 29c. They do offer a BYO battery (Powerwall, $100 signup & $45 per quarter), Electric Vehicle Rebate ($20 per month). They also had Peak Energy Rewards (when they use power from the battery in summer peaks but I think that's closed now, last summer that was a extra $20 or $30).

The benefits of having a decent size battery with Aust's mess of a electricity market.

 

[Hairyman]

7.6c per unit is very cheap. What are they charging around the shoulder times?


I’m using an AGL TOU plan which is a bit more expensive, around 11.5c per unit, but they give you a longer window: 10pm to 7am.

Full peak is something like 50c/unit and applies 2pm-8pm on business days only. The battery nearly always bridges this period.

https://d240xd0wsjzm9j.cloudfront.n...i-elec-ausgrid-ev-offer-tariff-all-update.pdf gives the details of my current arrangement in NSW in an Ausgrid region.

The outcome depends a fair bit on your pattern of use. @Vostok gets quite different results to me even though we have a similar setup at home.

 

[Shock-On-T]

My plan is not TOU but rather I have a normal and an off peak meter.
The off peak meter runs from about 11:30pm to 7am and can only have hard-wired appliances attached (basically the hot water service, pool heater etc). The off peak meter is a flat 11c/kWh.
The normal meter runs 24hrs a day, and is a flat 25c/kWh.
I’m wondering if the battery could be charged by the off peak meter, but still supply the normal meter for the house.

 

[paulp]

My plan is not TOU but rather I have a normal and an off peak meter.
The off peak meter runs from about 11:30pm to 7am and can only have hard-wired appliances attached (basically the hot water service, pool heater etc). The off peak meter is a flat 11c/kWh.
The normal meter runs 24hrs a day, and is a flat 25c/kWh.
I’m wondering if the battery could be charged by the off peak meter, but still supply the normal meter for the house.

Presumably it would be wired as normal but instead of a solar input it would be an off peak power input, and would use that power to charge if it sees it available.

 

[AndyEV]

A number of locations in the NE of Melbourne (Yarra Valley I believe) spent the weekend without power. It definitely can happen, so am feeling good about the decision to invest in one. If only to keep the fridges and some basic lighting going.

 

[EcoCloudIT]

A number of locations in the NE of Melbourne (Yarra Valley I believe) spent the weekend without power. It definitely can happen, so am feeling good about the decision to invest in one. If only to keep the fridges and some basic lighting going.

With our 12KW's solar array and a 1x PW2 as long as we didn't run the aircon (heating) too excessively at night (talking winter here, I think we would fair even better in summer) then we would have the whole house running day/night with nothing from the grid....

So a lot more than the Fridges and basic lighting.....so feel real good about the investment

 

[jamesgo]

Fridge is generally speaking one of your biggest energy users spread over the year given it runs 24x7.

 

[EcoCloudIT]

Fridge is generally speaking one of your biggest energy users spread over the year given it runs 24x7.

Hence we have a tiny fridge by modern standards, shop often from local grocery stores that buy from local produces etc. etc.

Our house with most lights on (LED of course, including 7 outdoor lights around the house), rack full of server gear in my attic, air-con set at 19C - maintaining temp (winter), and the fridge, family room TV/BOSE etc. we have base load of 0.5 - 0.6 kW draw.....

 

[Vostok]

Our house with most lights on (LED of course, including 7 outdoor lights around the house), rack full of server gear in my attic, air-con set at 19C - maintaining temp (winter), and the fridge, family room TV/BOSE etc. we have base load of 0.5 - 0.6 kW draw.....

Providing we don’t turn on AC or charge the cars, running 24/7 purely off solar is do-able for as, as long as we get a few hours of sunshine each day. But this winter has been a killer for my “net” cumulative solar v grid position, I’m way negative compared to last year, a lot more AC use. Working from home has been a much bigger factor than I thought it would be.

 

[EcoCloudIT]

Providing we don’t turn on AC or charge the cars, running 24/7 purely off solar is do-able for as, as long as we get a few hours of sunshine each day. But this winter has been a killer for my “net” cumulative solar v grid position, I’m way negative compared to last year, a lot more AC use. Working from home has been a much bigger factor than I thought it would be.

Internesting, I don't have last year to compare however we have been off-grid 92%+ of the time this winter.....if we include the days we make more than we use (5 to 6 out of 7 days this winter) we have "made" money with FIT......I think the key is having a solar system that is twice as big as what why needs....not sure...in any case as long as we don't charge the cars at home during winter (unless a really sunny day like yesteday when we peaked at 9kW/h for nearly 2 hours) then everything else is all okay to maintain many days without the grid....if we lost grid and knew it wouldn't come back for many days we'd just not use the air-con or charge the cars and "should" get by without too many issues....