StealthP3D
Well-Known Member
My understanding is Tesla's business case with home heating/air conditioning/refrigeration/water heating is largely based on increasing overall home efficiency by integrating the systems and also increasing the speed of adoption by driving down costs and making system design and availability easier. Kind of a one-stop solution for design, purchase and installation.
For example, currently the refrigerator/freezer pumps the heat from inside the appliance into the room. That's fine during the heating season as that waste heat goes to good use but during the cooling season, the air conditioner must now get rid of that heat at whatever functional efficiency level it operates at. So you are essentially paying to cool your food twice. Once to make the food cold and once to get that heat out of the house. If the condenser coils on the fridge/freezers could be mounted remotely, large gains in efficiency are possible. During the heating season, that heat could be used to increase the COP of the heat pump and allow the heat to be distributed anywhere desired in the home. Another example is in the winter the heat pump is blowing cold air outside and warm air inside. Some of the heat used to heat rooms could be pulled from inside the refrigerator. Sometimes efficiency isn't absolute, it's whether the energy (heat/cold) is distributed where and when it is wanted or unwanted.
Similar examples exist for heat pump water heaters. I think all of these appliances could have common refrigerant lines with computer-controlled valves being used to intelligently manage hot/cold through the house most efficiently. The efficiency of heat pumps is heavily dependent upon the temperature differentials that exist and that need to exist. By integrating the systems, they can operate at peak efficiency as a system much better than they can as individual stand-alone units. This matters when you need to be able to run the system off batteries and you don't want to have to buy more batteries than necessary. Expensive, inefficient ductwork will be eliminated in favor of heat exchangers/air cleaners in every area of the home. It may even make sense to have a solar heated exchanger on the roof to increase system efficiency. The system will be modular making design for different, structures, climates and sites easy. The volume of sales will drive down costs and disrupt billions of dollars of sales of conventional water heaters, refrigerators, freezers, and home HVAC systems. Appliance dealers and home HVAC are ripe for massive disruption.
Elon has a habit on focusing his sights on those parts of the economy in which people spend most of their money. And a large component of the cost of those segments is represented by energy. Even a large portion of the cost of food is energy, whether it's the energy to transport the food, make the fertilizer, till the fields, harvest the wheat, pump the water, keep it refrigerated, even the labor to harvest it has a large energy component as the workers need to get to where the crops need harvesting. That's why energy is so important to the economy. And Elon is focusing on being the master of energy, not only production and consumption, but also storage. This is why Tesla is so under-valued even at prices that seem somewhat rich to many. You cannot estimate the ultimate eventual value, the maximum future value of TSLA, by looking at the size of the automotive market. Not the current size and not the future size.
