Power out - now I know why we got Powerwalls!

[ucmndd]

I've lived in my house for 7 years and not one power outage. It's basically going to boil down to if I want to put my saving for a Model S or CyberTruck behind by 15k or not.

If it’s truly an either-or sort of calculus, I would probably hold off for a year or so to see how the PowerShare capability in the Cybertruck evolves, matures, and spreads throughout the product line.

 

[BGbreeder]

With respect to the internet, that is a concern. We were out for about 5 hours yesterday and the internet stayed up the entire time. We have Comcast (or whatever they are these days) cable service and they seem to have good backup power supplies. Previously, we had a 2-day power outage when some guy took out a telephone pole with his car. During that outage after the first day, we lost the cable connection to the house. But Comcast has wifi at their boxes in the neighborhood and that was up. So, we could connect, but at 4-10 mbps max.

In an outage, our previous ISP stayed on between two minutes and two hours, despite a regulatory requirement for much longer. The lack of backup at the ISP was a major reason of why we replaced them with an ISP that had backup, plus it had improved speeds as a bonus.

 

[TheLastDon]

If it’s truly an either-or sort of calculus, I would probably hold off for a year or so to see how the PowerShare capability in the Cybertruck evolves, matures, and spreads throughout the product line.

Oh yeah, definitely. I JUST bought a Model Y. I won't be getting the CT or S for another 4 or 5 years while I save.

 

[hmcgregoraz]

The powerwalls dont tend to pay for themselves by themselves unless you have a situation like @jboy210 has, where you can factor in lost business because you work from home, etc.

Where they benefit is from peace of mind in the face of an outage, and ease of use. Generators are generally cheaper, but unless you get a whole home can be a bit of a pain to get going, maintain etc. Still, a generator is cheaper.

I have said this on a few threads where this question generally comes up though, and after going through a couple of power outages at my current home , along with the yearly threat of power safety power shut offs (PSPS), having powerwalls gives me an incredible mental "connection" to my home that we didnt have before.

We lost a bunch of food a couple different times, as I didnt have a generator, and wasnt really wanting to buy one because "we hardly ever have power outages".

I feel incredibly safe and secure in my home now. We have had a couple power safety shut offs since we got our powerwalls in 2020, as well as a couple of unplanned outages of a few hours, and we basically carried on with very little change. On the outages of no known length (that ended up being a few hours but we didnt know it), we did go into "curtailment" mode, reducing our energy usage by unplugging and turning off things we didnt need to use.

We watched a TV on a much lower power using TV, watched shows saved on my NAS instead of trying to use internet, unplugged some stuff (we have a sheet saved of things to unplug in a power outage in a room by room basis to cut power usage). We can cut homes energy run rate from approximately 1.6-1.8kWh to about 900 Wh, increasing our powerwall run time without impacting our lives much at all, and we can get it down to around 400wh by impacting ourselves a bit more but still being comfortable.

Anyway, its not a "pencil out financial" thing for me, its a comfort thing, and I love my powerwalls even though I am on NEM 1 so they wont ever really pay me back, per se.


EDIT.. @bmah and I were posting at the same time, and said the same basic thing (except I used way more words lmao).

@jboy210 , what do you do for internet if your power outage lasts longer than your ISP has for battery backup at whatever their station is? For us, thats about a 2 hour outage. We use our phones for hotspots, and limit internet usage, but I am a hybrid worker who works from home and office, not a full time home worker.

We have 3x Powerwall 2, and 23.5KW of Solar (well, 20KW AC), a Model X 90D, a Model 3 LR, and a Model Y LR.

The Powerwalls in Tucson AZ do not pencil out based on saved electrical costs, as our power costs, and net metering arrangements are not horrible.

But if you look at Solar + whole house generator with transfer switch vs Solar + Powerwalls, and especially if you include the tax credit, yes it can make $ sense even without the comfort side of the equation.

-Harry

 

[ucmndd]

With respect to the internet, that is a concern. We were out for about 5 hours yesterday and the internet stayed up the entire time.

We are well out of the service area of the big boys. I currently have two options:

The local cable company offers 1gb speed but is generally less reliable and their neighborhood repeaters or vaults or whatever they’re called have no power backup so when the power is out they’re down immediately.

The local phone company offers ~25mb DSL that’s rock solid, designed the way I design networks, and I’m convinced would keep humming along for weeks or months after nuclear winter hits. But it’s 25mb, so you can imagine which I chose. Cable company plus generous tethering allowances on the cell plan. Eero’s internet backup feature works quite well - keeps everything and everyone happy for the most part.

Thankfully the phone company just finished infrastructure work for a FTTP network in our neighborhood, so hoping I’ll have the best of both worlds before too long.

We did try Starlink for a while - it certainly passed the “works when the power is out” test but wasn’t really ideal for the other 364 days of the year.

 

[danpass]

We opted for the resiliency factor of storage, but then we went to 100% remote work, at which point the Powerwalls were essentially 100% paid off in my mind. They enable us continue to conduct business with no interruptions, and have been great at reducing the stresses of outages. My only regret is the lack of a generator charging system that I suspect will emerge from third parties with the passage of time.

Our power has been less and less reliable with the passage of time for a variety of reasons, increasing the value of storage.

All the best,

BG

It would be nice to see a generator inlet option. The closest thing I can think of is the GenerLink transfer switch with installs at the meter. The power walls wouldn't know that it is generator power coming in.

I think the solution, in times of limited sunlight (winter, rainy weather, etc), is indeed the hybrid solution, where the PWs and solar are the main while a generator of some type is a supplement.

-

 

[h2ofun]

It would be nice to see a generator inlet option. The closest thing I can think of is the GenerLink transfer switch with installs at the meter. The power walls wouldn't know that it is generator power coming in.

I think the solution, in times of limited sunlight (winter, rainy weather, etc), is indeed the hybrid solution, where the PWs and solar are the main while a generator of some type is a supplement.

-

Mine is wired this way. Meaning, if I drain my PW's, then the generator kicks in automatically.

 

[Matt-FL]

Prior to getting solar + batteries, I had a generator physical interlock that forced turning off the breaker mains to switch on the generator breaker.

Since my house panel is fully backed up on solar (20.4kW + 4 PW), I've considered adding the generator interlock back in to accommodate the times that a long outage might be present. We have had power outages for as long as four days prior to getting solar (a Florida hurricane). While my solar may keep the house going for four days with careful power management, it might be nice to offset the house for periods of time to allow the solar to charge the batteries. Turning off the house mains in the panel would not affect the inverters and battery connections in the gateway.

However, it is one of those 'would be nice' categories. So far, solar + batteries has worked great for the up to 12 hour outages we have experienced since the system was installed.

 

[jboy210]

Prior to getting solar + batteries, I had a generator physical interlock that forced turning off the breaker mains to switch on the generator breaker.

View attachment 1061318

Since my house panel is fully backed up on solar (20.4kW + 4 PW), I've considered adding the generator interlock back in to accommodate the times that a long outage might be present. We have had power outages for as long as four days prior to getting solar (a Florida hurricane). While my solar may keep the house going for four days with careful power management, it might be nice to offset the house for periods of time to allow the solar to charge the batteries. Turning off the house mains in the panel would not affect the inverters and battery connections in the gateway.

However, it is one of those 'would be nice' categories. So far, solar + batteries has worked great for the up to 12 hour outages we have experienced since the system was installed.

I worry about those issues also. Especially since the big shortages are likely to be in Sept/Oct when the Red flag warnings occur and the winds and/or fires shutdown the powerlines and/or spike usage. And when my solar production will be down.

Since we have 2 PWs anything more we add would be additional protection (aka belts and suspenders). So, I would prefer if Tesla added V2H support to the S,3,X,Y vehicles, like they have with the CT.

 

[GregBallantyne]

I also have an as yet untried backup scenario involving a gas powered generator. If I throw the main on my load center, I isolate the house from the Roof, Gateway, Powerwalls, and grid. I would then run the generator to power the load center from a feed in the barn as I used to do prior to solar installation, and the PWs can recharge on solar generation as available. When solar & PWs become sufficient, shut down the generator and open the load center main to the system. All manual in my case, but it's my last resort backup plan.

 

[jboy210]

I also have an as yet untried backup scenario involving a gas powered generator. If I throw the main on my load center, I isolate the house from the Roof, Gateway, Powerwalls, and grid. I would then run the generator to power the load center from a feed in the barn as I used to do prior to solar installation, and the PWs can recharge on solar generation as available. When solar & PWs become sufficient, shut down the generator and open the load center main to the system. All manual in my case, but it's my last resort backup plan.

Smart of you to test these procedures out before you are dependent on them.

 

[jboy210]

FWIW, we had another power outage yesterday. Power was out from 7 PM to 6AM. Powerwall powered everything as planned. We were only one of two houses on the block with lights last night.

Looks like the same issue as earlier. The exact same number of customers were out as last week. Hopefully PG&E has figured this out and is not just putting another patch on the system. We are taking defensive measure just in case by increasing the Powerwall backup from 45% to 90%. It means we have to buy more power, but I prefer a higher safety margin.

 

[GregBallantyne]

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FWIW, we had another power outage yesterday. Power was out from 7 PM to 6AM. Powerwall powered everything as planned. We were only one of two houses on the block with lights last night.

Looks like the same issue as earlier. The exact same number of customers were out as last week. Hopefully PG&E has figured this out and is not just putting another patch on the system. We are taking defensive measure just in case by increasing the Powerwall backup from 45% to 90%. It means we have to buy more power, but I prefer a higher safety margin.

Bit bad for that myself. I think I would need another 1-3 PWs for me to not do it. Our top priority for putting all this in is energy security, so I want 24+ hours of backup power under the condition of the sun not producing at all. So I often err on the side of caution, and took grid power that I didn't need to. Messed up the month of June that way.... took a little grid power one day in June. Ended up putting more back on the grid than I took, and I banked over 400kwh in June anyhow (net metering) but took some grid none the less. We got thru a 3 day outage last year that had 1 1/2 days of quite low production, so I know I probably am using overkill....