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Power Wall 2- NJ/NY
- Thread starter bart513
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- Mid-Atlantic USA
ViviV
Member
Hopefully soon we will have 2 Powerwalls in NJ. All inspections of space done and paperwork signed but its a been a very disorganized slow moving process with lack of consistent communication and clear information. So "soon" could mean weeks or months. No PSEG incentives that we are aware of.
Hey!! How are you??? Wow so does your house have solar or are you installing just for the cars? I have a MS and Roadster but only a one car garage so I'm trying to figure out the logistics. At our NY house (no solar) I put the Roadster in the garage and have another outlet outside the garage for the MS. We just bought in Mendham so I'm thinking about putting in the Powerwalls there but need to figure things out....
ViviV
Member
Yes @bart513, we have solar panels -- a 10 kW roof top system with 42 microinverters (1 megawatt produced per month) which supplies about 50% of our usage. Because we live in NJ where 1) we pay the same price for electricity all day long (no cheaper rates at night) and 2) we have net metering so we sell back at the same price that we buy electricity -- the Powerwall really only has value as a back up system if the power goes out. This is NOT the case in all locations in the country or the world. For use as grid back up, it would only make sense to get Powerwalls if one also has solar panels. Without solar panels the back up would not last long and there would be no way to recharge without solar if the grid was down. Along those same lines, we are only getting 2 Powerwalls because it doesn't make sense to have more storage than the solar can generate in one day. Since this is less than our full daily needs, we plan to only back up certain critical things. The Tesla HPWCs in the garage and house air conditioning are among the items that are NOT part of the back up. If the electrical grid is down we would need to trickle charge our cars using a 110v outlet.
ViviV
Member
@bart513 generally the roof shape/size/location is the limiting factor in how much solar you can install. It is not usually a matter of how much you need to get, but rather the max that can fit and be productive on your roof. We only generate 50% of our needs because of the direction our house faces and decorative dormers on our roof that limit additional solar panels. I recommend speaking to a professional solar installer -- although they may want to know your needs. If you have not yet lived there, perhaps the previous owners have electrical records that can be used to assess usage for the house of its size. I think you need this information and the size of the solar array before you can determine how many Powerwalls you need, and as I said, unless you can generate enough solar energy to live off the grid, there is limited utility for getting Powerwall in NJ (at this time given net metering and fixed cost electric power -- not the case in other states).
ViviV
Member
That's awesome -- we've gotten referrals but not enough for a Powerwall (let alone 3!). I wonder if you could sell your PW. The final quote for our system is $13,500 including taxes and installation for 2 PW. That is 27KWh of usable storage or $500/KWh.
Why would it take so long if you already have solar? You already have an agreement with your electric co.
I think they do the install as part of the deal. I'm a little bummed as it seems like it may not be as useful as I thought? There might be better incentives in NY than NJ but I already have a generator there as we do get power outages in East Hampton. Idk if in Mendham they are as frequent? I guess I should probably see if there are any incentives in NY that would make it more worthwhile to install there? Or, as you say, maybe just sell them 
I thought it would be an opportunity to be more green...
I thought it would be an opportunity to be more green...
ViviV
Member
That is a great question! 6 months we've been actively going back and forth with Tesla since we got the call that they were ready to move forward. Initially lots of confusion and misinformation on design -- i.e. where they could go in house, how they would mount, how many were needed, etc. Current status is that we are awaiting interconnectivity approval with PSE&G -- apparently it is different than our solar agreement and it was only submitted for approval last week.
Are you going to be selling power back from the battery? If your batteries are back-up only, you only need a transfer switch? If you are trying to do load shifting in CA it takes a long time too, I will install one PW as back-up only if the install cost is minimal.
ViviV
Member
See my post #4 above. Just back up. We will not be selling back because our solar makes less than our needs. Net metering means we have same price to buy as to sell and same price day and night. Putting energy from solar into battery is associated with some loss of efficiency because we have microinverters on each solar panel (DC-->AC). No benefit to using battery to sell back. I don't know what a transfer switch is. I am assuming that the experts that are evaluating and installing this know what they are doing.
i considered the powerwall but i have never lost power in my house so dont see the need for back up. The other issue is that pseg credits us for the excess produced at the market rates so if we use that to charge the power wall we are not saving anything or are we?
i am not sure. I have zero grid usage from April through october come nov to march I have to use the grid but that is also when we are not producing enough to provide the needs.
i am not sure. I have zero grid usage from April through october come nov to march I have to use the grid but that is also when we are not producing enough to provide the needs.
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