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Powerwall in Australia

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The Zcell batteries are more expensive than our whole system of PW, 5kw inverter and 20 solar panels. It's a cost benefit issue. I'm sure this will all come down in price within a few years, but you have to weigh all these factors when you jump in. Our system has a lengthy pay back time frame as it is, but we are seeing the value already when you include our hot water and spa heater requirements.
 
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The Zcell batteries are more expensive than our whole system of PW, 5kw inverter and 20 solar panels. It's a cost benefit issue.

That's true. I'm lucky in that I have a good FIT at the moment and so am not seriously disadvantaged by not having a battery - I have until end of 2018.

Note with the Zcell that the it is a 10 kWh battery (all usable) vs 7 kWh (6.4 kWh usable) with the Powerwall. Also the battery doesn't degrade over time - in ten years your 10 kWh will still be 10 kWh. A closer comparison would be a 2xPW system. Zinc bromine batteries have many other differences (good and bad), but on the whole, I think they are more suited to stationary applications.
 
We are on the 66 cent FIT and as much as I'd love a battery system and be off grid it doesn't make financial sense at the moment, unless
we get a separate system and run the house on that and feed our 66 cents straight to the grid ;-)

At the recent Sustainable House day we visited one house that belonged to a Solar/ Wind & Hydro installer he advised against a Powerwall because of the fire risk! He was keen on a Salt battery that he sells as it was 10Kw and not much dearer than a PW, it was quite small, not much bigger than a small suitcase.
 
OK, so my solar and Tesla PowerWall are going in today.

2016-10-05 12.27.03.jpg


Here is the PowerWall mounted in the garage along with inverter and various other stuff.

2016-10-05 14.33.59.jpg


The panels come tomorrow but I couldn't get the day off work so will post more on the week end.
 
So the PowerWall and Solar are operational and a full charge seems to run the house for about 3 to 4 hours in the evening, but I'm still learning how to make it last the longest. I think I will have to replace all the halogen down lights with LEDs eventually but haven't found a suitable replacement yet.
Pictures as promised, first the finished Solar.
2016-10-09 09.57.27.jpg


This next picture shows the progress in making our lives completely electric, Tesla car and PowerWall and even Ego electric mower.
2016-10-09 14.15.07.jpg


Next up is figuring out how to use the additional daytime generation that's going back into the grid for heating and cooling.
 
melo, did you use Natural Solar for your install? Looks like you have a SolarEdge inverter. Once they set you up with the software on your computer, you will be able to monitor the system. You can only download the app to your smartphone. It give you different perspective, like hourly usage & consumption.

We've managed to set timers on our hot water heater and the spa pump and heater and the Powerwall can hold it's charge through the night.

We have been doing a spreadsheet of what we use from the grid and what we input into the grid and the conditions, weather and what is drawing a lot of electricity beside HW and spa like our dryer.

If you are coming up to the Sunshine Coast, you are welcome to come over. We built the house this year, so we are pretty energy efficient.
 
melo, did you use Natural Solar for your install? Looks like you have a SolarEdge inverter. Once they set you up with the software on your computer, you will be able to monitor the system. You can only download the app to your smartphone. It give you different perspective, like hourly usage & consumption.

We've managed to set timers on our hot water heater and the spa pump and heater and the Powerwall can hold it's charge through the night.

We have been doing a spreadsheet of what we use from the grid and what we input into the grid and the conditions, weather and what is drawing a lot of electricity beside HW and spa like our dryer.

If you are coming up to the Sunshine Coast, you are welcome to come over. We built the house this year, so we are pretty energy efficient.

Hi Moose, Tesla put me onto Bradford Solar and I was quite impressed with the installation.
The hot water is instantaneous gas, but I will probably upgrade it to Solar hot water later.
 
Hi Moose, Tesla put me onto Bradford Solar and I was quite impressed with the installation.
The hot water is instantaneous gas, but I will probably upgrade it to Solar hot water later.

melo, because we were building the house, we had the luxury of having all the wiring inside the walls. We have an external access shed behind where the Powerwall and inverter was installed. We left one of the sheeting off until the installation was completed.

Our hot water system is heated from 9 to 11 am. It usually takes about an hour to heat and on a sunny day the solar generates enough electricity to cover without drawing from the Powerwall. The sparkies, who installed our system, installed the timer in the switch box. They also set it up so if there's a blackout, the Powerwall kicks in. It powers the main fridge and the lights on the side of the house that we live in. There are limitations as to what you can power up and to the charge there is left in the Powerwall. The 7 kwh (more like 6.4) is not a lot. Once they double the capacity with Powerwall 2.0, it will make a difference. Not sure what the upgrade would cost or how you go about an upgrade.

Our biggest user is the spa pump and heater, which is set to operate from noon to 7 pm. Again on a sunny day the solar generates enough for the 2 to 2 1/2 hours it takes to heat the water. After 4 to 5 pm, it will draw from the Powerwall.

We are keeping a daily log of what we draw from the grid and what we pump back into the grid as well as comments as to the weather and what is using our power, ie. we have a commercial dryer so we wash clothes on a sunny day!

By and large, our Powerwall charge covers our overnight usage. There is only the two of us in the house, but we do have 3 fridges, a few night lights, security system.

We built the house as owner builders and still use a fair number of power tools, which don't seem to use up a lot of electricity. Heating elements are the big users. Cooktop is gas, but the double oven is electric. The single drawer dishwasher we put on during the day. All lighting is LED.

So in a nutshell, you have our lifestyle.
 
Hey I need some advice on the Powerwall 2 and how it can fit to an existing solar system My current system is a 5kw system that is on a dedicated circuit on switch board. The switch board is full. My question is can the powerwall share the circuit?
 
Hey I need some advice on the Powerwall 2 and how it can fit to an existing solar system My current system is a 5kw system that is on a dedicated circuit on switch board. The switch board is full. My question is can the powerwall share the circuit?

Powerwall is only compatible with certain inverters. Contact Tesla Energy and they will be able to help you.

Switch board may be full but a sparkie can open up another bank of switches.