Tesla to sell home battery packs.

[mtdoc]

Tesla to sell home battery pack

It will be interesting to see what comes of this. It makes sense that Tesla, with their new battery factory in the works, would take advantage of another market in which to sell their batteries.

Could be a big opportunity for makers of charge contollers.

[Westbranch]

on Wednesday, Musk said that the design of the battery is complete, and production would begin in about six months

So, when does the beta testing begin?

[CDN-VT]

MTdoc
I have caught 2 You-tubs on these tesla car  battery's on fire , the seem to shoot out mortars of spark & flame.

Myself If I was to use these , I would wait a few years to see if they didn't burn down a house, then I would need to have a fire building away from the main buildings ..

Just search you-tubs & in Mexico that one lasted ,  much longer than the one in bollywood CA.
Even Boeing aircraft have had mishaps on the "Dream-Liner"

It sounds great that this might happen , but !!

[mtdoc]

I actually think the safety of the Tesla battery packs is pretty well proven. The couple of fires in Tesla vehicles occurred in extreme conditions - massive mechanical disruption of the pack - which will never happen in a home battery pack unless the home itself is destroyed already (earthquake,fire, etc).  After all lead acid battery packs have their safety issues as well.

It will be interesting to get more details on this.  There are several lithium ion chemistries.  In the model S  - I believe they use the nickel cobalt aluminum variety.  The energy density for a home based battery obviously does not need to be as great as for an EV where weight is a prime concern.  Will these home batteries be the same chemistry as their vehicles?

[CDN-VT]

True , But I would still be cautious , FLA , yes I have seen some bad outcomes .
I have had a unprotected li-lon do a yellow smoke flare on a flashlight 18650 cell.


I do agree on the damage from the accidents , same as the Toyota that had it's battery  stabbed from running over some steel on the I5 near Seattle . the car burnt to a crisp & it melted the road . I still see the road rash burn mark.
Im just skeptical on many new items that we the public are the testers /guinea-pigs at our cost .



VT

[Westbranch]

From his comments and the reporters , I would have to reason that they will use the same chemistry, what is good for the car is good for the home, maybe just not the best...

During an earnings call last year, Musk had talked about his plans to make a product that would be fitted into consumers’ homes, instead of their cars.

“Some will be like the Model S pack: something flat, 5 inches off the wall, wall mounted, with a beautiful cover, an integrated bi-directional inverter, and plug and play.”

Bling in other words?

The Palo Alto, California-based automaker already produces residential energy-storage units through SolarCity Corp.,

Tesla's long history of research and development has enabled a cost-effective, wall-mounted storage appliance that is small, powerful and covered by a long lasting full 10 year warranty.
The actual battery unit is about the size of a solar power inverter, and will be mounted on the wall in your garage or near your electrical panel.

A home energy storage system may help you save more money by drawing power from your battery instead of from the grid during higher rates peak hours. You can then recharge your battery during lower rate, off-peak hours.

So it sounds like it will be just like a car use, high discharge rate and then recharge, a PEAKER...

, Nov. 20, 2014 
Since early 2013, Walmart has tested 13 battery storage projects with solar installations across California to provide additional savings to Walmart by using stored electricity to lower peak demand charges. The next ten solar energy storage projects will each use a larger 200 kilowatt (400 kilowatt hour) battery,

So the current one is 100KwH? 

[mtdoc]

It raises all kinds of questions, doesn't it?

We all know you can't just slap a lithium battery pack onto a strict grid-tied PV system. At the very least you'd need a charge controller, BMS and new inverter or electronics to do an AC coupled solution.

I'm sure Tesla has all this sorted out. Are they partnering with someone to develop a whole "kit" for grid tie systems?

What will the voltages of the packs be?

Will they market a version for off-grid or grid tie with battery back-up systems that don't need a charge controller or new inverter?  Compatible voltages?

I guess the dream is that Tesla with its "giga factory" will have the economy of scale to develop a "plug and play" type lithium pack with integrated BMS that is  available in various voltages and capacities and all at a price competitive with lead acid on a usable kWh basis over its lifetime.

A 20 yr lifespan and 5000 cycles at an affordable price is all I want...

[Westbranch]

Yup, affordable, reliable,  me too....

All I could find other than above, was a lot of conjecture and vision thinking, a bit beyond vapour ware.... 

There is a pic of the inverter  on Solar City's site and another reference to that pic that the battery (early version?) was about the size of an (Grid Tie?) Inverter... Noting on the SC site  other than apply "here" for an installation, also that the Utilities were dragging their feet approving GT with batteries and SC was not going to 'sell' anymore battery packages until the utilities started approving the existing ones.

[Halfcrazy]

I can say there seems to be a push to work on jacking batteries into a pure grid tie system JUST for load shaving on the grid. Your lights will still go out when the utility fails though. This seems to be driven by the utility to help them ride through dips etc. That said I am sure as the future goes we will see Lithium in battery based systems more and more. Solar City has been installing Tesla batteries and Schneider inverters as an AC couple retrofit for a bunch of there grid tie customers so I suspect the testing is already done?

[Westbranch]

Did you hear anything about the battery size?

[TomW]

Im just skeptical on many new items that we the public are the testers /guinea-pigs at our cost .



VT

110% agreed!

The scariest are the drugs "our" FDA quickly pushes through to production rather than ensure public safety like they are supposed to.

With equipment it is probably much cheaper to just swap out failed stuff compared to actually testing in house.

Greed seems to be winning these days.

End rant.

It would definitely be really nice if a decent set of battery choices existed, for sure


Just from the peanut gallery.

Tom

[CDN-VT]

Well not to get to far off to the side :

These guys  got a kickstarter campaign starting next week.
there's a youtube video : http://www.honeyflow.com/   Or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_pj4cz2VJM
and foxnews coverage Tap honey like beer with revolutionary hive filter invention | Fox News
http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2015/02/17/tap-honey-like-beer-with-revolutionary-hive-filter-invention/

Now if you know how honey is made & why , this seems to be a selling hoax to me.

Im not saying that the battery's / cells  are , but till proven .
Isn't every few years theirs a small  company who sells a power cube for an entire house , around April .. 

@ Tom , I agree on the drug problem  , witnessed doctors pushing many

VT

[Westbranch]

Well I get my NUCS and Queens from John Gates and know and respect him (40 sec. into video) ...  I will not doubt that it can work, but... we'll see.

[mtdoc]

Ha - Honey flow - that's great!  I'm sure it's legit...

Im not saying that the battery's / cells  are , but till proven .

You do realize Tesla's battery packs are already well proven. Right?

Tesla's a 25 Billion dollar company - just a tad above the Kickstarter crowdfunding level.

Of course their home battery product may not be successful but given Elon Musk's track record of building EVs and lauching rocket's I'd say the odds are it will be at least partially so.

After all batteries for a home RE system aren't exactly rocket science..

[Westbranch]

After all batteries for a home RE system aren't exactly rocket science..

No they aren't, but as we are all aware the use and maintenance is just about as complex ... 

And from gleaning tidbits about using a battery based on the Tesla's battery design , a cool flat panel design it is probably a 123 knockoff, and would likely be used to 'dump' into the grid for covering peaks etc and less so for typical off grid use... it should work but   what limitations might it have.