Tesla Motors Announces A New Home Battery; Living Off The Grid Will Soon Be Status Quo

Tesla Motors Announces A New Home Battery; Living Off The Grid Will Soon Be Status Quo

from: offgridquest.com

Speaking during an earnings conference call on Wednesday, Musk said that the design of the battery is complete, and production would begin in about six months. Although the company did not provide any date for the product's launch, Musk said that he was pleased with the result.

“We are going to unveil the Tesla home battery, the consumer battery that would be for use in people’s houses or businesses fairly soon,” Bloomberg quoted Musk as saying....

At this moment, many solar or wind-powered homes have to remain on a the grid because there has not been a way to store extra power for lean hours. If given a relatively cheap and reliable battery to hold the power needed, building off-grid in the country will become commonplace, and even in the city, self powered homes could be a less expensive option than being grid-tied.

Now who's ready to fire their monopoly power company?

This is something I think a lot of people who have or are planning to use a solar grid will welcome, a much better battery storage system. Although there are still a lot of laws on the book that force homeowners to tie into the electrical grid, even if its just to get a permit, but maybe when more people wake up to the antiquated or unfavorable laws those will begin to change.

Let's just hope ALEC doesn't deem these "illegal" and try to banish their sales the same way car dealers tried to use the government to banish Tesla Motors from operating in certain states.

Posted a while back now......good if it works but don't hold your breath.....

Thanks for the tip, I'd like to see more players in that marketplace, so I'm hoping they have enough success to get others involved.

There is no such thing living off the grid with batteries. You have to have a source of "grid" energy to charge them. The only true off the grid living entails good old fire and wood! Everything else is BS!

a reply to: MiddleClassWhiteBoy

And if you have wind or solar power generation capabilities on your property as outlined in the Original Post?

a reply to: MiddleClassWhiteBoy

The only true off the grid living entails good old fire and wood! Everything else is BS

Not true , Black light Power is months away from releasing their magical power source.

/sarcasm

However, this does have a Marketing B$ smell to it . I think the PR might be bigger than what it truly offers.

Perhaps this is a way for him to increase production of the batteries to bring the cost down for the tesla. Not a bad thing, but it doesn't sound like its going to be a revolutionary advancement in technology or how the majority will consumer energy at this time Hopefully I'm wrong when the details surface.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus
a reply to: MiddleClassWhiteBoy

And if you have wind or solar power generation capabilities on your property as outlined in the Original Post?

Solar is not off the grid. Panels require maintenance and parts. Wind? Lol great so now every rural or suburban dwelling is going to have a big a$& wind turbine on their property? The only reason I'd ever go off grid is to escape government and reliance on society. Hence you are still tapped into both even with solar and wind.

If the battery can be recharged with solar or wind power, living off the grid is about to become exceptionally easy.

If this is only a few hundred dollars, I suspect a large portion of the population will invest in one of these and sell their excess energy back to the grid they once paid into.

a reply to: MiddleClassWhiteBoy

There are degrees of self sufficiency and I am pretty sure they were refering to the enrgy grid in the Original Post as in ceasing reliance on large utility companies for electricity.

I think a battery that is servicable would be the way to go.

One big enough to run an average home a day but is not too big and bulky.

It will be interesting to see what voltage they choose.

a reply to: MiddleClassWhiteBoy

Well, yeah.

In Portland, at least. People in urban neighborhoods are placing wind turbines above their homes. A battery optimized to store energy in ways contemporary available batteries cannot (coupled with perhaps solar, depending on their location), would complete the package.

My wife's best friend and her husband currently live like this. They are surrounded by urban chaos yet their little lot is totally off the grid, garden and everything. This is a popular goal in Portland and other pockets in the the northwest.

Don't be surprised if you are the only sucker paying energy bills in a few years.

a reply to: Blackmarketeer

I had always assumed a fly wheel would be better for a stationary application, I presume this is a lot cheaper.

originally posted by: deadeyedick
I think a battery that is servicable would be the way to go.

One big enough to run an average home a day but is not too big and bulky.

I'm all for it, if he can sell enough batteries into home use, he can get the cost of his cars down.

And, the cost of home batteries will drop. I'd LOVE to be able to use the bottom 10 acres that's all deer stands now, plate a chunk of it over with solar cells, put in a "power house". I want to be able to run the house 100%, some tools, and the main or standby wells.

a reply to: Bedlam

It would fuel a new market for techs to service batteries and such.

They like us to think it would make some lose jobs but i do not buy that.

I say have every farm generating power and putting the extra back in to keep the grid up would keep all the folks at the elec co at work but would cut into the major suppliers.

I hope they have gotton more efficient with the converters

Wind is a very tricky one to harness though

A guy I know up here in Canada has solar power and an electric car he built out of a chev geo
His power bills are around the one dollar mark or less every month....His solar array tracks the sun throughout the day.....
he runs his whole operation on solar and batteries.....and his chevy Geo really kicks ass on acceleration.....

originally posted by: stirling
A guy I know up here in Canada has solar power and an electric car he built out of a chev geo
His power bills are around the one dollar mark or less every month....His solar array tracks the sun throughout the day.....
he runs his whole operation on solar and batteries.....and his chevy Geo really kicks ass on acceleration.....

A professor I know built himself an old VW Beetle into an electric car. It's pretty impressive for as heavy a body as the old VWs are.

I had an idea once for an all-in-one aquaculture greenhouse/wind silo self-sufficient homestead. One of these days I'll put one together I think. Maybe a Tesla battery is the missing piece of the puzzle.

I think we need more portable solar power, and cheaper solar panels that can run entire households.

I hope this new home battery is capable of powering our homes so we can power our appliances and turn off the electricity from power plants FTW!

originally posted by: FormOfTheLord
I think we need more portable solar power, and cheaper solar panels that can run entire households.

I hope this new home battery is capable of powering our homes so we can power our appliances and turn off the electricity from power plants FTW!

The battery just stores energy. You'd have to have enough panel and enough sun to run your house. You only have so much insolation at any location, and that's a max, you'll actually get less. So even the bestest most unicorn extruded panel EVAR won't get more than there is.

The battery just stores enough to run when the sun's not out or is at a bad angle, or you have clouds. Too many clouds, not enough insolation, too many rainy days, you're back on the grid.

originally posted by: Bedlam

originally posted by: FormOfTheLord
I think we need more portable solar power, and cheaper solar panels that can run entire households.

I hope this new home battery is capable of powering our homes so we can power our appliances and turn off the electricity from power plants FTW!

The battery just stores energy. You'd have to have enough panel and enough sun to run your house. You only have so much insolation at any location, and that's a max, you'll actually get less. So even the bestest most unicorn extruded panel EVAR won't get more than there is.

The battery just stores enough to run when the sun's not out or is at a bad angle, or you have clouds. Too many clouds, not enough insolation, too many rainy days, you're back on the grid.

That's what elliptical bikes are for! Seriously, I don't know why televisions, computers, and gaming consoles don't come with seats that require peddling to operate. The fridge should require about 100 calories worth of cranks to open, as well.

Could you imagine if Facebook required you to peddle and produce energy while you used it? We would go from the most obese nation to a nation filled with Lance Armstrongs and Jillian Micheals!

a reply to: Cuervo

Meh, we'll all be burning boron this time five years from now.