Tesla - House Solar & Powerwall

We were going to put it in when we built our house in 2017. At the time it was just over $45k and with incentives, it actually was very promising. Then, Tesla put manufactuing on hold so we were unable to go that route. Now, I’ve done the calculator and The price has increased to $58k after incentives. With as efficient our house is and with our bills being less than $120/month on average for electricity for over 4,000 sq feet of conditioned space, the finances don’t make sense.

I concur wholeheartedly, depending on the plan it would take me 6.9 to nearly 9 years to break even. And if at any time you have to replace the storage system, that would also be pretty costly in it self.
 
There’s a lot of solar systems and becoming more popular where l live in Melbourne Australia we have a 3.2 kw system its initial cost of $3200 / and that was after subsidised by government , promotion .That,s on a small home approx 13 sq. ( sq = 10 sq metres in area ) we have had it approx 5 years it reduces our power bill approx half, to seasonal average of $ 100 aud. So $ 400 per annum.

Will fit batteries when they become more economical to purchase they are still quite expensive at moment .

Had some install issues , component issue which was fixed no cost, since then faultless .

Recommend solar , if it saves more and looks after all of us more .

Currently in the US, the federal government subsidizes 26% of the entire system. Part of the reason I went bigger than needed. Tesla also gives you a steep discount on the second Powerwall (from $10.5k per, to roughly $8k per).

I concur wholeheartedly, depending on the plan it would take me 6.9 to nearly 9 years to break even. And if at any time you have to replace the storage system, that would also be pretty costly in it self.

The whole system has a 10 year comprehensive warranty that includes the Powerwall, the panels are warrantied for 25 years to maintain 80% of their rated power. My hope is that the system last 20+ years.
 
Where is the cost estimator? Only see order on the site.

I have looked at both Ion, Namaste & Sun Run here in Colorado, Ion had the smallest system based on usage but no battery storage.
 
I was in Arizona this past week and while at Dinosaur Mountain I was looking at all the homes while on the tee boxes and no homes had solar. I started paying attention to more homes at other locations within the Scottsdale area and no one had solar. I wonder why. These were very nice homes and in a climate where you would think solar would be extremely popular. Just curious.
 
Where is the cost estimator? Only see order on the site.

I have looked at both Ion, Namaste & Sun Run here in Colorado, Ion had the smallest system based on usage but no battery storage.

If you click the “Order Now”, it takes you to the estimator. You don’t have to enter an email or login to get the estimate. It will ask for your address and average power bill.
 
Solar is fantastic on an individual home level. It can really reduce your electric bill.

You can't depend on it for a backup however. Even with a powerwall, it doesn't take long at all for the sun not to be shining and you're out of power. If you're truly wanting power backup for when the grid fails, a natural gas backup generator would be a better solution and a ton cheaper. (Or even a gas generator, properly wired)

The one thing I would have some concern about with a Tesla is a battery fire. Yes, they're rare, but if they happen, chances are your house is going to be a total loss. You don't put out a lithium-ion battery fire. You just let it burn. Chevy Bolt has a recall on all their cars. However, with material shortages it's going to take them a long time to get all the cars fixed. Until then, their recommendations are:
1). Don't charge your car inside
2). Don't charge your car overnight

In other words "charge it outside right when you want to be using it." Some solution.

While it's extremely rare, I wouldn't own an EV without getting confirmation from my insurance company that it would cover fire damage from a battery fire.
 
If you click the “Order Now”, it takes you to the estimator. You don’t have to enter an email or login to get the estimate. It will ask for your address and average power bill.
Figured that out and walked it through.

For my house it quoted me the same kw sized system as Ion (8.5kw) but interestingly the system from tesla includes 2 power wall, Ion only has the panels for the same price.

Ion has better financing but no battery.
 
Solar is fantastic on an individual home level. It can really reduce your electric bill.

You can't depend on it for a backup however. Even with a powerwall, it doesn't take long at all for the sun not to be shining and you're out of power. If you're truly wanting power backup for when the grid fails, a natural gas backup generator would be a better solution and a ton cheaper. (Or even a gas generator, properly wired)

The one thing I would have some concern about with a Tesla is a battery fire. Yes, they're rare, but if they happen, chances are your house is going to be a total loss. You don't put out a lithium-ion battery fire. You just let it burn. Chevy Bolt has a recall on all their cars. However, with material shortages it's going to take them a long time to get all the cars fixed. Until then, their recommendations are:
1). Don't charge your car inside
2). Don't charge your car overnight

In other words "charge it outside right when you want to be using it." Some solution.

While it's extremely rare, I wouldn't own an EV without getting confirmation from my insurance company that it would cover fire damage from a battery fire.

We have roughly 286 days of sun where I live. Our power outages are not storm related, instead it’s red flag outages or rolling blackouts. Red flag means it’s going to be super hot and there is a likely chance of increased afternoon winds. The utility will shut down so they don’t spark a fire at the worst possible time. Rolling blackouts are because of the huge draw in the grid when everyone is running their AC wide open. For us, batteries and solar are perfect.
 
Reviving this little beauty now that we’ve had our system over a year. Can’t begin to describe how much we have enjoyed it. It is largely overkill and we have plenty of capacity for adding an EV and the planned hot tub. Year to date we have generated 12.51 mWh and our house has only used 4.51 mWh. The rest has gone back to the grid. What I’ve found most curious is how essential the Powerwall is. Because so much of our consumption is A/C related, we draw max power in the 1-9p range with much of that being after solar is producing little to no power. That’s also when the utility charges most for energy. Over half our consumption comes from the battery.

I also signed up for Tesla’s Virtual Power Plant pilot program. It allows me to discharge battery power to support the grid during scenarios when the grid is overwhelmed. I can tell the battery how much to reserve and then share the rest to help out the grid. Or you can opt out and insure that your house will stay on regardless of how the grid is holding up.

Anyhow, just thought I’d give an update.
 
There may be other local alternatives to installing a solar system at your home if the cost or payoff is unattractive.

I was intrigued by the idea of having a solar panel system with batteries to be more environmentally friendly and also act as a backup to counteract the fairly short but frequent power outages that occur in my area. The power outages are mostly caused by wind and storm damage due to above ground power lines being affected by falling trees and tree limbs.

Those same trees that cause power outages also became the limiting factor for me with installing Solar because of the amount of tree cover shading my house. My house is in an area with large swaths of Maritime Forest comprised of a variety of Oaks but primarily Live Oak, Hickory, Long Leaf Pine, Cedar, Gum and Magnolia trees making up the predominant upper canopy.

Fortunately we are a member of a local Energy Co-op. When the Co-op installed a small solar farm a few years ago they offered each member the opportunity to buy Solar credits which helped to underwrite the cost of the solar farm installation. Each credit cost $25/month with a limit on how many credits each household could buy. We bought the maximum number of credits allowed and are happy that we did. Each month we earn about $37 for each credit, netting us about a 50% return on our energy investment which helps to offset our energy bill.

A collective system run by our co-op energy company has allowed us to participate in the Solar energy movement without having to make a big upfront investment in our home.

You may be able to participate in similar programs in your area with your energy provider.
 
There may be other local alternatives to installing a solar system at your home if the cost or payoff is unattractive.

I was intrigued by the idea of having a solar panel system with batteries to be more environmentally friendly and also act as a backup to counteract the fairly short but frequent power outages that occur in my area. The power outages are mostly caused by wind and storm damage due to above ground power lines being affected by falling trees and tree limbs.

Those same trees that cause power outages also became the limiting factor for me with installing Solar because of the amount of tree cover shading my house. My house is in an area with large swaths of Maritime Forest comprised of a variety of Oaks but primarily Live Oak, Hickory, Long Leaf Pine, Cedar, Gum and Magnolia trees making up the predominant upper canopy.

Fortunately we are a member of a local Energy Co-op. When the Co-op installed a small solar farm a few years ago they offered each member the opportunity to buy Solar credits which helped to underwrite the cost of the solar farm installation. Each credit cost $25/month with a limit on how many credits each household could buy. We bought the maximum number of credits allowed and are happy that we did. Each month we earn about $37 for each credit, netting us about a 50% return on our energy investment which helps to offset our energy bill.

A collective system run by our co-op energy company has allowed us to participate in the Solar energy movement without having to make a big upfront investment in our home.

You may be able to participate in similar programs in your area with your energy provider.
That's really cool
 
Got my first True Up “bill” from our local utility PG&E. They sent me a little more than $500 for the excess energy generated over the year. Then Tesla sent me another $180 for participating in the Virtual Power Plant(VPP) program.

Doesn’t completely bring the cost to regular electric bill level, but certainly narrows the gap.

Am definitely going to do the VPP more this year, last year I limited it drastically and probably only participated in 1/5 of what I could have. The VPP pays a huge premium during those times and it adds up quick!
 
All very good Ideas and I have looked into Solar. Unfortunatly because of where I live the amount of tree coverage in the Adirondack Park especially when living on one of the mountains or near a lake as I do Solar is just not practacal. The trees a so tall that in the Summer when we get most of our sun it hits my roof for aboyt 6 hours a day and thats when it is shining. In the winter the sun only shines about 25% of the time and then only acually hits my house for about 2hrs. As far as power outages go, we typically loose power anout 3 times a winter mostly due to heavy snows and wind and maybe once in the summer usually because of winds. The most recent power outage was about a week ago during a storm the resulted in 24 inches of snow and 28 hours of power outage and that an average outage. So the need here is a whole house Generaror. Unfortunatly they run on NG or Propane . Maybe someday new technology will get to the point that we can all use it, but right now its just not a reality for all of us.
 
Just had someone in neighborhood put in solar panels.
Looks like base some calculators available, it be 14 years before pay back.
I hope to be alive in 14 years.
Shame, I have a 22 x 28 garage that faces south unabated, full sun.
 
same here. I get a lot of tree coverage that I am not ideal candidate for solar.

One thing that I have noticed recently on other folks houses. the solar panels that do not have the trim around the edges (like the ones I see on Teslas- nice trim) and perhaps the cheaper option - I have noticed a ton of birds making their homes underneath the solar panels. On one house I have seen quite a few birds popping out from under there. This could cause damage to the roof overtime. Invest in some good trim around those solar panels.
 
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