Thorfun

for me the battery is for usage at night. so I can power all the TVs, music players, lights, heating, DHW etc when the sun has gone down. then the next day use the excess PV to charge the battery up and do it all over again. I'm aware this won't work in the winter due to the lack of sun but, in my mind, this is perfect for what I want during the summer months.

it's important to some but not so important to others. for me on some things it's not important at all but on other things it is. e.g. we're having RWH which will never repay itself in a 100s of years at the current cost of mains water but we want to reduce our use of mains water so those that need the mains water more than us have it available to them. and some people just like new toys and tech to play with! I'm one of those and I get the feeling that @pocster is as well. obviously, budgets play a major consideration and some don't like to frivolously throw money away on things. personally, I want to enjoy my life while I can. having seen my brother suffer from heart attack and stroke at 45, my father pass away 3 years after being diagnosed with MND at 73 and my mother taking a massive downturn in her health due to heart failure at 76 I'm now thinking that life it too damn short to worry about stuff like ROI or payback period etc. As long as my kids have an education (and a habitable planet to live on!) and I can leave enough equity in my estate to help them when I finally go I'm all for enjoying it all now! I guess I'm very fortunate to be in the position financially to allow me to do this and others aren't and I get that. horses for courses and all that, right?

feels like it sometimes

assuming they get past the automatic defence systems that is (powered by my Powerwall 2 of course)

I watched that fully charged YouTube vid (assuming we're talking about the same one where Kryten get's his PW2 installed) and he did go on to state that the change over should've been a lot quicker than that. I will have a UPS for my mission critical stuff and things with HDDs so as to protect them. And don't forget that when the zombie apocalypse arrives and the main grid goes down myself and @pocster will be the ones with electricity still running while everyone else is cowering in the dark. ps. don't know the answer to the EPS single circuit or whole house. electrics baffle me.

that's not what the installer told me. he said the lights didn't even flicker when it changed over from a power cut. I've been meaning to get a new battery for my UPS for ages but I'm just a bit lazy sometimes.....

we've had 2 in the last 2 days. they weren't very long but enough to fully piss me off and have to go around a reset all the clocks, heating timer, reboot all my electronics etc. if SolarWatt bring this feature in by the time I'm ready to implement, e.g. the next 3-6 months, then I'll consider it. otherwise it's Tesla all the way for me. I guess I'm a bit of a fanboy at heart.

I've looked at Solar Watt as well and it certainly looks very interesting. but I was told but a renewable company that the SolarWatt is unable to provide emergency power in the case of a power cut but the Powerwall 2 can. which is why I'm looking at the Tesla.

we also have sandstone about 2m down and need to dig down over 3m for our basement. I will be leaving it to the groundwork company to figure out how best to go through it! I am hoping to retain the excavated stone though and try and get it made in to tiles for the patio or garden.

that's pretty darn cool.

@pocster how much did your battery charge today? I look forward to regular updates on this. I probably shouldn't be but I'm super excited for you!

love it

I've a feeling I'll be staring at that app constantly if/when I get my setup!

I think this whole green issue isn't a competition and shouldn't be treated as such. it's about the many doing it imperfectly rather than a few doing it perfectly. kudos to anyone who is doing whatever they can and I'm sure we'd all like to do more. for example, I'd love to have been able to afford an MBC twin-stud cellulose filled timber frame but just couldn't afford it. so I made a compromise to use some PIR in the wall make-up to get U-values where my ongoing energy consumption is reduced to offset the carbon in the PIR. it's not perfect but every little bit helps.

I've been trying to give this 3-phase thing a lot of thought but I get a bit lost when it comes to electricity. I know I will be running different things in the house from different phases, so this means I'll need to split the PV panels to different phases so that everything is the house has the potential to be run from PV. but then adding a battery to the mix complicates things though, right? as that is 1-phase I presume I need to make a decision as to what I want the battery to power as it won't be able to power everything in the house as they're on different phases. Also, I'm ok with a 3-phase car charger but why would I need a 3-phase AHSP? aren't they a lot more expensive that 1-phase? what benefit would that extra expense give me? (I should probably start my own thread with these questions really! but I guess it's all relevant here with the Powerwall 2/PV setup)

I asked for 3-phase and single-phase to be priced up as I have one EV already and plan to swap the wife's gas guzzler for another at some point in the future. plus she does a lot of needle work and has overlockers, embroidery machines, sewing machines etc running when working which could eventually be upgraded to larger machines. so when the DNO said the difference was about £20 between the two it was an easy decision to future proof our electricity connection. one of the most expensive parts to our new electricity connection will be the road closure to lay the cable underground. it's only a single track road so the local council charge a sh*t load to close the road. my challenge is to get the electricity company, Openreach and the water company to do the work at the same time so I only have to pay for one road closure. that should be fun. although, I've not paid or finalised the order yet so I hope it's still available when I finally get around to doing so! but I'm pretty sure no one else around here is putting in a new electricity supply so I'm sure the capacity will still be there in a month or two.

I could get one battery for each phase. ?

is my present walk-on glazing?

ha ha....no, just a new 3-phase connection going in. it was about £20 more expensive to get 3-phase over single-phase. so it made it a bit of a no-brainer really.

both battery and PV. already got quotes for both and I'm just weighing up the size of PV array. do I stick with something around 6kWp or just fill the entire roof and end up with 9.5kWp. I'm seriously leaning towards just filling the roof! (using man-maths) just think of the money I can save by not having the roof tiled. ? that's seriously impressively cheap motoring and I look forward to being able to utilise my proposed setup to get that sort of MPGe.

don't give a **** about investment. 0-60 in 3.9s does it for me. ?

I'm on your side for this one @pocster! I'm not getting the PW2 for any sort of financial return. I want to reduce my reliance on the grid and store the electricity I generate during the day so I can use it at night. I applaud you for your decision. plus, get a model 3. I love mine. ?

I'm very interested in this and your thoughts. we're planning on getting a Powerwall 2 as well. look forward to hearing how you get on with it. ?

but 42.28 mpg is still better than a 'gas guzzling diesel' twin cab, right? and when you're not towing you get that lovely electric drive that just can't be beaten. ? and also doing your bit for the planet at the same time! win-win in my books.

looks or cost weren't mentioned in the discussion, just that there wasn't anything that would do the job. I was just pointing out that there could be something that would work not too far away. ? btw, I love the looks of it (and yet don't at the same time!). it's definitely a bold move by Tesla and, as usual, they don't conform to 'standard' ideas.