A load off my mind
I have to be honest: I want one!
I am sitting at home on a rainy Sunday morning, waiting for the oven to switch itself on to cook the Sunday roast. We’re having it late today as the 45th Ipswich to Felixstowe vintage car run is due to go past our place in ninety minutes or so. It’s a great event, and though the weather may dampen the grip, the enthusiasm will be high and all will enjoy the ride past!
Two years ago, this was our first weekend in our new house and watching the rally was a very welcome break from unpacking boxes. 🙂
That’s not what I would really want. I saw the news of Tesla’s Powerwall and thought, finally, something to enable us, in Blighty, to make good use of the Sun’s energy which is freely deployed while we’re at work, school or out for the day.
Why do you care?
We got solar panels installed late August last year and despite it being winter, we’ve managed to collect 2.5MW of electricity, which is doing great things feeding it into the grid, but unless we’re totally organised and got the washing machine, dish washer and hot water running off timers the only item in the house when it’s sunny is my server.
It would be great to store the peak in batteries and run the cooker in the evening or even charge the Leaf.
Sounds good. So when is it arriving?
Of course, it’s not. 🙁
Like the Roadster the release is initially in the USA. But it is really competitively priced. Like many, even with the grants and feed in tariffs, it wasn’t until the price came down that it made sense for us to get solar panels. Given our life style (you know, out of the house during daylight hours) it seemed like a nice thing to have but not an essential.
A £2,000 Tesla Powerwall (read battery that charges up from the sun and releases when the solar panels are no longer providing the power directly) makes that useful and the return on the investment should be within two or three years. Teamed with a Combined heat and power unit during the winter and the potential for going off grid looks good rather than an absurd pipe dream.
Tesla are well placed to do this. They have access to battery technology: their chief research has focused on this for their electric cars.
Maybe other car manufacturers will follow suit and beat Tesla to it in Europe?
Posted: May 3rd, 2015 under 42, Driving off the grid.