How To Power Your Home With A Hacked Tesla Battery

H

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
This sounded like a great idea...until I got to the part where it said "one wrong move means instant death." :eek:

Employing nothing more than a battery the size of a single mattress, some unfathomable technological wizardry, a year of his time and $20,000, Jason Hughes has managed to store energy from his solar-power system , meaning he can blow-dry his hair, charge his mobile phone, and stick the kettle on after Better Call Saul , all thanks to an out of whack Tesla Model S.
Click to expand...
 
Well, rather than buying a $100k car, and risking death and your warranty by hacking the battery, they ARE coming out with a home version soon...
 
I'd rather get some Nickel Iron ones that seem to last basically forever as long as you maintain them. Their main drawback is the weight, but why would you care in your house?
 
Not only do you have the cost of the battery, every time you charge/discharge the battery you waste some of the power. It's actually more efficient/cost effective to feed the excess power back into the grid, unless you need to power your home during a blackout.
 
nutzo said:
It's actually more efficient/cost effective to feed the excess power back into the grid, unless you need to power your home during a blackout.
Click to expand...
That's only if you wanna be part of the grid, man!
 
Hmm, a quick look at wholesale solar shows a 200 amp-hour battery for about $230, sealed AGM batteries, so about 70 of those would be equivalent to a Tesla battery pack, or about $16k to get the same stuff as his $20k did, and you don't have to hack anything, just wire it up.
 
TroubleMagnet said:
I'd rather get some Nickel Iron ones that seem to last basically forever as long as you maintain them. Their main drawback is the weight, but why would you care in your house?
Click to expand...

Nickel iron FTW!
I am not so sure about the reliability of Tesla's stuff. I know in my old laptop it was crap, as well as my li-ion power tools (never again!, nicad or nimh)
The super-battery sounds good, but is it reliable?
BTW Nickel Iron batteries are also good hydrogen producers, so you could harness that for your hydrogen Toyota.
Just add water and sun!
 
nutzo said:
Not only do you have the cost of the battery, every time you charge/discharge the battery you waste some of the power. It's actually more efficient/cost effective to feed the excess power back into the grid, unless you need to power your home during a blackout.
Click to expand...

Not all power companies participate in those buyback programs. Here in Georgia you would just be giving the power company free energy.
 
robcreepy said:
Not all power companies participate in those buyback programs. Here in Georgia you would just be giving the power company free energy.
Click to expand...

Yeah, usually it's only in the states that have forced their power companies to do so through regulation. Unregulated power companies have no incentive to do this, as they want to sell you as much power as possible, not buy it from you.

Here in Massachusetts we are somewhere in between. The power buyback requirement exists, but you can't get time of use billing unless you use some absolutely ridiculously large amount of power (3,000 kWh per month I believe).

I mean I have a 60" plasma running almost all the time, two overclocked enthusiast desktops a normal desktop and two HTPC's, a dual socket enterprise server with 12 hard drives running 24/7, and am thus a pretty heavy electricity user (for a non sun belt area) and I don't think I've ever broken 600 kWh in a month.

The 3,000 kWh minimum makes time of use billing pretty much useless here, as the only users who are big enough are going to be businesses, but businesses operate mostly during peak hours anyway, and thus don't want TOU.
 
Zarathustra[H];1041503746 said:
Yeah, usually it's only in the states that have forced their power companies to do so through regulation. Unregulated power companies have no incentive to do this, as they want to sell you as much power as possible, not buy it from you.

Here in Massachusetts we are somewhere in between. The power buyback requirement exists, but you can't get time of use billing unless you use some absolutely ridiculously large amount of power (3,000 kWh per month I believe).

I mean I have a 60" plasma running almost all the time, two overclocked enthusiast desktops a normal desktop and two HTPC's, a dual socket enterprise server with 12 hard drives running 24/7, and am thus a pretty heavy electricity user (for a non sun belt area) and I don't think I've ever broken 600 kWh in a month.

The 3,000 kWh minimum makes time of use billing pretty much useless here, as the only users who are big enough are going to be businesses, but businesses operate mostly during peak hours anyway, and thus don't want TOU.
Click to expand...

Just looked up my bill.

Peaked at about 750 kWh last year during air conditioning season.

Last month was pretty typical for the winter at ~450 kWh.
 
Zarathustra[H];1041503758 said:
Just looked up my bill.

Peaked at about 750 kWh last year during air conditioning season.

Last month was pretty typical for the winter at ~450 kWh.
Click to expand...

Must be nice... my peak was 3939 kWh back in July of 2012 :eek:

Last month's was 1220 kWh.. and that is middle the winter here in Houston (which means we ran the air conditioning about 1/3 of the month). 2400 sq.ft house with a few things running; 3 servers at @ 100W idle each, 3 low power desktops (which go to sleep when not in use), Dell 2848 switch. Nothing really major IMO... pretty sure it is just the AC and lights that kill our bill every month (just can't get the family to turn them off).

As for electricity buy-back programs.. is it even worth it since more states seem to want to start charging fees to feed back into the grid anyways?

I would love to go solar.. but not until I can figure out where all the electricity is going in the first place... and move to a cooler environment ;)
 
farscapesg1 said:
Must be nice... my peak was 3939 kWh back in July of 2012 :eek:

Last month's was 1220 kWh.. and that is middle the winter here in Houston (which means we ran the air conditioning about 1/3 of the month). 2400 sq.ft house with a few things running; 3 servers at @ 100W idle each, 3 low power desktops (which go to sleep when not in use), Dell 2848 switch. Nothing really major IMO... pretty sure it is just the AC and lights that kill our bill every month (just can't get the family to turn them off).

As for electricity buy-back programs.. is it even worth it since more states seem to want to start charging fees to feed back into the grid anyways?

I would love to go solar.. but not until I can figure out where all the electricity is going in the first place... and move to a cooler environment ;)
Click to expand...

Well, that's why I said for a non-sun belt area. :p

I know you guys use a lot of power for AC down there. On the flip side that makes solar power a good alternative, as you have power draw and solar power production at the same time!

For comparison, around here in the greater Boston area, I don't think I've ever seen a home (at least one that wasn't a condo in a modern high rise) that had central air. it just isn't a thing.

I pop in the window units in the summer. They are usually only on in the rooms I plan on using. (So bedrooms are off all day, but get turned on a couple of hours before bed, living areas are off all day, but are turned on using timers a couple of hours before I get home from work)

We have the opposite problem. Heating in the winter can be pricey The worst is electric heat. That shit will bankrupt you. Home heating oil is expensive but manageable. Natural gas is pretty much the most affordable solution. We luckily have natural gas, and heating our 2100sqft house with decent (but not great) insulation has been just short of $300 a month this winter.

Most homes around here have hot water->radiator heating systems, so no ducts for forced air, so even if you wanted to retrofit in central air, you'd probably have to run ducts.

Most homes here are older construction (just because all the space was filled up a long time ago, and once something is built it usually isn't torn down without a reason)

Our current house was built in 1909, but luckily was renovated and re-insulated in the late 80s/early 90s some time.

My last house was built ~1850 (records are bad from that time). it was reinsulated in the 2000's but did not have modern windows, so it was drafty, and the tall ceilings made heating EXPENSIVE.

The typical home on the market around here will be built anywhere from the 60s through the early 80s. Newer construction is not as common.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top