***Please Read *** Hi everyone, just to say I know I made a few mistakes in this video with regards to kWh and kW. The usable capacity of the battery is 13.5 kWh, the max output is 5kW at any one time. Apologies for the confusion and thanks to those of you that kindly pointed this out. I'll be recording a follow up video soon and hope to avoid those mistakes this time - but no guarantees!
With two powerwalls you can have a system that handle bigger loads which is what some of the UA-camrs I have watched have done. In some cases they have more than two, not that a have the space for more than two or the budget for that matter.
Given the number of subs etc I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of this video. As others have mentioned, you are a great speaker and did a great job with this video. It was very informative and I appreciate the time you put in to creating it. Welldone and thanks! :D (p.s. ive subbed, keep up the great work).
Thanks so much for the kind comment and subscribing 🙂. I’ve got an update video in the works looking back over the last 9 months - hopefully you’ll find it useful too (though there will be more discussion of stats and screen captures in that rather than description of the powerwall 🙂
Another excellent, informative video review that is very well presented. Your delivery is engaging and easy to understand. I appreciate your time and effort producing it. Thank you.
It is well worth it. Had a 6.4kw system and pw2 installed a month ago. I’ve only used 2 days worth of electricity (my average daily use) since then. Amazing figures for October in my eyes. Slight correction to your vid, I’m on the Octopus Agile outgoing tariff so am being paid for the electricity I export to the grid. Good vid, thank you. 👍👍
Thanks for your comment, I thought I did mention that power suppliers may pay you but the actual Government backed feed in tariff had ended - so what you do get paid will be much lower. Either way, thank you very much for pointing that out 🙂. Glad you found it useful, a 6.4kw system is very nice, we are a fair bit below that but I imagine that this time of year is quite something - we aren't producing much at all at the moment in London!
@@HamerReviews ah, I must’ve missed that bit. I think it’s called the SEG and my export rates change depending on the demand. My system is currently producing about 100 watts so I think the worst day so far. A good day in October produced 22kwh. Looking forward to seeing what it does on a good summers day.
I’d expect in the region of 40kwh if not more - and no worries - I might be wrong I just thought I did. We’ve had a day in October we produced 1.3kwh all day! Madness 😂
@@jimhailwood2873 Hi Jim, how do you find the power wall after using it for 1 year? I'm based in London and would like to find out if it's all worth it? thanks in advance
@RustyRocket, we’ve had the PowerWall at my parents place for 2 years now and it’s still going strong, made a big impact on their energy use and has been pretty much faultless in operation and has smoothed over a few power cuts. Overall they are delighted. I’m sure Jim might be able to add some colour too 🙂
If you put in a solar system after FIT then any excess power can be sold on an export contract. This doesn't have to be to the same provider as you buy from. Rates range from 3 to 6p. Also some providers offer contracts where they can take power from your storage to a level you set at a higher price in peak periods.
Thanks for your comment, indeed, we have seen the Octopus one, but don't want to give up control of our hardware. There's a good point on the export - which is something other people have mentioned - and we'll be addressing that in a future video 🙂 Really appreciate your comment - hope you found the content useful.
@@HamerReviews Was useful to see positive feedback on the Tesla system. My system is getting installed later this month. 15 Kwp Solaredge with the Tesla battery and around 120kwh/week into the car. Was temped by the the LG Chem battery but from what I could find out would be bit more restrictive for me wanting at times high output and ease of switching the system to solar or low cost charging.
What a great video, well done, and great presenting, we are soon installing the Tesla Powerwalls, so glad to see some positive reviews like yours. Keep up the good work. 👍🏻😀
I had a 4kw system installed nearly 5 years ago, I’m fortunate I earn 13.8p per kw produced and was the best investment I’ve made. If I was to buy a new house I don’t think I’d buy solar again though due to no feed in tariff.
Yep there’s definitely a balance to meet, that being said, panels are getting more and more efficient, and as energy prices rise there will probably be a time when it makes more sense than now. That being said, we’ve hugely reduced our energy costs to the point where we should break even on it, so it’s all about personal circumstances and use case 🙂
Great video, clear and concise. I have a few questions. 1) Who did you use to install it? Would like to see a known entity rather than google adverts. 2) My house came equipped with Solar Panels as new build in 2016. 3) I’m FIT registered so can i ‘dump’ the Powerwall to the grid and cash in? 4) Can you be offline with this system? 5) No more questions 😀
Heya, We used a private company - afraid I don't have his details but it was just a local installer. I don't think you can dump from the powerwall to the grid, that'll only work if you hit 100% capacity and then it sends excess to the grid. You can and can't be offline with the system. You solar panels will need to be commissioned every morning that actually requires power. I believe if you don't let the battery hit 0% you should be able to cycle through to the next day but it's not ideal. The system will work however with no grid electricity.
Very Interesting video, thanks for sharing. I had a grid tied 3kW solar PV system installed a little over a year ago (after Feed In Tariffs were stopped) & I have been monitoring the kWh output since installation. By July this year I came to the conclusion that I was feeding far more kWh into the grid (that I was not being paid for) than I was taking from the grid, and paying for. Not a good idea. I considered two options. A) install batteries to store the surplus. I was somewhat disappointed by the capital investment needed for this option, and your video has just reinforced this aspect, or B) attempt to find a gas and electricity supplier who will pay me for the power I feed into the grid. It took a while but I eventually found a company that pays me for my surplus. Obviously not as much as I pay them for the power I use from the grid, but there is a reasonable probability that I will "break even" between April and September. We'll see....
Yep, that makes sense! For us Power independence was part of the argument too but you really need to commit to make a PowerWall worth it. Part of it for us is also our energy tariff a charge in the night when cheap then use stored electricity in the day. Your logic seems spot on re your use case
Great video and a worthy view. I have a question and a really sticky point with Tesla and that is the fuse box/consumer unit created in the gateway (circuit breakers and fuses) being installed in a combustible construction (namely plastic)? This seems to completely negate the electrical regulations regardless whether Tesla say its fine ( but isn't fine with the view on electrical regs) what's your thoughts on this?
Again, great video, amazing presentation. I wish I could just reel it off like that 👏🏻 Can you check my thinking? If I had a Tesla power wall 2 and a 5kW generator, could I theoretically charge the power wall in 2.7 hours? I know it won’t be that efficient, but I’m just trying to make sure I understand the relationship between kWh and kw. Also, do you have any idea how long it would take to charge? I’m nervous about asking these questions because I should be talking about solar! Hopefully that will come too.
Heya, thanks for your compliment first of all 🙂. So in terms of your thinking. The PowerWall regulates its charging in order to extend battery life, so despite having 5kW you won’t charge that fast. This PowerWall charges from the grid overnight and on average it starts charging on off peak at 00:00 and it usually completes its cycle around 03:50 ish. If you were doing this during the day, and it was hot and the PowerWall was warm I imagine it might take longer? But I’m not sure as we usually don’t charge from the grid much during the summer and if we did it’d still be in the dead of night. I also don’t know the logistics of charging it from a generator. You’d have to trick it into thinking your generator was the grid and I’m not sure whether that can be done or not (I literally have zero idea, I may be creating a problem where there isn’t one). I hope that’s useful but sorry if it’s not everything you wanted to know, not my total area of expertise I’m afraid!
@@HamerReviews no that’s great! Thank you. I’m trying to create a system that could handle a month without power. I know it seems very unlikely! Though maybe much more likely these days.
@@HowToSandAFloor a month without power? That’s a big ask and kind of confusing why you wouldn’t throw solar into the mix. I think homebrew solutions would be much more effective and cost efficient in the scenario you mention to be honest.
@@HowToSandAFloor the solar bit is cheaper than my PowerWall on the install I’m doing. A high quality LG Neon panel will cost you £250-300 each, 10 of those would be a 4.4kW system - then you’d need an inverter - let’s say you go for a high quality solar edge ballpark around a grand. That’s let’s say £4000-5000 plus installation if you aren’t doing it yourself… the PowerWall itself costs about £8-10k installed…
Circa £9k outlay just for the powerwall. £5k+ for panels on top. For the average homeowner it's a 12-15 year timeline to just break even at which point there will be inevitable maintenance/replacement costs which will push that timeline out even further. I'd like to see this sort of technology become viable but struggling to see how it can at these price points. Maybe when EV becomes more affordable this will make this proposition more viable, unfortunately I don't see it currently for average UK homeowner.
@@HamerReviewsMy energy renewal deal is actually significantly down on what is was a year ago. Wholesale energy prices over the last 2 years have been falling. I have a 4 bedroom house energy bill circa £100 a month (some of that Gas). It's fairly simple maths for most UK households. I don't see how there is any payback in at least 10 years for a typical household. The battery capacity presumably degrades over time and some components will potentially need replacement - eg like the inverter. I'd love the price point to be there but I don't see a sharp spike in energy costs over the next 5-10 years as renewals are now finally cheaper than conventional energy sources (and getting cheaper as technology improves).
It’s a fair argument. Our usual power costs are much higher, and equally we run a highly efficient air source heat pump rather than gas. I think it may pay off, but not quickly, though part of our reasoning is that it’s more environmentally friendly. We are lucky in that this wasn’t a purely financially motivated decision. The battery is warranted for 10 years so we aren’t too worried there, as is the inverter and the Panasonic panels for over 20. I guess we shall see. Thanks for your comment though, it’s great to hear what others have to say 🙂
I hate to say it but having owned an almost identical system you're absolutely right. You can't go in to this thinking purely financially because it doesn't work out and probably won't for many years. You've got to also be in it for the 'feel good' factor and almost see it as a hobby at which point the cost becomes much more tolerable. One thing people always seem to forget about when calculating the payback is what their outlay would've earned if it was just sat in a bank. Even at today's terrible rates you can get 1.5% in a fixed rate saving account so your £15k would actually be £19k in 15 years time. If you stuck it in a low risk investment fund at 4% it would be £27k...... Suddenly having £15k sat on your roof isn't so great. Also bear in mind that this payback is based on rates of 20p peak and 10p off peak. You can beat this quite comfortably which makes the payback even longer. I may sound negative but I'm a complete solar/powerwall/eco nerd. I love all of this kind of thing but I'm also a realist with a calculator.... (and too much time on my hands......)
Good video. I have a Tesla power wall and works great. If you are considering one also look at the Octopus energy agile tariff where the rates change hourly and you can charge the battery at the cheapest rate. My power bills have been reduced by 45%.
Thanks for sharing, we've considered it but don't want to give over control of our power wall as we do also use it in 'backup' duty but agreed it's a good option for some 🙂
Its biggest drawback is not being able to schedule grid charges by times for instance the Octopus Agile time of use tariff requires choosing half hour increments by doing that saves you a bundle . I have a Powervault 3 and technically the software isnt as good but the usp is the scheduling.my average unit cost for electricity is 5.24p in the winter and 1.24 currently as Solar has kicked in
Great if you have the spare money to invest. I think money would be better spent insulating your home if it needs it and looking at your electricity use by possibly having smart tariffs. I think the younger could not afford it and the old would be dead before the system covered it costs, just a thought . I hear people say their energy use is very low but forget to mention they have spent £10k plus to achieve this .
Yep people need to look a their situation and choose based on that. This system was installed at the same time as an air source heat pump, underfloor heating, new insulation and solar panels so total cost was very high but obviously there was more to it than just the battery. I’ve since moved and will be doing the same install at my new home with Tesla battery and better solar panels.
Thanks for that very well presented and factual review. I'm looking at the same system for my 4kw system. Just need enough back up power to keep the Solar and Log gasification Biomass boiler operational during a power cut...also save a little on storage/feed in here and there😉👍
Hamer Reviews 👍 I’m pretty sold on one I have to say. Beats a dirty diesel generator that’s non compatible with the solar and doesn’t store spare power etc There appears to be a lot of advantages to having one. Look good too as a bonus.
how do you heat your home? Do you need to take out all existing radiators and gas boiler and replace them with electric ones? How would that affect the power usage?
Wasn’t really interested in doing that on this system. So much of it depends on the panels; and they are standard Panasonic ones. This is a review of the PowerWall not the ins and outs of what it can save. I have just contracted someone to install a similar system on my new home where I plan to go into more details because we are doing some things a bit differently (NNE facing panels on one side of roof, bifacial 440w panels etc). So it might make more sense on that series of videos, but for this system, cost wasn’t the only driver.
April 2021 we had fitted 3.5KW solar panel system fitted to the house, September 2021 I ordered the Powerwall which arrived Oct 2022. So far happy with the system but it is only a few days but I have a couple of questions hopefully you can advice. No1 Can I have a second battery fitted to the system I already have and can I also add further solar panels to my 3.5kw system to help produce power to the battery quicker, especially in the autumn and winter months. No2 Does the Powerwall need a yearly service. Ohh must say great video and thank you for putting it on line. Regards Colin
We used a third party, the same local company that did our Solar install did the Tesla as well. Hope that helps, please do subscribe if you found the video useful
Would this power bank run a 14kw combi boiler if so how long on a full charge and how many and what power solar panels needed to charge? Great video by the way. Norman
Hi there, no easy way to answer your question. So when you say run a combi boiler you presumably mean just the electric part, then yes absolutely. How long for, no idea. You need to work out how much power it uses and then you can work it out. The PowerWall has a capacity of 13.5kwh and it can deliver up to 5kW in one go (but this load would only last 2.2 hours so obviously you wouldn’t want that high a sustained load. As for solar. Also a case of how long a piece of string is. In the winter, to charge it fully in the UK you’d need A LOT of solar panels. If you needed it charged every day you’re probably talking 20kwp of panels. This is because in the winter we just don’t get long enough days. In the whole of December the 4.2kwp solar system that is attached to this PowerWall produced 60kwh, not even enough to charge the PowerWall 5 times - though that didn’t matter as the power was used up anyway. I’m the summer a ‘standard’ G98 3.68kwp system would happily fully charge this every day depending on your usage. Last caveat is that the waiting list for the PowerWall is currently around a year… You may find this video useful 🙂 ua-cam.com/video/izfJrymxLhA/v-deo.html
Great review, and helps to have some figures on cost and installation. I had been discussing with my brother about a simpler setup using a portable power station and portable solar array to provide limited emergency power for things like keeping the gas boiler going in the possible event of a power outage from the grid, something thats looking possible these days. I have enough power banks to charge phones and run USB LED lights, but a power outage in winter would leave the house somewhat cold. Thankfully we do have a coal fire, but even the cost of coal is getting expensive, and isn't the greenest solution to heat your house. My brother suggested a Tesla Powerwall, and I figured the cost would be an easy 4 figures, vs my mid 3 figure idea. It's a shame Tesla don't offer a cheaper power wall, say at £2,500 plus installation for one that generates say 8kWh. That would be more my budget for such an idea.
Hi there. I can definitely see the appeal of a smaller PowerWall. Given the shortages I doubt we‘ll see one for a while. You can’t forget Tesla is an ultra premium solution, companies like givenenergy are far cheaper. Interestingly SolarEdge now offer a 4.8kWh battery along their 10kwh one - so there’s clearly some interest in the market to do what you suggest 🙂
Great review, but it would be really helpful if you took care to distinguish between kW and kWh - they are not interchangeable! "An immersion heater might use 3kWh" - well yes, it will if it's a 3kW immersion heater and you have it on for an hour. On the other hand it will use 6kWh if you leave it on for 2 hours. Ditto the oven. Leave both on for a couple of hours and your 13.5kWh PW2 capacity is soon depleted. "We have a 4kWh solar system" - no, you have a 4kWp system, which under ideal circumstances will generate 4kWh in an hour of unbroken sunshine, minus conversion inefficiencies. Sorry to quibble but these distinctions matter and you risk confusing the unwary. Keep up the good work!
Thanks, it’s something others made me aware of - the pinned comment should explain my mistakes 🙂 one of those things - units of power were not my expertise 😉
Hi Chris - did you put much thought into string inverter or solaredge? I'm looking at putting in a 5kW system and whether to spend the additional £1k on Solaredge. Thanks
I have to be honest, we had a good independent installer who recommended it to us, we followed his advice and have been very pleased so far. Sorry I can’t help more on that!
Yes and no. I don’t think there’s currently control to send power to grid but there are smart tariffs that do this such as from Tesla direct and Octopus
Although the feed in tariff has gone, your wrong there is SEG that you sell unused sola to the grid, all energy companies with over 100,000 customers has to have a SEG tariff & can be different to your current supplier, but that is only 0.05p per kwh, but atleast there is something.
It’s tempting but we know some people with them that have found customer service a nightmare. I think some of the challenger energy providers a bit risky.
@@HamerReviews I've been researching the subject (hence watching your video!) and apparently the company you sell your electricity back to the grid through doesn't have to be the same as your energy supplier. "Please note that there is no requirement for the SEG licensee to be the same company as your energy supplier. You can choose to use separate companies for your SEG export payments, electricity supply and your gas supply if you wish." Source: www.ofgem.gov.uk/environmental-programmes/smart-export-guarantee-seg/generators I enjoyed your video and found it clear and helpful, but was hoping for a bit more on the economics of the Powerwall purchasing decision - e.g. how long it's projected to pay for itself in your case.
You said there are two uses for a Powerwall but there is a third: decarbonise your electricity usage/ home. You can use a battery to supply the power to your home when demand on the grid is high and the electricity is coming from carbon resources, in the UK that’s the 4ish to 7pm ish peak.
De-carbonise? Don't you mean off-peak resevoir, so buy cheap overnight and fill it... It doesn't mean you burn less carbon, it just means you help to make use of any peaks in production and normalise the demand curves.
@@mwnciboo no, I do mean deCarbonise. If you look overnight electricity, or even just not 4-7pm electric, tends to have less “carbon intensity”. So you can choose to charge a battery with electricity generated from low carbon sources and use it when the carbon intensity is high. Yes, many people only see this as an economic argument, but some people with solar panels and electric cars are trying to minimise their carbon footprint and using a battery to time shift to electricity with a lower carbon intensity is one of the ways one can be responsible for burning less carbon.
It's certainly something for people to consider, personally, it's better value as an owner to use them slightly differently, but it's absolutely something that can be done with the scheduling function.
@@glider51 That is PV Storage to move your generation to a resevoir that you can utilise overnight at a 1:1 ratio rather than the 1:3 ratio you get when you generate to the grid e.g For every 3000 Kwh you generate into the Grid, you only get credited 1000 Kwh back, due to the price differential and only if the price stays the same. A PV storage allows to keep a permanent, 13.5 Kwh, and sell of the excess knowing its unlikely you will need to buy back. The Carbon argument is a nuanced one and misleading... Lithium Ion Batteries are horrific for both the environment and energy production, same with Solar panels. Yet here in the UK we talk of things like electrically heating houses, but increasingly won't allow wood burning - yet Trees whilst they grow help take Carbon out the atmosphere and give Oxygen...When people talk of Green Energy - and trot out the decarbonisation piece, it is never in tandem with Lithium Salt polution in Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia. www.wired.co.uk/article/lithium-batteries-environment-impact It is an unbalanced lens to judge the wholistic impact, from a carbon perspective, yes it uses less carbon for energy production, but what about the other environmental impacts.
Hi very informative video a pleasure to listen to you speak . I wonder if you've ever come across the following message when changing your charging times using the Tesla app " failed to save time of use settings ". This has been appearing recently ( only the last day or so ) when changing my powerwall 2 over night charge times. I'm at a loss. Any thoughts?
A couple of suggestions: 1- The video showed that the edge of your roof is probably shading all the solar panels adjacent to it. You might benefit by lifting your solar panels to where they clear the shading issue. In addition, some panels showed bird droppings, and this will, also, affect your solar production. 2- Your electrical cabinet showed loose cables, you might want to ask your installer to place these inside electrical conduit. Besides these two issues, you have a nice, clean installation with good components. I am curious regarding the electrical consumption for cooking, hot water, and space heating. Could you share some consumption numbers?
I needed a while to digest this, but thank you for your comment! There are some structural / and planning challenges with regards to lifting them - but those panels do indeed need a clean! We usually do it once a month. Thanks for the note on our cables in the cabinet, this was installed during a massive refurb and extension and due to COVID we aren't totally finished so will pick this up with the electrician. I have no issue sharing some consumption numbers, but not sure I have the detail you are looking for... what did you have in mind?
I've looked at this many times, the Tesla Powerwall 2 wou;dn't pay for itself until about or just after the time it's warranty expires. It wouldn't pay for itself from my calculations. It's a bit too expensive really considering if you look at LG Chem it's about half the price. Plus in winter, it's a bit poor when my 4kW solar PV system produces like 1kWh a day. If you have economy 7 however, it might be worth it but I can't seem to find a single energy provider in East Anglia that will let me swap from a regular power tariff to an economy 7 i don't know why.
I know what you mean, everyone needs to make their own choices as to whether it's worth it for them. For us, we're very happy. Good luck with your future setup! 🙂
Hi. I have an ASHP - my electricity bill has gone through the roof - however I’ve got in my refurbishment budget to add solar panels. Would love to discuss further if I should add on a Tesla power pack on top of the battery I’m getting
It’ll continue working, you won’t necessarily get data from it but it’ll continue to work. The PowerWall also has cellular connection built in so it can also use that to call home but it will continue to work even without that. I’m not sure if that’d be the case for longer than 30 days.
1:23 I'm gonna be a stickler because I studied batteries at university - 13.5kWh is the energy capacity of the battery, power is a rate of energy transfer, measured in watts :p So with the appliances, a heater will use about 3kW (kilowatts), in an hour such a heater would use 3kWh (3 kilowatt hours) of energy. Nice video, did you do any kind of financial modeling to determine payback time etc?
That is actually really interesting, thank you for your comment! I’m terms of financial modelling, our rough model based on current prices is 18 years but it’s a wait and see to be honest and doesn’t take into account other things like the air source heat pump
@@HamerReviews interesting, that does sound about right - are you using a timee of use tariff? there will def be some interesting ones popping up in coming years!
We have, but after investing the best part of £20k we don’t like the idea of handing over control of our powerwall to a third party, which is required as part of the plan.
Great video but where's the optional Doberman guarding it so that the local scrotes don't lift it off the wall in the night! 😂 Hopefully the price on these will trend down just like solar PV over the past few years.
Would love a Doberman, though I’d be very impressed if they get that over the 8 foot wall given it weighs 120+kg and will probably electrocute them in the process... we installed it before we built the wall 😉
Great video, you’ve convinced me choose Tesla when I’ve saved enough funds for it. I believe now that you can’t get a Tesla Powerwall unless you go for Tesla solar panels, but as I don’t have any yet that won’t be a problem.
@@HamerReviews Interesting to know though when i last looked into this I did like the look of the Tesla solar panels visually wise compared to the rest of the solar panels on the market.
To be honest with you, there's zero flood risk where it's located, I can't see any risks there. We are on a slope, I can't imagine water ever getting that high. Also, it's pretty much waterproof so no real worries.
Getting kW and kWh mixed up. A 3kW immersion heater will drain those batteries in 13.5/3 hours, so maybe just run it for 30 minutes before your shower and then turn it off. A 1kW tumble dryer can be run 13.5/1 hours, or 13 and a half hours, and who does that? The real question is, will 13.5kWh last until the panels charge it up again, which depends on how much energy your house uses in a day, and will one day of sunshine fully charge the batteries? Winter sunshine and cloudy days are a whole new ballgame. Also FIT payments based on an export guesstimate of half your production may be a better deal than an actual export meter that measures how much is left after your batteries take what they want.
Hi Christoph, might you know the answer to a question I have? I’m fortunate to have a feed in tariff of 41p / Kw, if I were to move to the Tesla Power plan would I lose the FIT in place of the flat rate 11p?
Great vid! I'm about to fit a 4kw solar PV+battery and a heat pump. Does the battery still get juice from the solar with the heatpump running? Also in London!
When it’s very cold, no, so below 5-7C it gets minimal electricity from solar just due to the heat pump zapping more. BUT, we find our heat pump doesn’t need to run all the time, so actually, it does get topped up. In the colder months we run the battery in energy savings mode so it charges on cheap off peak over night is 100% by 7 AM and then discharging until around 12/1 after which it tends to charge a bit till sundown. Hope that helps.
Thanks for sharing your view on the PW2. Can I ask about drawing down the battery stored power to your home. If you have heavy loads drawing power (dishwasher/washing machine/showers) at the same time, is there a limit at which the PW2 will stop supplying the house and switch to grid even for a short while? Do you have to change some habits on usage for the battery to continue to supply the house and use most of 13.5Kw? Also, can you draw down 100% depth of discharge?
You can draw down 100% but it does keep a bit in reserve I believe. It shows as 100%. There is a limit, I think max draw is 4-5kwh we can run Hob and washing machine at same time but not the oven if just on battery power
Great video, thanks. However I am puzzled why you had your power wall installed outside, as these batteries are known to fall off the edge of a cliff in terms of charging and discharging efficiency when the temperatures drop in winter. Can you comment on this? Regards Peter
It’s partially covered, for us it’s also about safety, I’m sure Tesla do a good job but mistakes happen, if we encounter one we’d prefer it goes up in smoke outside rather than in our home. Also it can be a little noisy. Given this was installed in a semi detached house in london, an outside is two made more sense for us. We’ve not seen massive issues in the winter when it comes to performance
@@HamerReviews thank you for you quick reply. Yes, I’ve heard of the Tesla power wall bursting into flames, but with today’s media you can bet it’s an isolated case and probably exaggerated. You say you have not had massive issues, so by that are you saying that you do get a drop off of efficiency in the winter? I ask because these companies that sell them don’t mention it, or any downsides because they want to sell them. Thanks again for your input, it’s very helpful.
@@russellholmes3187 what me? Haha I WISH tesla was paying me 😆. Anyhow UA-cam is pretty horrendous at notifying on replies - so I rarely do, especially given how many replies I get across videos. But to answer Peter’s comment, I’m sure we do lose some efficiency. If you want the exact reasons for it being outside: 1. Space was at a premium in our home, outside gave us more space 2. We were very concerned it’d be noisy - thankfully it isn’t but the spec sheet made us think it might be. 3. Genuine safety concerns. The installer of our system actually was suggest LG Chem at the time but there were delays and we wanted the Tesla system so we went with that. I’ve just moved home and hope to install a similar system here with more effective Solar panels
Hi Christopher, great informative video. Would you be able to do a video on your heat pump setup? I'm contemplating getting one for when I get my house refurbished next year (hopefully if the current situation has improved) and was wanting to know what whether you have a ground source or air source? How much power it consumes? Whether it's worth it over lets say gas central heating (taking into account that you have the solar and power wall as this is what I plan on doing at the same the same time as the refurb). :-)
@Hamer Reviews, just read the comment below, should have done that first before asking :-) But still would be nice to get your opinion on it and what to look out for and the costs involved with such a setup. (underfloor heating, whether it's water based or electric based etc). I look forward to your response.
Also, regarding getting paid nothing for anything you export. I believe depending on what your meter setup is like, you should be able to specify which company takes your excess generation via the SEG (Smart Export Guarantee) www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications-and-updates/seg-supplier-list
Thanks for your comment, currently I'm not planning one on our Air Source heat pump system. Reason is, unlike the Tesla, it's much harder to quantify the technology. We also upgraded from electric heaters, so have no reference point to gas. We have a Nibe system installed, with their air source heatpump, controller and water heater... The solution seems to work well, though we have had some issues. It doesn't use much power from what I can tell on the tesla app, but we don't get breakdowns per device. I don't think I'd recommend Nibe though, although their staff are good, I'm not convinced their actually installed equipment is top tier.
On the SEG, our energy supplier basically told us to sod off 'as we don't produce enough', we've made a point to make sure none flows into the grid now.
@@HamerReviews thanks for the speedy response :-) I'm sure you're already aware but I believe you can get RHI payments to offset the cost for the initial install cost of the heat pump.
Hi Hamer, I am thinking of installing a solar PV system and power wall. I would love to know what your PV,Inverter and battery plus component set up is. Are you able to provide this information? Thank you
Great explanation and video! I'm looking into buying solar tiles but not by tesla. Do you think this system could work with solar tiles as a pose to solar panels? Thanks
I’m afraid I have no idea, however an educated guess would be that I can’t see why it’d be a problem. As long as you have an inverter providing a few kWh of power to the PowerWall surely it’d still charge as they are still solar panels, presumably the inverter would do the hard work.
@@HamerReviews Thanks for your reply and help..I'm looking into it..the initial costs are so high though if you're looking at running purely from solar and wind energy combined.
Yes and no. Yes it will function, but if it can’t call home for a certain amount of time I think it can lock up or stop you from changing settings etc but not sure on this point
Thanks Chris - I agree we have a PW2 nice video, we are considering a ASHP and wondered if you will do a video on this? Our concerns are noise - may I ask which model you have please? Thanks
We have a Nibe ASHP, it’s not too loud, barely notice it. I’m not planning a video on it, in all honesty it’s not that exciting, and there are so many variables. Our main findings are that when it’s -3 or colder the ASHP is very inefficient but it’s great at 3+.
No no, not at all, the house was still a toasty 24C but just inefficient in terms a lot of electricity used. No secondary heating, it’s all ASHP over underfloor heating.
Thank you for your informative video. We have recently installed an air source heat pump for our heating and hot water (4 bedroomed detached house). We've also had a quote from the installer for a 4.5kw solar array. However I am conscious that if we install solar we'll be getting the most output when we least need it, so a Powerwall I believe would be essential to make sense of the system. I have looked at the Octopus Energy Tesla Rate and they are quoting me 11.38p/kWh for both import and export rate. In other words all our energy usage would cost 11.38p/kWh + 22p/day standing charge.. This compares vary favourably with what I am being quoted by my current energy supplier (25.8p/kWh + 46p/day) for when my fixed rate tariff ends shortly. This seems to me like the best way forward with such a set up. Is there a good argument against this? Your thoughts greatly appreciated.
Kind of depends. If you put in a bigger solar array and generate surplus power you could export on octopus outgoing at up to 30p if you use an agile tariff. Do you have economy 7? We have that on this system so charge with cheap electricity overnight. Personally I wouldn’t want to hand over control of my PowerWall which is why I’d be hesitant. If you overspec your solar you could use that to use the electricity at night. I will add that an ASHP needs to run 24/7 so you could turn heating up during day and down during night to offset production of solar depending on time etc
@@HamerReviews thanks for your reply. Octopus Go quotes me 7.5p off peak and 33.75p for the rest of the time with a standing charge of 48.65p/day. I have to say that I like the idea of a known rate of 11.5p/kWh which is particularly interesting in mid winter when solar production will be low and demand hgih (and of course if the Powerwall is fully charged and the solar panels are producing electricity beyond domestic consumption then I'll feeding in at 11.5p/kWh). I can't fit a bigger solar array due to the available roof area. I'm not sure that giving Octopus control of the Powerwall is an issue for me, particularly as the rate is fixed. I'm not sure what our likely annual electricity consumption is going to be as we've only had the heat pump for three months but I think a conservative figure is 12,000kWh. The Octopus Tesla Rate would save me approx £1,800/year, meaning that an installation cost for the solar and Powerwall (approx £14,000) would be paid off in less than 8 years at current rates. However as the price of electricity goes up I would expect that the differential between the rates would increase making the saving even greater.
This might be something we do in the future, to be honest, it will take time for it to pay off, but we are gambling on energy prices going up to the point we expect it to pay off within 12 years.
@@janegerrard1073 the battery is guaranteed to hold 80% capacity after 10 years. So yes the battery will be fine after 12. I’m not sure re cells, but the 10 year guarantee was enough for us. That all being said, with energy prices doing what they are doing, we will not be surprised to break even in >10 years at this stage
Great review. I'm in SW London and am considering the same set up...flat roof solar and a powerwall. Would you mind me asking how much the solar and powerwall (incl installation) was for you to give an approximate estimate. I assume that the flat roof installation made it a bit more expensive? Also, would you be willing to share the details of the installers that did the work for you? Many thanks and keep up the great work.
Sorry, i missed your comment. How did you get on? I’m in the process of planning a new installation on a new property that will be quite similar and it’s just the sloped roof and cost wise the ballpark is 18-20k. The flat roof didn’t really change the cost much. The new installation will probably use a PowerWall 2 again but I’m trying to source slightly better solar panels, some LG ones have peak output of 440w per panel that could be interesting I’m not going to share the installers as as much as they were good we haven’t used them in a few years and I no longer know if they are any good.
@@HamerReviews I am mid a 2-step installation process. 3 weeks ago I had 13 panel 5kW solar array including 2 panels on a SE-facing wall (with the rest on the roof all held down with weights), a 4kW SolarEdge inverter with 13 panel optimisers. This is now installed. I am waiting on the Powerwall to arrive with an ETA of end of May’22. Total cost will be £17k. So far I’m getting 12kWh on my best day in January so looking fwd to summer time :). I am using about 60% for direct consumption and the rest goes back to the grid so can’t wait for the Powerwall to come 🙂
Nice one! That sounds great! Good to see my estimate was about right! Which panels did you go for? My research of panels is doing my head in at the moment 😆
@@HamerReviews I went with JA solar - 385w I believe. The EV Puzzle UA-camr recommended them to me and he does a lot of testing and my installer included them in my quote so went with them. 👍🏻
I've done the figures for battery installations. I have a 4kw solar system which took 6 years to pay for itself. Adding a battery to my system would take considerably longer due to the weather in the UK. The price would need to come down for me to be interested. One question I have is, the excess with solar is paid by FIT every three months whether used or not. Does the energy register for the feed-in tariff if diverted to the battery.
Fair enough - soaring energy prices will accelerate this now. If we don’t see the government provide cheaper energy then cost savings will be achieved much faster than we planned.
@@HamerReviews I agree to a point but at the moment I'm on a really good deal for 24 months with E-on so at the moment it's not a good option for me. My last point...re energy diverted to the battery...is this still recorded as via FIT?
Heya, energy to the battery is not FIT as it’s not going back to the grid - but given FIT is quite low if you didn’t sign up years ago (I think it’s even called something else now) then you get much better value for keeping it in the battery and using it for your own home. Absolutely also if you locked in at a good tariff then yes you’ll be good for a while, if you didn’t then at least you don’t lose out so much - here’s to hoping for a lot of sunny days this year!
@@glenn20081965 your FIT stands. It is paid against your generation meter reading. The battery is to FIT calculation like any other ‘household appliance’, so what it uses is irrelevant to your FIT. I have PV, Powerwall2 and Zappi, installed in 2018 so on about 4p. Which I had your 15p, but that’s a result of not being able to install until 2018.
MrSummitville it was in the £15k region, peak is 20p and off peak just over 10p per kWh. However, although saving money is part of our motivation, the other was being greener, so in combination with moving to underfloor heating and an air source heat pump (painfully expensive process) this wasn’t primarily done to save money. This being said, given the lack of feed in tariffs, especially for smaller power setups like hours, the Tesla does seem to make sense as my estimation shows in the summer months we’d be giving away over half our produced electricity to the grid, instead we give away a kw or less a day on average.
@@HamerReviews Wow, that is expensive. Break-even may occur in 15 - 20 years. Since you don't receive any Feed-In Tariff ( ouch ! ) then storing the excess Solar energy in a Tesla PW is the next best option. The Powerwall is very efficient and it is a Battery Back-Up unit, too. We don't get very many power outages - maybe once every other year? We pay only $0.10 / kWhr flat rate all day - making it very difficult for us to cost justify Solar Panels + Powerwall. Although in the state of California, they pay a whopping $0.50/kWhr Time-Of-Use Peak Rate !
I agree, it’s very much long term, however, I’d gamble on fuel prices in the UK to rise dramatically in the next 5-10 years so maybe we’ll see a return faster. It’s nice being green though and cool when we have days where we use no grid electricity!
@@HamerReviews I'd gamble on all energy prices rising long-term ... except for Solar, which is decreasing. So, at some point Solar makes financial sense for almost everybody. Make your own power locally & use that power locally. Why do we have a Centralized Grid with concentrated Production Centers? Because the people who control it ... say so !
A good long term investment that could pay off handsomely when Autodialer software and virtual grid are launched. It might even be worth while installing another PW2 or buying a Tesla vehicle as mobile battery storage?
Yep, that's an option, though it does have a fan that can get fairly loud in the summer. In addition, I'm not sure I'd want it taking up that much space in doors. There's no reason you can't though, I know a few people that have it installed inside their garages, which makes sense!
Thank you 🙂 if you enjoyed the content please consider subscribing to support the channel - it really helps! 🙂 equally I’ve got a follow up Tesla video coming before the end of the year!
It needs to be able to ‘call home’ to Tesla. It has a built in cellular modem but that’s as a backup. In addition you are supposed to have WiFi or Ethernet connected. I’m not entirely sure on the specifics but I believe it’ll stop working after a given period if it can’t connect to the internet but don’t quote me on that. There are constant firmware updates, improvements etc that go on in the background (stuff like stormwatch too).
Depends how you use it, if you’re charging on off peak and discharging on peak prices it can also pay off. Also if you have a large enough solar array it’d pay off too. Depends on a lot of variables but it’s a valid point
@@HamerReviews Definitely a southern thing at the moment. This is the first I've even heard of Tesla power wall. There are a few houses up here in the North East but they are very much the rarity With the price of energy at the moment and likely to rise further in next few years and never likely to ever come back down then syatem like the powerwall are becoming more and more viable.
@@redmed10 yep agreed, I’m just speccing a system for my new home with quite premium components and even those costs should pay off in >12 years at current energy prices which is kind of mad. Obviously if prices drop so will time to ROI but there are stronger arguments for solar and batteries now than ever before
Interesting question. So there's two sides to this, having it inside, can cause excess heat in the summer, and also it's quite noisy. if you have an inside space, sure, but there is cooling etc built into the battery, so having it outside or inside has benefits and disadvantages. Ours is quite sheltered so it's not quite totally outside, it's a valid point worth considering though! If you haven't already, please do subscribe, it really helps 🙂.
Yep, I probably should have said that, obviously if you’re heating outside in the winter you are also wasting some electricity too but I don’t think it’s made a huge impact on us 🙂
@@HamerReviews I think the only real difference between indoors and outdoors is the efficiency. The thermal management uses power so your losses will probably be higher. Never seen any figures that compare both scenarios though.
I’d like to think the video includes information so people can make their own mind up. The sad truth is that the title is designed to make people click on the video… it’s unfortunately how UA-cam works…
On this particular install my parents had JA Solar 370W and Panasonic 300W panels installed. On my own install (check my other solar videos which shows it in much more detail) I went with LG NeonH+ 400W due to their superb long term performance, superior build quality and reputation.
Heya so afraid to say it depends. Background energy use varies wildly between homes. With 13.5 kWh Of power you’re better off working out how khan you’re houses uses and work it out from there. We are usually covered overnight so midnight to 6-7 am in the summer but not if our ASHP heating is on
@@HamerReviews Those price fluctuations beg a longer term fixed price tariff (I wonder how far forward the electricity retailers can buy wholesale power - and thus fix it forward for us ? If I knew I could rely on a tariff for 5 years and payback was almost complete by then I'd leap at the chance.
Absolutely, loads of products on the market now. In many ways it’s Apple vs Android. Tesla offers a very nice plug and play interface with little need for user interference but with some great technologies such as storm watch and the ability to easily change from cost savings (charging overnight) to charging just via solar. We chose it for that simplicity and solid warranty. LG Chem is interesting but didn’t seem as well integrated at the time 🙂 Hope that helps 🙂
Did you mention how long will it take you to recoup the investment? I want to go solar but all the online savings calculator is telling me I will recoup me investment in after 30 years. Is that incorrect?
@@HamerReviews Really depends and where things get complicated is when you start taking into account the amount of power used locally in the property that you no longer pay for. For example, should you choose to use a tariff like agile, you can combine charging batteries with solar or using cheap rate electricity and also minimise the amount of monies paid for powering your life in a house. When you start to add in also running a car the cost savings become even greater. We have managed to cut our energy bill for running a car and powering the house by nearly 75%. While I accept we have invested in the batteries and solar, we do not run our gas boiler for 8 months of the year because all of our hot water is heated by the sun as well as powering our travel with the car. If we only used the FiT payment for payback we are looking at 20 years. If we factor in the reduced outgoings the figure heads into the 8 to 10 year area. Finally, all the usage generated in the property has no VAT added. Also all of the usage for the car has no fuel tax. The top tip we can give is to carefully plan the positions of the solar panels and do contact your network operator and get agreement for the amount of export your property is allowed. We have a generous allowance and make full use of it. You also do not need just south facing properties, we have a east/south/west configuration that is performing very well and with it being east/south/west the length of generation for the day is longer meaning power is generated later into the day. Finally, Tesla is not the only supplier for solar PV and battery storage. We have been using LuxPowerTek and all in all it has been impressive. It does not have the depth of software that Tesla provides, but it is a lot cheaper and works just as well. I hope this helps.
It wasn’t that particularly interesting. Standard Panasonic panels, 3.68 solaredge inverter. Nothing anyone hasn’t seen before. That being said I’ve moved homes and am doing my own install that’s much more interesting, LG bifacial panels, nice 6Kw inverter, PowerWall plus panels on north and south side. Will be doing lots of videos on that once we get going.
Hi is there a referal code, to recomend a power wall, as i am wanting to get one ASAP, i have heard tesla are goint to stop supplying them to people who havent bought other tesla solar products, unfortuanatly there solar roof is to expensive for me. regards phil (chesterfield)
I don’t think there’s a referral program at the moment in the UK. If you use a local I staler your might have better luck with getting a sooner installation
It seems to be so much money for something that literally at best just allows you to use more of the solar you produce, even with the Tesla octopus plan it's too expensive, the benefit is wiped out by it not making financial sense to install a solar system and have it's returns calculated, but then in order to actually make those returns real, you need a battery. The Tesla is a terrible return, better off with the cheapest possible battery, so as not to ruin the ROI on the solar . Tesla doesn't make sense in the UK , with hardly any outages, it's pointless.
We’ve had at least an outage every two months over the last few years, lasting from a few mins to a day. It will pay for itself, eventually, but yeah sure, for some it’ll not be worth it. It is to us, and our reasoning was not purely financial, which I think I make fairly clear in the video... I don’t think saying ‘it doesn’t make sense’ is entirely accurate, between may and October we needed comparatively little outside energy. Without the power wall, it wouldn’t even be close. Horses for courses.
@@HamerReviews you might not guess but I actually sell these! I agree totally that it is a purchase for something you like, just like any other. Not everyone buys the cheapest car they can find, same here. But the UK is a tough market for powerwalls, without any real threat of power cuts, it's not adding much value here
That’s fair enough, I think we will see the economics change as we see more solar panel use and better solar panels... I’m working on a new install at another property at the moment and will probably go down the power wall route again... call me mad I guess
***Please Read ***
Hi everyone, just to say I know I made a few mistakes in this video with regards to kWh and kW. The usable capacity of the battery is 13.5 kWh, the max output is 5kW at any one time. Apologies for the confusion and thanks to those of you that kindly pointed this out. I'll be recording a follow up video soon and hope to avoid those mistakes this time - but no guarantees!
can you still order the tesla solar panels in the uk or do you need to buy it separately from another company and get the tesla Powerwall
I believe you have to buy it separately in the Uk, that’s certainly how we did it.
Best;
Chris
@@HamerReviews thanks for your speedy reply
You're not on your own. I've rarely met anyone who knows the difference between power and energy.
With two powerwalls you can have a system that handle bigger loads which is what some of the UA-camrs I have watched have done. In some cases they have more than two, not that a have the space for more than two or the budget for that matter.
Can I just say, you are a good speaker. Thanks for the video
Gasa Kenny thanks for your kind comment! Please consider subscribing to allow me to make more content like this in the future 🙂
Most will agree.
Given the number of subs etc I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of this video. As others have mentioned, you are a great speaker and did a great job with this video. It was very informative and I appreciate the time you put in to creating it. Welldone and thanks! :D (p.s. ive subbed, keep up the great work).
Thanks so much for the kind comment and subscribing 🙂. I’ve got an update video in the works looking back over the last 9 months - hopefully you’ll find it useful too (though there will be more discussion of stats and screen captures in that rather than description of the powerwall 🙂
@@HamerReviews You're very welcome. Thats awesome, thanks! I shall check it out :)
Nice presentation style and voice, very informative thanks. Am looking at Powerwall and the Panasonic Evervolt system.
Thanks for watching! The Panasonic system certainly has some positives too but I wish the capacity was higher!
Brilliant video
Another excellent, informative video review that is very well presented.
Your delivery is engaging and easy to understand.
I appreciate your time and effort producing it. Thank you.
It is well worth it. Had a 6.4kw system and pw2 installed a month ago. I’ve only used 2 days worth of electricity (my average daily use) since then. Amazing figures for October in my eyes. Slight correction to your vid, I’m on the Octopus Agile outgoing tariff so am being paid for the electricity I export to the grid. Good vid, thank you. 👍👍
Thanks for your comment, I thought I did mention that power suppliers may pay you but the actual Government backed feed in tariff had ended - so what you do get paid will be much lower. Either way, thank you very much for pointing that out 🙂. Glad you found it useful, a 6.4kw system is very nice, we are a fair bit below that but I imagine that this time of year is quite something - we aren't producing much at all at the moment in London!
@@HamerReviews ah, I must’ve missed that bit. I think it’s called the SEG and my export rates change depending on the demand.
My system is currently producing about 100 watts so I think the worst day so far. A good day in October produced 22kwh. Looking forward to seeing what it does on a good summers day.
I’d expect in the region of 40kwh if not more - and no worries - I might be wrong I just thought I did.
We’ve had a day in October we produced 1.3kwh all day! Madness 😂
@@jimhailwood2873 Hi Jim, how do you find the power wall after using it for 1 year? I'm based in London and would like to find out if it's all worth it? thanks in advance
@RustyRocket, we’ve had the PowerWall at my parents place for 2 years now and it’s still going strong, made a big impact on their energy use and has been pretty much faultless in operation and has smoothed over a few power cuts. Overall they are delighted. I’m sure Jim might be able to add some colour too 🙂
If you put in a solar system after FIT then any excess power can be sold on an export contract. This doesn't have to be to the same provider as you buy from. Rates range from 3 to 6p. Also some providers offer contracts where they can take power from your storage to a level you set at a higher price in peak periods.
Thanks for your comment, indeed, we have seen the Octopus one, but don't want to give up control of our hardware. There's a good point on the export - which is something other people have mentioned - and we'll be addressing that in a future video 🙂 Really appreciate your comment - hope you found the content useful.
@@HamerReviews Was useful to see positive feedback on the Tesla system. My system is getting installed later this month. 15 Kwp Solaredge with the Tesla battery and around 120kwh/week into the car. Was temped by the the LG Chem battery but from what I could find out would be bit more restrictive for me wanting at times high output and ease of switching the system to solar or low cost charging.
cracking and informative video, thanks for taking the time to produce it
What a great video, well done, and great presenting, we are soon installing the Tesla Powerwalls, so glad to see some positive reviews like yours.
Keep up the good work. 👍🏻😀
Glad it was helpful! Good luck with your install!
I had a 4kw system installed nearly 5 years ago, I’m fortunate I earn 13.8p per kw produced and was the best investment I’ve made. If I was to buy a new house I don’t think I’d buy solar again though due to no feed in tariff.
Yep there’s definitely a balance to meet, that being said, panels are getting more and more efficient, and as energy prices rise there will probably be a time when it makes more sense than now. That being said, we’ve hugely reduced our energy costs to the point where we should break even on it, so it’s all about personal circumstances and use case 🙂
Thank you for this video, very clear and helpful!
Glad it was helpful! Please consider subscribing to support the channel 🙂
Great video, clear and concise. I have a few questions.
1) Who did you use to install it? Would like to see a known entity rather than google adverts.
2) My house came equipped with Solar Panels as new build in 2016.
3) I’m FIT registered so can i ‘dump’ the Powerwall to the grid and cash in?
4) Can you be offline with this system?
5) No more questions 😀
Would love these questions to be answered!
Heya,
We used a private company - afraid I don't have his details but it was just a local installer.
I don't think you can dump from the powerwall to the grid, that'll only work if you hit 100% capacity and then it sends excess to the grid.
You can and can't be offline with the system. You solar panels will need to be commissioned every morning that actually requires power. I believe if you don't let the battery hit 0% you should be able to cycle through to the next day but it's not ideal.
The system will work however with no grid electricity.
Very Interesting video, thanks for sharing.
I had a grid tied 3kW solar PV system installed a little over a year ago (after Feed In Tariffs were stopped) & I have been monitoring the kWh output since installation.
By July this year I came to the conclusion that I was feeding far more kWh into the grid (that I was not being paid for) than I was taking from the grid, and paying for. Not a good idea. I considered two options.
A) install batteries to store the surplus. I was somewhat disappointed by the capital investment needed for this option, and your video has just reinforced this aspect, or
B) attempt to find a gas and electricity supplier who will pay me for the power I feed into the grid.
It took a while but I eventually found a company that pays me for my surplus. Obviously not as much as I pay them for the power I use from the grid, but there is a reasonable probability that I will "break even" between April and September. We'll see....
Yep, that makes sense! For us Power independence was part of the argument too but you really need to commit to make a PowerWall worth it. Part of it for us is also our energy tariff a charge in the night when cheap then use stored electricity in the day.
Your logic seems spot on re your use case
Great video and a worthy view. I have a question and a really sticky point with Tesla and that is the fuse box/consumer unit created in the gateway (circuit breakers and fuses) being installed in a combustible construction (namely plastic)? This seems to completely negate the electrical regulations regardless whether Tesla say its fine ( but isn't fine with the view on electrical regs) what's your thoughts on this?
Excellent video, very informative review.
Glad it was helpful! Please consider subscribing to support the channel - it really helps!
Again, great video, amazing presentation. I wish I could just reel it off like that 👏🏻
Can you check my thinking? If I had a Tesla power wall 2 and a 5kW generator, could I theoretically charge the power wall in 2.7 hours? I know it won’t be that efficient, but I’m just trying to make sure I understand the relationship between kWh and kw. Also, do you have any idea how long it would take to charge?
I’m nervous about asking these questions because I should be talking about solar! Hopefully that will come too.
Heya, thanks for your compliment first of all 🙂.
So in terms of your thinking. The PowerWall regulates its charging in order to extend battery life, so despite having 5kW you won’t charge that fast. This PowerWall charges from the grid overnight and on average it starts charging on off peak at 00:00 and it usually completes its cycle around 03:50 ish.
If you were doing this during the day, and it was hot and the PowerWall was warm I imagine it might take longer? But I’m not sure as we usually don’t charge from the grid much during the summer and if we did it’d still be in the dead of night.
I also don’t know the logistics of charging it from a generator. You’d have to trick it into thinking your generator was the grid and I’m not sure whether that can be done or not (I literally have zero idea, I may be creating a problem where there isn’t one).
I hope that’s useful but sorry if it’s not everything you wanted to know, not my total area of expertise I’m afraid!
@@HamerReviews no that’s great! Thank you. I’m trying to create a system that could handle a month without power. I know it seems very unlikely! Though maybe much more likely these days.
@@HowToSandAFloor a month without power? That’s a big ask and kind of confusing why you wouldn’t throw solar into the mix.
I think homebrew solutions would be much more effective and cost efficient in the scenario you mention to be honest.
@@HamerReviews yes I agree, it’s just the cost of solar, that’s the more expensive bit isn’t it?
@@HowToSandAFloor the solar bit is cheaper than my PowerWall on the install I’m doing. A high quality LG Neon panel will cost you £250-300 each, 10 of those would be a 4.4kW system - then you’d need an inverter - let’s say you go for a high quality solar edge ballpark around a grand. That’s let’s say £4000-5000 plus installation if you aren’t doing it yourself… the PowerWall itself costs about £8-10k installed…
Awesome video Hamer :D love your mic quality i subbed!
Thanks for the comment!
Its fine on my note 9 phone and Ipad
Circa £9k outlay just for the powerwall. £5k+ for panels on top. For the average homeowner it's a 12-15 year timeline to just break even at which point there will be inevitable maintenance/replacement costs which will push that timeline out even further. I'd like to see this sort of technology become viable but struggling to see how it can at these price points. Maybe when EV becomes more affordable this will make this proposition more viable, unfortunately I don't see it currently for average UK homeowner.
I think you might be ignoring recent and predicted power increases. I do think it’ll pay off quicker than we estimate at the moment.
@@HamerReviewsMy energy renewal deal is actually significantly down on what is was a year ago. Wholesale energy prices over the last 2 years have been falling. I have a 4 bedroom house energy bill circa £100 a month (some of that Gas). It's fairly simple maths for most UK households. I don't see how there is any payback in at least 10 years for a typical household. The battery capacity presumably degrades over time and some components will potentially need replacement - eg like the inverter. I'd love the price point to be there but I don't see a sharp spike in energy costs over the next 5-10 years as renewals are now finally cheaper than conventional energy sources (and getting cheaper as technology improves).
It’s a fair argument. Our usual power costs are much higher, and equally we run a highly efficient air source heat pump rather than gas. I think it may pay off, but not quickly, though part of our reasoning is that it’s more environmentally friendly. We are lucky in that this wasn’t a purely financially motivated decision. The battery is warranted for 10 years so we aren’t too worried there, as is the inverter and the Panasonic panels for over 20. I guess we shall see. Thanks for your comment though, it’s great to hear what others have to say 🙂
I hate to say it but having owned an almost identical system you're absolutely right. You can't go in to this thinking purely financially because it doesn't work out and probably won't for many years. You've got to also be in it for the 'feel good' factor and almost see it as a hobby at which point the cost becomes much more tolerable.
One thing people always seem to forget about when calculating the payback is what their outlay would've earned if it was just sat in a bank. Even at today's terrible rates you can get 1.5% in a fixed rate saving account so your £15k would actually be £19k in 15 years time. If you stuck it in a low risk investment fund at 4% it would be £27k...... Suddenly having £15k sat on your roof isn't so great.
Also bear in mind that this payback is based on rates of 20p peak and 10p off peak. You can beat this quite comfortably which makes the payback even longer.
I may sound negative but I'm a complete solar/powerwall/eco nerd. I love all of this kind of thing but I'm also a realist with a calculator.... (and too much time on my hands......)
Good video. I have a Tesla power wall and works great. If you are considering one also look at the Octopus energy agile tariff where the rates change hourly and you can charge the battery at the cheapest rate. My power bills have been reduced by 45%.
Thanks for sharing, we've considered it but don't want to give over control of our power wall as we do also use it in 'backup' duty but agreed it's a good option for some 🙂
Its biggest drawback is not being able to schedule grid charges by times for instance the Octopus Agile time of use tariff requires choosing half hour increments by doing that saves you a bundle . I have a Powervault 3 and technically the software isnt as good but the usp is the scheduling.my average unit cost for electricity is 5.24p in the winter and 1.24 currently as Solar has kicked in
Yep, absolutely, there are some uses cases where the limited control is an issue.
@@HamerReviews it should be for everyone not some
Great video - definitely will be doing some further research. Out of interest can you share how much you spent on solar panel installation? Thanks
Great review & unlike majority of solar battery's the powerwall looks better & thin, it can also be installed outside.
Totally agree, it looks good and I think that makes it more palatable for modern homes!
Thanks Chris. great review as I am planning to install a Tesla Wall along with another 4KW of solar.
Glad it was helpful 🙂 please consider subscribing as it really helps the channel and I’m working on a follow up video looking at performance so far! 🙂
@@HamerReviews Subscribed and looking forward to next transmission.
Great if you have the spare money to invest. I think money would be better spent insulating your home if it needs it and looking at your electricity use by possibly having smart tariffs. I think the younger could not afford it and the old would be dead before the system covered it costs, just a thought . I hear people say their energy use is very low but forget to mention they have spent £10k plus to achieve this .
Yep people need to look a their situation and choose based on that.
This system was installed at the same time as an air source heat pump, underfloor heating, new insulation and solar panels so total cost was very high but obviously there was more to it than just the battery.
I’ve since moved and will be doing the same install at my new home with Tesla battery and better solar panels.
Thanks for that very well presented and factual review. I'm looking at the same system for my 4kw system. Just need enough back up power to keep the Solar and Log gasification Biomass boiler operational during a power cut...also save a little on storage/feed in here and there😉👍
Thanks for your kind comment, I’m glad you found it useful. If you want something you can plug and forget, I’d certainly say it’s worth considering!
Hamer Reviews 👍 I’m pretty sold on one I have to say. Beats a dirty diesel generator that’s non compatible with the solar and doesn’t store spare power etc There appears to be a lot of advantages to having one. Look good too as a bonus.
how do you heat your home? Do you need to take out all existing radiators and gas boiler and replace them with electric ones? How would that affect the power usage?
Think you sent this twice - replied on the other comment.
Good video but no numbers. How much does it save you how much did you spend on electricity before and after getting one?
Wasn’t really interested in doing that on this system. So much of it depends on the panels; and they are standard Panasonic ones.
This is a review of the PowerWall not the ins and outs of what it can save.
I have just contracted someone to install a similar system on my new home where I plan to go into more details because we are doing some things a bit differently (NNE facing panels on one side of roof, bifacial 440w panels etc). So it might make more sense on that series of videos, but for this system, cost wasn’t the only driver.
Good overview, well articulated. Thanks.
Thanks for watching! Hope you found it useful, please consider subscribing to support my channel, it really helps.
April 2021 we had fitted 3.5KW solar panel system fitted to the house, September 2021 I ordered the Powerwall which arrived Oct 2022.
So far happy with the system but it is only a few days but I have a couple of questions hopefully you can advice.
No1 Can I have a second battery fitted to the system I already have and can I also add further solar panels to my 3.5kw system to help produce power to the battery quicker, especially in the autumn and winter months.
No2 Does the Powerwall need a yearly service.
Ohh must say great video and thank you for putting it on line.
Regards
Colin
Lovely review, thank you
Did Tesla install it or did you get a 3rd party to do so?
We used a third party, the same local company that did our Solar install did the Tesla as well. Hope that helps, please do subscribe if you found the video useful
Would this power bank run a 14kw combi boiler if so how long on a full charge and how many and what power solar panels needed to charge? Great video by the way. Norman
Hi there, no easy way to answer your question. So when you say run a combi boiler you presumably mean just the electric part, then yes absolutely.
How long for, no idea. You need to work out how much power it uses and then you can work it out. The PowerWall has a capacity of 13.5kwh and it can deliver up to 5kW in one go (but this load would only last 2.2 hours so obviously you wouldn’t want that high a sustained load.
As for solar. Also a case of how long a piece of string is. In the winter, to charge it fully in the UK you’d need A LOT of solar panels. If you needed it charged every day you’re probably talking 20kwp of panels. This is because in the winter we just don’t get long enough days. In the whole of December the 4.2kwp solar system that is attached to this PowerWall produced 60kwh, not even enough to charge the PowerWall 5 times - though that didn’t matter as the power was used up anyway. I’m the summer a ‘standard’ G98 3.68kwp system would happily fully charge this every day depending on your usage.
Last caveat is that the waiting list for the PowerWall is currently around a year…
You may find this video useful 🙂 ua-cam.com/video/izfJrymxLhA/v-deo.html
Great review, and helps to have some figures on cost and installation. I had been discussing with my brother about a simpler setup using a portable power station and portable solar array to provide limited emergency power for things like keeping the gas boiler going in the possible event of a power outage from the grid, something thats looking possible these days. I have enough power banks to charge phones and run USB LED lights, but a power outage in winter would leave the house somewhat cold. Thankfully we do have a coal fire, but even the cost of coal is getting expensive, and isn't the greenest solution to heat your house. My brother suggested a Tesla Powerwall, and I figured the cost would be an easy 4 figures, vs my mid 3 figure idea. It's a shame Tesla don't offer a cheaper power wall, say at £2,500 plus installation for one that generates say 8kWh. That would be more my budget for such an idea.
Hi there. I can definitely see the appeal of a smaller PowerWall. Given the shortages I doubt we‘ll see one for a while.
You can’t forget Tesla is an ultra premium solution, companies like givenenergy are far cheaper.
Interestingly SolarEdge now offer a 4.8kWh battery along their 10kwh one - so there’s clearly some interest in the market to do what you suggest 🙂
Great review! Thanks!
Thanks so much! Really appreciate the support. Am hoping to do a follow up video soon as so many people seem to be loving this!
Great review, but it would be really helpful if you took care to distinguish between kW and kWh - they are not interchangeable!
"An immersion heater might use 3kWh" - well yes, it will if it's a 3kW immersion heater and you have it on for an hour. On the other hand it will use 6kWh if you leave it on for 2 hours. Ditto the oven. Leave both on for a couple of hours and your 13.5kWh PW2 capacity is soon depleted.
"We have a 4kWh solar system" - no, you have a 4kWp system, which under ideal circumstances will generate 4kWh in an hour of unbroken sunshine, minus conversion inefficiencies.
Sorry to quibble but these distinctions matter and you risk confusing the unwary. Keep up the good work!
Thanks, it’s something others made me aware of - the pinned comment should explain my mistakes 🙂 one of those things - units of power were not my expertise 😉
Really nice video!
Thanks for your comment, very much appreciated. Please consider subscribing if you haven’t already, I’d really appreciate it! 🙂
Hi Chris - did you put much thought into string inverter or solaredge? I'm looking at putting in a 5kW system and whether to spend the additional £1k on Solaredge. Thanks
I have to be honest, we had a good independent installer who recommended it to us, we followed his advice and have been very pleased so far. Sorry I can’t help more on that!
Very good video. I was under the impression that you'd actually be able to sell excess power back to the grid , is that no longer the case ?
Yes and no. I don’t think there’s currently control to send power to grid but there are smart tariffs that do this such as from Tesla direct and Octopus
Although the feed in tariff has gone, your wrong there is SEG that you sell unused sola to the grid, all energy companies with over 100,000 customers has to have a SEG tariff & can be different to your current supplier, but that is only 0.05p per kwh, but atleast there is something.
That’s true, but as we don’t produce enough solar power our energy company is unwilling to give it to us! 🙁
@@HamerReviews move over to octopus energy. They are cheaper and deal with solar which they buy off you :)
It’s tempting but we know some people with them that have found customer service a nightmare. I think some of the challenger energy providers a bit risky.
@@HamerReviews I've been researching the subject (hence watching your video!) and apparently the company you sell your electricity back to the grid through doesn't have to be the same as your energy supplier.
"Please note that there is no requirement for the SEG licensee to be the same company as your energy supplier. You can choose to use separate companies for your SEG export payments, electricity supply and your gas supply if you wish."
Source: www.ofgem.gov.uk/environmental-programmes/smart-export-guarantee-seg/generators
I enjoyed your video and found it clear and helpful, but was hoping for a bit more on the economics of the Powerwall purchasing decision - e.g. how long it's projected to pay for itself in your case.
You said there are two uses for a Powerwall but there is a third: decarbonise your electricity usage/ home. You can use a battery to supply the power to your home when demand on the grid is high and the electricity is coming from carbon resources, in the UK that’s the 4ish to 7pm ish peak.
De-carbonise? Don't you mean off-peak resevoir, so buy cheap overnight and fill it... It doesn't mean you burn less carbon, it just means you help to make use of any peaks in production and normalise the demand curves.
@@mwnciboo no, I do mean deCarbonise.
If you look overnight electricity, or even just not 4-7pm electric, tends to have less “carbon intensity”. So you can choose to charge a battery with electricity generated from low carbon sources and use it when the carbon intensity is high.
Yes, many people only see this as an economic argument, but some people with solar panels and electric cars are trying to minimise their carbon footprint and using a battery to time shift to electricity with a lower carbon intensity is one of the ways one can be responsible for burning less carbon.
It's certainly something for people to consider, personally, it's better value as an owner to use them slightly differently, but it's absolutely something that can be done with the scheduling function.
@@glider51 That is PV Storage to move your generation to a resevoir that you can utilise overnight at a 1:1 ratio rather than the 1:3 ratio you get when you generate to the grid e.g For every 3000 Kwh you generate into the Grid, you only get credited 1000 Kwh back, due to the price differential and only if the price stays the same. A PV storage allows to keep a permanent, 13.5 Kwh, and sell of the excess knowing its unlikely you will need to buy back. The Carbon argument is a nuanced one and misleading... Lithium Ion Batteries are horrific for both the environment and energy production, same with Solar panels. Yet here in the UK we talk of things like electrically heating houses, but increasingly won't allow wood burning - yet Trees whilst they grow help take Carbon out the atmosphere and give Oxygen...When people talk of Green Energy - and trot out the decarbonisation piece, it is never in tandem with Lithium Salt polution in Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia.
www.wired.co.uk/article/lithium-batteries-environment-impact
It is an unbalanced lens to judge the wholistic impact, from a carbon perspective, yes it uses less carbon for energy production, but what about the other environmental impacts.
Hi very informative video a pleasure to listen to you speak . I wonder if you've ever come across the following message when changing your charging times using the Tesla app " failed to save time of use settings ". This has been appearing recently ( only the last day or so ) when changing my powerwall 2 over night charge times. I'm at a loss. Any thoughts?
Not something I’ve encountered I’m afraid - we’ve never seen that error .
@@HamerReviews thanks for the reply, I've just contacted Tesla for help👍
Thanks. Useful. Bit of confusion between kwh and kW at the start.
Yep hence the pinned comment 😉
@@HamerReviews thanks
@@AbbeyAerialVideo still lots to learn. Planning install number two on my own place this year - better brush up
great review - make more!
thanks for your comment! Please do subscribe to see more future videos!
A couple of suggestions:
1- The video showed that the edge of your roof is probably shading all the solar panels adjacent to it. You might benefit by lifting your solar panels to where they clear the shading issue. In addition, some panels showed bird droppings, and this will, also, affect your solar production.
2- Your electrical cabinet showed loose cables, you might want to ask your installer to place these inside electrical conduit.
Besides these two issues, you have a nice, clean installation with good components.
I am curious regarding the electrical consumption for cooking, hot water, and space heating. Could you share some consumption numbers?
I needed a while to digest this, but thank you for your comment!
There are some structural / and planning challenges with regards to lifting them - but those panels do indeed need a clean! We usually do it once a month.
Thanks for the note on our cables in the cabinet, this was installed during a massive refurb and extension and due to COVID we aren't totally finished so will pick this up with the electrician.
I have no issue sharing some consumption numbers, but not sure I have the detail you are looking for... what did you have in mind?
I've looked at this many times, the Tesla Powerwall 2 wou;dn't pay for itself until about or just after the time it's warranty expires. It wouldn't pay for itself from my calculations. It's a bit too expensive really considering if you look at LG Chem it's about half the price. Plus in winter, it's a bit poor when my 4kW solar PV system produces like 1kWh a day. If you have economy 7 however, it might be worth it but I can't seem to find a single energy provider in East Anglia that will let me swap from a regular power tariff to an economy 7 i don't know why.
I know what you mean, everyone needs to make their own choices as to whether it's worth it for them. For us, we're very happy. Good luck with your future setup! 🙂
Not too deep , would be great looking at DC Vs AC and the efficiency drop/cost, super important for UK where insolation is low.
I will be doing that soon as I’ve just had a new system installed with a DC connected battery 😉
Hi. I have an ASHP - my electricity bill has gone through the roof - however I’ve got in my refurbishment budget to add solar panels. Would love to discuss further if I should add on a Tesla power pack on top of the battery I’m getting
So what happens if, as is sadly the case for us, our internet connection goes down due to problems in the area?
It’ll continue working, you won’t necessarily get data from it but it’ll continue to work. The PowerWall also has cellular connection built in so it can also use that to call home but it will continue to work even without that. I’m not sure if that’d be the case for longer than 30 days.
Very interesting video. Thank you.
Thanks very much for your comment, please consider subscribing to support the channel 🙂
Allen! What brings you here?
1:23 I'm gonna be a stickler because I studied batteries at university - 13.5kWh is the energy capacity of the battery, power is a rate of energy transfer, measured in watts :p
So with the appliances, a heater will use about 3kW (kilowatts), in an hour such a heater would use 3kWh (3 kilowatt hours) of energy.
Nice video, did you do any kind of financial modeling to determine payback time etc?
That is actually really interesting, thank you for your comment! I’m terms of financial modelling, our rough model based on current prices is 18 years but it’s a wait and see to be honest and doesn’t take into account other things like the air source heat pump
@@HamerReviews interesting, that does sound about right - are you using a timee of use tariff? there will def be some interesting ones popping up in coming years!
At the moment on peak / off peak so charging (on days no sun is expected) at 10p rather than 20 🙂
@@HamerReviews have you considered the Octopus/Tesla plan? 8p in/out and no standing charge
We have, but after investing the best part of £20k we don’t like the idea of handing over control of our powerwall to a third party, which is required as part of the plan.
Cracking video 👍
Thanks!
Well presented. Subscribed.
Great video but where's the optional Doberman guarding it so that the local scrotes don't lift it off the wall in the night! 😂
Hopefully the price on these will trend down just like solar PV over the past few years.
Would love a Doberman, though I’d be very impressed if they get that over the 8 foot wall given it weighs 120+kg and will probably electrocute them in the process... we installed it before we built the wall 😉
Great video, you’ve convinced me choose Tesla when I’ve saved enough funds for it. I believe now that you can’t get a Tesla Powerwall unless you go for Tesla solar panels, but as I don’t have any yet that won’t be a problem.
We've just had a Tesla Powerwall installed with a different brand of solar panels.
Not the case in the UK. @X5493 - might be the case in other regions
@@HamerReviews Interesting to know though when i last looked into this I did like the look of the Tesla solar panels visually wise compared to the rest of the solar panels on the market.
The main issue is they don’t even sell them in The Uk 🙁
Why are they always mounted so close to the floor?? I would raise them 0.5m for various safety reasons.
To be honest with you, there's zero flood risk where it's located, I can't see any risks there. We are on a slope, I can't imagine water ever getting that high. Also, it's pretty much waterproof so no real worries.
Getting kW and kWh mixed up. A 3kW immersion heater will drain those batteries in 13.5/3 hours, so maybe just run it for 30 minutes before your shower and then turn it off. A 1kW tumble dryer can be run 13.5/1 hours, or 13 and a half hours, and who does that? The real question is, will 13.5kWh last until the panels charge it up again, which depends on how much energy your house uses in a day, and will one day of sunshine fully charge the batteries? Winter sunshine and cloudy days are a whole new ballgame. Also FIT payments based on an export guesstimate of half your production may be a better deal than an actual export meter that measures how much is left after your batteries take what they want.
Read the pinned comment 😉
@@HamerReviews Serves me right for not reading it first. Sorry.
No worries 🙂 Sorry if I sounded curt too, just frustrating when you have hundreds of people pointing your mistake out 😆
An interesting video. Thanks for posting. I'm still undecided though! ;-)
Hi Christoph, might you know the answer to a question I have? I’m fortunate to have a feed in tariff of 41p / Kw, if I were to move to the Tesla Power plan would I lose the FIT in place of the flat rate 11p?
Afraid I’m not sure on that front, I reckon you would lose it, yes.
Great vid! I'm about to fit a 4kw solar PV+battery and a heat pump. Does the battery still get juice from the solar with the heatpump running? Also in London!
When it’s very cold, no, so below 5-7C it gets minimal electricity from solar just due to the heat pump zapping more. BUT, we find our heat pump doesn’t need to run all the time, so actually, it does get topped up.
In the colder months we run the battery in energy savings mode so it charges on cheap off peak over night is 100% by 7 AM and then discharging until around 12/1 after which it tends to charge a bit till sundown.
Hope that helps.
@@HamerReviews thanks!
Good video, well presented.
Glad you liked it! Do subscribe if you'd like to support my channel - it really helps!
@@HamerReviews already done.
Thanks for sharing your view on the PW2. Can I ask about drawing down the battery stored power to your home. If you have heavy loads drawing power (dishwasher/washing machine/showers) at the same time, is there a limit at which the PW2 will stop supplying the house and switch to grid even for a short while? Do you have to change some habits on usage for the battery to continue to supply the house and use most of 13.5Kw? Also, can you draw down 100% depth of discharge?
You can draw down 100% but it does keep a bit in reserve I believe. It shows as 100%.
There is a limit, I think max draw is 4-5kwh we can run Hob and washing machine at same time but not the oven if just on battery power
Sorry if i missed it, but did you answer the question in the title? is it worth it?
Kind of, so I think it really depends on circumstances so there’s no real straight answer.
no
Great video, thanks. However I am puzzled why you had your power wall installed outside, as these batteries are known to fall off the edge of a cliff in terms of charging and discharging efficiency when the temperatures drop in winter. Can you comment on this? Regards Peter
It’s partially covered, for us it’s also about safety, I’m sure Tesla do a good job but mistakes happen, if we encounter one we’d prefer it goes up in smoke outside rather than in our home. Also it can be a little noisy.
Given this was installed in a semi detached house in london, an outside is two made more sense for us.
We’ve not seen massive issues in the winter when it comes to performance
@@HamerReviews thank you for you quick reply. Yes, I’ve heard of the Tesla power wall bursting into flames, but with today’s media you can bet it’s an isolated case and probably exaggerated. You say you have not had massive issues, so by that are you saying that you do get a drop off of efficiency in the winter? I ask because these companies that sell them don’t mention it, or any downsides because they want to sell them. Thanks again for your input, it’s very helpful.
@@peterpage7322 No response, huh? starting to think this guy is a shill.
@@russellholmes3187 what me? Haha I WISH tesla was paying me 😆.
Anyhow UA-cam is pretty horrendous at notifying on replies - so I rarely do, especially given how many replies I get across videos.
But to answer Peter’s comment, I’m sure we do lose some efficiency.
If you want the exact reasons for it being outside:
1. Space was at a premium in our home, outside gave us more space
2. We were very concerned it’d be noisy - thankfully it isn’t but the spec sheet made us think it might be.
3. Genuine safety concerns.
The installer of our system actually was suggest LG Chem at the time but there were delays and we wanted the Tesla system so we went with that.
I’ve just moved home and hope to install a similar system here with more effective Solar panels
@@HamerReviews Fair enough, fella, my apologies.
Do you have a charge regulator between the solar panels and the power wall? Where is the wiring connecting them?
There’s a Solar Edge converter mounted above the PowerWall control panel in our home
Very informative. Thank U
Glad you found it useful :) please consider subscribing to support the channel, it really helps🙂
Hi Christopher, great informative video. Would you be able to do a video on your heat pump setup? I'm contemplating getting one for when I get my house refurbished next year (hopefully if the current situation has improved) and was wanting to know what whether you have a ground source or air source? How much power it consumes? Whether it's worth it over lets say gas central heating (taking into account that you have the solar and power wall as this is what I plan on doing at the same the same time as the refurb). :-)
@Hamer Reviews, just read the comment below, should have done that first before asking :-) But still would be nice to get your opinion on it and what to look out for and the costs involved with such a setup. (underfloor heating, whether it's water based or electric based etc). I look forward to your response.
Also, regarding getting paid nothing for anything you export. I believe depending on what your meter setup is like, you should be able to specify which company takes your excess generation via the SEG (Smart Export Guarantee) www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications-and-updates/seg-supplier-list
Thanks for your comment, currently I'm not planning one on our Air Source heat pump system. Reason is, unlike the Tesla, it's much harder to quantify the technology. We also upgraded from electric heaters, so have no reference point to gas.
We have a Nibe system installed, with their air source heatpump, controller and water heater... The solution seems to work well, though we have had some issues. It doesn't use much power from what I can tell on the tesla app, but we don't get breakdowns per device.
I don't think I'd recommend Nibe though, although their staff are good, I'm not convinced their actually installed equipment is top tier.
On the SEG, our energy supplier basically told us to sod off 'as we don't produce enough', we've made a point to make sure none flows into the grid now.
@@HamerReviews thanks for the speedy response :-) I'm sure you're already aware but I believe you can get RHI payments to offset the cost for the initial install cost of the heat pump.
Very informative video thank you
Glad it was helpful! Please consider subscribing to support the channel :)
Hi Hamer,
I am thinking of installing a solar PV system and power wall. I would love to know what your PV,Inverter and battery plus component set up is. Are you able to provide this information? Thank you
Great explanation and video! I'm looking into buying solar tiles but not by tesla. Do you think this system could work with solar tiles as a pose to solar panels? Thanks
I’m afraid I have no idea, however an educated guess would be that I can’t see why it’d be a problem. As long as you have an inverter providing a few kWh of power to the PowerWall surely it’d still charge as they are still solar panels, presumably the inverter would do the hard work.
@@HamerReviews Thanks for your reply and help..I'm looking into it..the initial costs are so high though if you're looking at running purely from solar and wind energy combined.
What happens if you lose your internet connection - does the power wall still function?
Yes and no. Yes it will function, but if it can’t call home for a certain amount of time I think it can lock up or stop you from changing settings etc but not sure on this point
Thanks for the video it was really helpful. How much was the powerwall and installation. Im happy if you message on a different means. Thanks
Honestly what we paid for the PowerWall in 2020 was way different to the current pricing… like thousands less
Ah ok, good on you. 👍
@@user-mz7vh9pr9g luck, last year when installing our new system the PowerWall II quote was 10/11k if I remember correctly
@@HamerReviews thanks for the heads up.
Hi. Can you tell me if a Gateway is necessary?
Yep you have to have the gateway - the battery won’t function without it
Thanks Chris - I agree we have a PW2 nice video, we are considering a ASHP and wondered if you will do a video on this? Our concerns are noise - may I ask which model you have please? Thanks
We have a Nibe ASHP, it’s not too loud, barely notice it. I’m not planning a video on it, in all honesty it’s not that exciting, and there are so many variables.
Our main findings are that when it’s -3 or colder the ASHP is very inefficient but it’s great at 3+.
@@HamerReviews cold house at -3 ? Do you have any secondary hearting to boost it?
No no, not at all, the house was still a toasty 24C but just inefficient in terms a lot of electricity used. No secondary heating, it’s all ASHP over underfloor heating.
@@HamerReviews we have had different options from different companies, they are saying it’s 60dB would that fit in with yours?
Thank you for your informative video. We have recently installed an air source heat pump for our heating and hot water (4 bedroomed detached house). We've also had a quote from the installer for a 4.5kw solar array. However I am conscious that if we install solar we'll be getting the most output when we least need it, so a Powerwall I believe would be essential to make sense of the system. I have looked at the Octopus Energy Tesla Rate and they are quoting me 11.38p/kWh for both import and export rate. In other words all our energy usage would cost 11.38p/kWh + 22p/day standing charge.. This compares vary favourably with what I am being quoted by my current energy supplier (25.8p/kWh + 46p/day) for when my fixed rate tariff ends shortly. This seems to me like the best way forward with such a set up. Is there a good argument against this? Your thoughts greatly appreciated.
Kind of depends. If you put in a bigger solar array and generate surplus power you could export on octopus outgoing at up to 30p if you use an agile tariff.
Do you have economy 7? We have that on this system so charge with cheap electricity overnight.
Personally I wouldn’t want to hand over control of my PowerWall which is why I’d be hesitant.
If you overspec your solar you could use that to use the electricity at night.
I will add that an ASHP needs to run 24/7 so you could turn heating up during day and down during night to offset production of solar depending on time etc
@@HamerReviews thanks for your reply. Octopus Go quotes me 7.5p off peak and 33.75p for the rest of the time with a standing charge of 48.65p/day. I have to say that I like the idea of a known rate of 11.5p/kWh which is particularly interesting in mid winter when solar production will be low and demand hgih (and of course if the Powerwall is fully charged and the solar panels are producing electricity beyond domestic consumption then I'll feeding in at 11.5p/kWh). I can't fit a bigger solar array due to the available roof area. I'm not sure that giving Octopus control of the Powerwall is an issue for me, particularly as the rate is fixed. I'm not sure what our likely annual electricity consumption is going to be as we've only had the heat pump for three months but I think a conservative figure is 12,000kWh. The Octopus Tesla Rate would save me approx £1,800/year, meaning that an installation cost for the solar and Powerwall (approx £14,000) would be paid off in less than 8 years at current rates. However as the price of electricity goes up I would expect that the differential between the rates would increase making the saving even greater.
I'm seriously interested in getting a system installed but is it financially worth buying? Would be interesting to see a video about the numbers...
This might be something we do in the future, to be honest, it will take time for it to pay off, but we are gambling on energy prices going up to the point we expect it to pay off within 12 years.
@@HamerReviews Will the battery last 12 years, and can you change individual cells or are they all welded together?
@@janegerrard1073 the battery is guaranteed to hold 80% capacity after 10 years. So yes the battery will be fine after 12. I’m not sure re cells, but the 10 year guarantee was enough for us.
That all being said, with energy prices doing what they are doing, we will not be surprised to break even in >10 years at this stage
Great review. I'm in SW London and am considering the same set up...flat roof solar and a powerwall.
Would you mind me asking how much the solar and powerwall (incl installation) was for you to give an approximate estimate. I assume that the flat roof installation made it a bit more expensive?
Also, would you be willing to share the details of the installers that did the work for you?
Many thanks and keep up the great work.
Sorry, i missed your comment. How did you get on?
I’m in the process of planning a new installation on a new property that will be quite similar and it’s just the sloped roof and cost wise the ballpark is 18-20k. The flat roof didn’t really change the cost much.
The new installation will probably use a PowerWall 2 again but I’m trying to source slightly better solar panels, some LG ones have peak output of 440w per panel that could be interesting
I’m not going to share the installers as as much as they were good we haven’t used them in a few years and I no longer know if they are any good.
@@HamerReviews I am mid a 2-step installation process. 3 weeks ago I had 13 panel 5kW solar array including 2 panels on a SE-facing wall (with the rest on the roof all held down with weights), a 4kW SolarEdge inverter with 13 panel optimisers. This is now installed. I am waiting on the Powerwall to arrive with an ETA of end of May’22. Total cost will be £17k. So far I’m getting 12kWh on my best day in January so looking fwd to summer time :). I am using about 60% for direct consumption and the rest goes back to the grid so can’t wait for the Powerwall to come 🙂
Nice one! That sounds great! Good to see my estimate was about right! Which panels did you go for?
My research of panels is doing my head in at the moment 😆
@@HamerReviews I went with JA solar - 385w I believe. The EV Puzzle UA-camr recommended them to me and he does a lot of testing and my installer included them in my quote so went with them. 👍🏻
I've done the figures for battery installations. I have a 4kw solar system which took 6 years to pay for itself. Adding a battery to my system would take considerably longer due to the weather in the UK. The price would need to come down for me to be interested. One question I have is, the excess with solar is paid by FIT every three months whether used or not. Does the energy register for the feed-in tariff if diverted to the battery.
Fair enough - soaring energy prices will accelerate this now. If we don’t see the government provide cheaper energy then cost savings will be achieved much faster than we planned.
@@HamerReviews I agree to a point but at the moment I'm on a really good deal for 24 months with E-on so at the moment it's not a good option for me. My last point...re energy diverted to the battery...is this still recorded as via FIT?
Heya, energy to the battery is not FIT as it’s not going back to the grid - but given FIT is quite low if you didn’t sign up years ago (I think it’s even called something else now) then you get much better value for keeping it in the battery and using it for your own home.
Absolutely also if you locked in at a good tariff then yes you’ll be good for a while, if you didn’t then at least you don’t lose out so much - here’s to hoping for a lot of sunny days this year!
@@HamerReviews I get around 15p per KW as I signed up in 2012 before the big drop..thanks for the video and info.
@@glenn20081965 your FIT stands. It is paid against your generation meter reading. The battery is to FIT calculation like any other ‘household appliance’, so what it uses is irrelevant to your FIT. I have PV, Powerwall2 and Zappi, installed in 2018 so on about 4p. Which I had your 15p, but that’s a result of not being able to install until 2018.
What was your total out-of-pocket cost for Solar Panels + Powerwall + Installation? What do you pay per kWhr of electricity Peak & Off-Peak?
MrSummitville it was in the £15k region, peak is 20p and off peak just over 10p per kWh. However, although saving money is part of our motivation, the other was being greener, so in combination with moving to underfloor heating and an air source heat pump (painfully expensive process) this wasn’t primarily done to save money. This being said, given the lack of feed in tariffs, especially for smaller power setups like hours, the Tesla does seem to make sense as my estimation shows in the summer months we’d be giving away over half our produced electricity to the grid, instead we give away a kw or less a day on average.
@@HamerReviews Wow, that is expensive. Break-even may occur in 15 - 20 years. Since you don't receive any Feed-In Tariff ( ouch ! ) then storing the excess Solar energy in a Tesla PW is the next best option. The Powerwall is very efficient and it is a Battery Back-Up unit, too. We don't get very many power outages - maybe once every other year? We pay only $0.10 / kWhr flat rate all day - making it very difficult for us to cost justify Solar Panels + Powerwall. Although in the state of California, they pay a whopping $0.50/kWhr Time-Of-Use Peak Rate !
I agree, it’s very much long term, however, I’d gamble on fuel prices in the UK to rise dramatically in the next 5-10 years so maybe we’ll see a return faster. It’s nice being green though and cool when we have days where we use no grid electricity!
@@HamerReviews I'd gamble on all energy prices rising long-term ... except for Solar, which is decreasing. So, at some point Solar makes financial sense for almost everybody. Make your own power locally & use that power locally. Why do we have a Centralized Grid with concentrated Production Centers? Because the people who control it ... say so !
A good long term investment that could pay off handsomely when Autodialer software and virtual grid are launched. It might even be worth while installing another PW2 or buying a Tesla vehicle as mobile battery storage?
In the UK, wouldn't it make sense to install it inside as then you benefit from the waste heat that it would generate
Yep, that's an option, though it does have a fan that can get fairly loud in the summer. In addition, I'm not sure I'd want it taking up that much space in doors.
There's no reason you can't though, I know a few people that have it installed inside their garages, which makes sense!
@@HamerReviews great video
Thank you 🙂 if you enjoyed the content please consider subscribing to support the channel - it really helps! 🙂 equally I’ve got a follow up Tesla video coming before the end of the year!
Shouldn't it have been installed indoors? Do the batteries operate better in mid temperatures?
No they are fine outside, unlike many competitors the PowerWall 2 has active cooling and heating
6:55 why does it require an internet connection? So it won't power your home without an internet connection?
It needs to be able to ‘call home’ to Tesla. It has a built in cellular modem but that’s as a backup. In addition you are supposed to have WiFi or Ethernet connected.
I’m not entirely sure on the specifics but I believe it’ll stop working after a given period if it can’t connect to the internet but don’t quote me on that.
There are constant firmware updates, improvements etc that go on in the background (stuff like stormwatch too).
I would think in the UK the power wall becomes less viable the more North you go.
Depends how you use it, if you’re charging on off peak and discharging on peak prices it can also pay off.
Also if you have a large enough solar array it’d pay off too. Depends on a lot of variables but it’s a valid point
@@HamerReviews
Definitely a southern thing at the moment. This is the first I've even heard of Tesla power wall. There are a few houses up here in the North East but they are very much the rarity With the price of energy at the moment and likely to rise further in next few years and never likely to ever come back down then syatem like the powerwall are becoming more and more viable.
@@redmed10 yep agreed, I’m just speccing a system for my new home with quite premium components and even those costs should pay off in >12 years at current energy prices which is kind of mad.
Obviously if prices drop so will time to ROI but there are stronger arguments for solar and batteries now than ever before
Why no one really calculate how much money saved by installing all of these?
It’s hard to put solid figures on it to be honest. Energy prices constantly fluctuate. Equally so does Solar production based on location weather etc.
Fantantic video.
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Isn't it preferable to have the powerwall inside so it's less affected by the cold?
(obviously that's not always an option)
Interesting question. So there's two sides to this, having it inside, can cause excess heat in the summer, and also it's quite noisy. if you have an inside space, sure, but there is cooling etc built into the battery, so having it outside or inside has benefits and disadvantages. Ours is quite sheltered so it's not quite totally outside, it's a valid point worth considering though! If you haven't already, please do subscribe, it really helps 🙂.
The Powerwall has thermal management which heats and cools the battery as required to keep it at the optimum temperature.
Yep, I probably should have said that, obviously if you’re heating outside in the winter you are also wasting some electricity too but I don’t think it’s made a huge impact on us 🙂
@@HamerReviews I think the only real difference between indoors and outdoors is the efficiency. The thermal management uses power so your losses will probably be higher.
Never seen any figures that compare both scenarios though.
Good informative video but didn’t answer the title question.
I’d like to think the video includes information so people can make their own mind up. The sad truth is that the title is designed to make people click on the video… it’s unfortunately how UA-cam works…
How much was your set up here??
About £18k
what solar panels did you go with?
On this particular install my parents had JA Solar 370W and Panasonic 300W panels installed.
On my own install (check my other solar videos which shows it in much more detail) I went with LG NeonH+ 400W due to their superb long term performance, superior build quality and reputation.
@@HamerReviews thank you
Sir for how long I can run 2bed house ? No oven or microwave just tv fridge washing machine lights at night?
Heya so afraid to say it depends. Background energy use varies wildly between homes. With 13.5 kWh Of power you’re better off working out how khan you’re houses uses and work it out from there.
We are usually covered overnight so midnight to 6-7 am in the summer but not if our ASHP heating is on
good one mate
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Is it possible to do a Payback calculation?
Main issue is fluctuation energy prices, I think we estimated around 12-13 years
@@HamerReviews Those price fluctuations beg a longer term fixed price tariff (I wonder how far forward the electricity retailers can buy wholesale power - and thus fix it forward for us ? If I knew I could rely on a tariff for 5 years and payback was almost complete by then I'd leap at the chance.
There’s an argument for that, but equally if we’d fixed at completion of install in March 2020, it’d be pretty painful right now 😆
There are so many non-Tesla products for PV. Many are much more flexible and better priced. Do not really understand the obsession with Tesla wall.
Absolutely, loads of products on the market now. In many ways it’s Apple vs Android. Tesla offers a very nice plug and play interface with little need for user interference but with some great technologies such as storm watch and the ability to easily change from cost savings (charging overnight) to charging just via solar.
We chose it for that simplicity and solid warranty. LG Chem is interesting but didn’t seem as well integrated at the time 🙂
Hope that helps 🙂
Did you mention how long will it take you to recoup the investment? I want to go solar but all the online savings calculator is telling me I will recoup me investment in after 30 years. Is that incorrect?
So we didn't do an exact calculation - but our ballpark is 15-18 years depending on the price of electricity.
@@HamerReviews Really depends and where things get complicated is when you start taking into account the amount of power used locally in the property that you no longer pay for. For example, should you choose to use a tariff like agile, you can combine charging batteries with solar or using cheap rate electricity and also minimise the amount of monies paid for powering your life in a house.
When you start to add in also running a car the cost savings become even greater. We have managed to cut our energy bill for running a car and powering the house by nearly 75%. While I accept we have invested in the batteries and solar, we do not run our gas boiler for 8 months of the year because all of our hot water is heated by the sun as well as powering our travel with the car.
If we only used the FiT payment for payback we are looking at 20 years. If we factor in the reduced outgoings the figure heads into the 8 to 10 year area.
Finally, all the usage generated in the property has no VAT added. Also all of the usage for the car has no fuel tax.
The top tip we can give is to carefully plan the positions of the solar panels and do contact your network operator and get agreement for the amount of export your property is allowed. We have a generous allowance and make full use of it.
You also do not need just south facing properties, we have a east/south/west configuration that is performing very well and with it being east/south/west the length of generation for the day is longer meaning power is generated later into the day.
Finally, Tesla is not the only supplier for solar PV and battery storage. We have been using LuxPowerTek and all in all it has been impressive. It does not have the depth of software that Tesla provides, but it is a lot cheaper and works just as well.
I hope this helps.
@@HamerReviews What about battery degradation? Surely it won't be as efficient in 15-20 years?
80% guaranteed after 10 years - so is expect 60-70% after 20
Worth noting the solar panels are warranted for 25 years
Been waiting on these in Ireland since 2018... still no sign of Tesla or electricity networks working out approval.
they are available now go to tesla.com
Approvals are a real pain. I hope you are able to get them soon!
Any recommendation for UK installers?? Any insight on cost?
Cost wise it’s 18-20k these days. Can’t help on installer.
did you not do a review of yr solar install>
I did not, no.
It wasn’t that particularly interesting. Standard Panasonic panels, 3.68 solaredge inverter. Nothing anyone hasn’t seen before.
That being said I’ve moved homes and am doing my own install that’s much more interesting, LG bifacial panels, nice 6Kw inverter, PowerWall plus panels on north and south side.
Will be doing lots of videos on that once we get going.
Hi is there a referal code, to recomend a power wall, as i am wanting to get one ASAP, i have heard tesla are goint to stop supplying them to people who havent bought other tesla solar products, unfortuanatly there solar roof is to expensive for me.
regards phil (chesterfield)
I don’t think there’s a referral program at the moment in the UK. If you use a local I staler your might have better luck with getting a sooner installation
It seems to be so much money for something that literally at best just allows you to use more of the solar you produce, even with the Tesla octopus plan it's too expensive, the benefit is wiped out by it not making financial sense to install a solar system and have it's returns calculated, but then in order to actually make those returns real, you need a battery.
The Tesla is a terrible return, better off with the cheapest possible battery, so as not to ruin the ROI on the solar .
Tesla doesn't make sense in the UK , with hardly any outages, it's pointless.
We’ve had at least an outage every two months over the last few years, lasting from a few mins to a day.
It will pay for itself, eventually, but yeah sure, for some it’ll not be worth it. It is to us, and our reasoning was not purely financial, which I think I make fairly clear in the video...
I don’t think saying ‘it doesn’t make sense’ is entirely accurate, between may and October we needed comparatively little outside energy. Without the power wall, it wouldn’t even be close.
Horses for courses.
@@HamerReviews you might not guess but I actually sell these!
I agree totally that it is a purchase for something you like, just like any other.
Not everyone buys the cheapest car they can find, same here.
But the UK is a tough market for powerwalls, without any real threat of power cuts, it's not adding much value here
That’s fair enough, I think we will see the economics change as we see more solar panel use and better solar panels... I’m working on a new install at another property at the moment and will probably go down the power wall route again... call me mad I guess
excellent
Thank you! Cheers!
Is that fitted next to a water tap 🤔
It is indeed. Perfectly fine given it’s outdoors waterproof etc.
@@HamerReviews it's not tho is it
It’s fully water resistant - I assure you 🙂 you can mount them outdoors to no ill effect - all on the spec sheet.
@@rhysapdafydd601 IP67 - www.tesla.com/en_gb/powerwall 🙂 it’s all good.