- [Narrator] Tesla just launched their new Powerwall+
after almost five years without any updates
to the Powerwall line.
The new version reportedly
can have up to 50% more power output,
which means you can run 50% more stuff on it
but the Powerwall itself
will have the same total amount of energy that it can store.
So the question now becomes,
is now the time to buy one?
Well, first let's start with what a Powerwall does for you,
then we can get into the math of it all.
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A Powerwall is a home battery
that Tesla originally unveiled in April of 2015
for between 3000 and $3500.
The difference there was in the size.
So either a 7 or 10 kilowatt-hour backup
that's how much energy it actually stores.
Depending on your house and the efficiency of it all,
you could get around seven to 10 hours
of backup out of that.
Again, it varies wildly,
but you know, on average.
That means that if the grid went down,
your house could still have power.
Well, at least part of your house anyways,
we'll talk about that in a second here.
Then in October of 2016,
Tesla updated the Powerwall
to give us the current version we have, the Powerwall 2.
This one had more energy storage,
13.5 kilowatt-hours in total
and cost around $6,500 before install.
The big update here was also that the power output
in Powerwall 1, it could go around 2 kilowatts,
in Powerwall 2 this jumped to 5 kilowatts,
which gave you a lot more headroom
for running multiple appliances
and enough that you could feel secure
if your whole house would need it to be off grid.
This is why I think it really makes sense
to get two Powerwalls installed instead of just one.
At least that's my view on it
and it's what I ended up getting at my house.
Essentially, you're paying a fixed amount
for the install anyways,
so you may as well add enough backup
to cover your whole house
instead of only having certain loads
what they call essential loads on backup.
And now with this new update, the Powerwall+
is reported to have up to 50% greater power output.
And courtesy of someone on Reddit,
we also got the actual specs
for the new Powerwall+.
So great, when you're off grid,
you have up to 9.6 kilowatts from just one Powerwall,
and when you're on grid,
it's around 7.6 kilowatts.
To put that in terms that make more sense,
it's like running your air conditioning unit
which might be around 2 kilowatts, your TV, your lights,
and also being able to use something like a hairdryer
which takes a ton of energy.
So pretty good in terms of what it can actually handle
in terms of load.
But this begs the question,
can I run my whole house on just one?
Now, of course it depends,
but generally speaking,
if you're looking for a whole home backup from Tesla,
I think you're gonna wanna get two Powerwalls
and here's why.
The max output is still just 40 amps,
which means that if your AC unit comes on,
it may need 30 amps just to get started.
And if you're already using something else in your house,
it could overload it and then trip everything
and shut your whole house off, which isn't good.
So you need to have more
in terms of the headroom versus the continuous load.
The continuous load here is probably good enough
for most houses in the US.
But again, that's not really
what you need to design your system for,
it needs to be able to handle the peak load.
So to the question of whether or not a Powerwall+
is worth it.
It's a question that is a bit personal, really.
Well, if you're just looking at the math of it
in terms of will this save you money,
because you can't do things
where you actually go off grid during high peak rates
and then you fill it back up
either from solar or when the rates are cheaper,
so you can kind of do this rate arbitrage
or what they call peak shaving.
Think of it like buy low, sell high
but with your home energy,
you will save some money on your electricity bill from that.
And I always go back to the Stanford study,
which shows that essentially,
if you have an average electricity price,
a per kilowatt-hour price of 13.90 cents per kilowatt-hour,
then you may be able to get it back
within that time period, within the 10 years that you have.
So across 10 years,
you could save enough money to where it paid for itself.
That's great,
but you know, you're not making money on it.
Is it worth it?
Not really.
Now, if you live in somewhere like Hawaii
which has the highest electricity prices in the US,
then yeah this actually could make you some money here.
But of course, this also assumes that you can switch
to a time of use pricing
and do this whole peak shaving rate arbitrage thing.
Not everywhere allows that,
some states it's just here's the flat rate,
it is what it is.
So in those cases,
it's not gonna help you save money at all.
But on the other side, it's a deeply personal question.
And that is about the safety and security of your family.
And my safety and security,
I mean, having electricity when the grid is down.
Now for some people, this may seem absurd like,
Oh, you're fine, just, you know,
rough it for a night or something.
But if you live in a place that is extremely cold
or extremely hot, this literally could be life and death.
Or if you're one of many people
that have medical conditions
where you have medical equipment that you need to run,
this is far more serious
than just being uncomfortable for an evening
or having to, you know
use an extra blanket or something.
So depending on your situation,
try to, you know,
zoom out a little bit and think about everyone else here
and what it means for broader kind of society
and whether or not a blackout
is something that you could really damage
you know, people's lives.
So in that context,
what is the price that you'd be willing to pay
to have power
if you're someone that has sort of these special needs.
And if we've learned anything over this past year,
it's that no one is really safe from these blackouts.
So it's something that could happen to all of us
from out here in the West,
where power companies cut your power
because of the potential for wildfires
to the polar vortex knocking out power
for millions of people in Texas
when they absolutely needed it,
to up in the Northeast,
where you have these once in a century storms
seeming to come every couple years.
It really is something that climate change
is making home energy needs
something that isn't as safe and secure
as it has been for the past several decades.
And this is not even to mention
that the only way currently to get a Powerwall
is to also buy Tesla solar.
So for millions of homes here in the US and abroad,
you're out of luck.
That also includes the 80,000 new homes in California
that are built every year
which are required to have solar.
Again, they already have solar,
so the only way to get to Powerwall is to add Tesla solar,
so no one's gonna do that, it doesn't make sense.
So the Powerwall here
is really becoming sort of a niche product
that I think is gonna fall really far behind
in terms of market share, in the home battery market,
unless they change their stance on who can order one.
And if you'd like to have a look
at some of the other options out there,
from a home battery perspective, other than Tesla,
check out my last video over here
where I look at some of the more popular options.
Also subscribe if you haven't and hit that notification bell
because I am getting a home battery installed
at my house pretty soon,
and it's not from Tesla because they wouldn't sell me one.
That's it for this one guys,
let me know what you think down in the comments,
and thanks for watching,
I'll see you back here in the next one.