Electric vehicles catch-all thread

[rob_s]

No longer available individually, currently only available with installation of a Tesla solar roof.

That said a number of people have made their own powerwalls out of old/wrecked Tesla banks. I think that's a bit of a grey area home insurance wise but in a big solar market like CA it probably wouldn't be that hard to find someone to certify it.

Depending on space limitation there's any number of ways to customize 18650 cells with protection circuits and it's fairly modular. You just don't want to have your house burn down and find out some of the materials you got such a great deal on aren't actually listed and so sorry, etc.

We stayed at an AirBnB in Joshua Tree... IDK over 5 years ago. That house had one of those big giant solar panels that would wake up in the morning and track the sun across the sky all day, then "sleep" face down at night and start up again the next day. Pretty cool. Anywho, when we got there it was having some sort of issue so the Owner had to come over while we were there and get into the system and figure out what was wrong. IIRC it was that the batteries (basically a shitload of car batteries) were low on water so she had to scurry around filling them and tinkering with things (I was well into my vacation beverages by this point, so memory is a bit hazy).

My other recollection, however, is that this was all housed in some detached shed, which seemed prudent to me then and if I was hacking together a bunch of junkyard parts for my budget power wall I'd think I'd want to follow that same example...

[BN]

I haven't looked at them for a couple years, but I think it was $10k when I was wondering if it was worth it vs a backup generator for power outages.

My online estimate added a zero to that for whole house solar. A LP gas whole house Generac generator is $10k.

[MickAK]

We stayed at an AirBnB in Joshua Tree... IDK over 5 years ago. That house had one of those big giant solar panels that would wake up in the morning and track the sun across the sky all day, then "sleep" face down at night and start up again the next day. Pretty cool. Anywho, when we got there it was having some sort of issue so the Owner had to come over while we were there and get into the system and figure out what was wrong. IIRC it was that the batteries (basically a shitload of car batteries) were low on water so she had to scurry around filling them and tinkering with things (I was well into my vacation beverages by this point, so memory is a bit hazy).

My other recollection, however, is that this was all housed in some detached shed, which seemed prudent to me then and if I was hacking together a bunch of junkyard parts for my budget power wall I'd think I'd want to follow that same example...

In a household storage bank application with the right protection circuits 18650 cells are pretty dang bulletproof. Unless they catch a, well, bullet. Then it's big exciting fire time. I thought about just lining the exterior walls with them so they explode outwards if someone shoots at my house but insurance companies are just no fun at all.

[BehindBlueI's]

My online estimate added a zero to that for whole house solar. A LP gas whole house Generac generator is $10k.

When I did the quote, it was *just* for the batteries. Sort of an alternate to a generator for power outages, since anything here is very likely to be resolved within a week. I didn't realize it wasn't a standalone option any longer until MickAK said so.

[randyho]

I just want a Cyber truck so I can put a diesel generator in the back and when people ask me why, pause dramatically and say 'Bitcoin' throw on shades and drive off.

I have a tri-motor reserved but I have absolutely no idea when it will show up, or if. I have lots of ways of producing my own electricity and very few of producing my own diesel, and I don't have a lot of faith in supply infrastructure scaling without hiccups.

[Chemsoldier]

I was searching for info on range and charging time, when I noticed an article that said something about companies racing to do something. And I wondered when some car company would field a race car for any established racing venue more than a 1/4 mile drag race.

The annual Pike's Peak Highway race(12 miles and over 4k vertical feet to the summit) has a lot of electrics now, including plural winners. Last I heard they are winning the Unlimited Division, so not just an EV division.

[Chemsoldier]

Deleted

[Bio]

When I did the quote, it was *just* for the batteries. Sort of an alternate to a generator for power outages, since anything here is very likely to be resolved within a week. I didn't realize it wasn't a standalone option any longer until MickAK said so.

It likely depends a lot on how much you want your emergency power to do. You can get a solar power pack that will power some appliances for a little while, but might not run your AC or heat your whole house. Those would be a lot cheaper than getting a big home battery, but are obviously more limited.

[0ddl0t]

Can the Tesla powerwall run a microwave these days? I seem to recall the early ones couldn't handle very high loads without piggybacking a bunch together.

[GJM]

I have demoed a Tesla 3 and Y, and you get the feeling that it is basically a tablet display sitting on a pile of batteries, with the rest of the vehicle an afterthought. Driving a Taycan today, it feels like a Porsche that happens to be powered by batteries.