RealityGT

For those expecting to purchase the Mission E, how many of you are planning on buying a Tesla Power-wall along with Solar panels shingles?
I expect my Power-wall to arrive in early 2019 and hoping to have the ability to purchase the Solar shingles at that time as well, but have plans of installing a solar panel array in my backyard as I have considerable space.

Anyone else planning an off grid setup? I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas.

unclewill

I'll be doing the same thing in 3 - 5 years.

BobbyJones

Unless those Tesla shingles are a LOT cheaper than the outrageous prices that I've seen, look elsewhere.
Of course, living off the grid is a pipedream - no matter how many powerwaalls you buy, unless you have
gas powered generator. Batteries only store power, they cannot generate power. And if the govts stop subsidizing
solar roof owners by essentially paying them retail for their non-requested , uncontrollable and non-dispatchable
power that has little value, and much less when nuclear power from molten salt reactors explodes to replace all
other power generation technolgies, then your solar shingles can only produce power for your home. I have investigated
solar roofs for many years and have concluded that they are far more of a problem than they are worth, and when
molten salt nuclear takes over, they will be virtually obsolete. And if your roof develops a leak, OH, MY!!

unclewill

My main power hog is my well pump. I am planning to run it off solar on sunny days to fill a ground level tank. Free power is free power.

daveo4porsche

Wow so much to ignore in those statements

living off grid with EV,s and solar is expensive - need a lot of storage - 300 mile range EVs require at least 85 KWh batteries - if you have to fill them then you need at least 90 kWH of stored power...

doing that hat twice a week is a big solar system and an even bigger storage system

i have solar the $ does make sense - but being off grid with an EV is a lot of power - I’m still grid tied - generate during the day at peak - use at night off peak - and solar power isn’t useless on the grid as it providing major contributions for day time production - many countries and states now rely on roof top solar as part of their daily production plans and blend it with other production methods to keep the grid stable.

unclewill

I like the looks of the Tesla shingles and the plug and play nature of the PowerWall makes it attractive to me as well. I really want to get totally off the grid but with an EV, it will be hard. I have a backup generator at the farm because the grid is unreliable there anyway!

RealityGT

I would still be connected to the grid, as I live in a Major Canadian city but would be hydro positive and actually receive cash for the surplus I generate. I've got 2 x 10kWh, powerwalls coming and I may purchase other li-ion batteries and shove them in a shed.
Still planning ..

unclewill

What Elon Musk is doing is amazing:
https://www.tesla.com/gigafactory
That said, I fully expect the Mission E to hand the Model S it's a$$!!

Gus_Smedstad

I agree with DaveO4Porsche, off-grid solar's awfully expensive because of the energy storage requirements. Grid-connected is a lot more practical because you're using neighbor demand as storage, and (when engineered that way) power storage connected to the grid.

OK. That was demented. Conspiracy-theory level demented, since only you know about this, and none of the other net metering opponents. It's not the "government" paying for net metered power, it's utilities. The utilities push back against residential solar pretty regularly, but one thing they don't do is pretend that it has "little value" or that it can't be distributed. It simply doesn't work the way you imagine it does.

It's even at right angles to the OP's question, since he was asking about off-grid, and net metering requires a grid connection.
I'd like to see more nuclear power generation in this country, but the reality is that there's tremendous pushback in the US against it, regardless of the coolant. If you imagine a particular technology is going to suddenly gain traction and explode, wait, uh, don't want to use "explode" when talking reactors, gain market share, you're not thinking clearly.

It does make me want to research molten salt, though. The last "it's so much safer" tech I remember was gas cooled. Which we've had for 30+ years, and that didn't make any difference here either. I expect the advantages are pretty much the same, no corrosion from water, but as I said I haven't really looked into molten salt.

You get wet. What exactly do you imagine happens if your roof develops a leak? It's not like the power is being carried on bare wires directly underneath your roof.

If you're going to throw out objections like this, you might try squirrels next time. Seriously, they really enjoy chewing on things, and while they can't do much to conduit, they do get into any actual wiring they can reach. Which is why you want a critter guard, a mesh keeping them away from the undersides of the panels.

unclewill

There is talk that the large size of the car batteries would allow them to power your house as opposed to your house charging the car.

tcsracing1

Im planning on building a summer home in an area that would require off the grid technology. But i am 5-10 years out.
Jury is still out on all this stuff. 15 years from now will show how well it works out.

RealityGT

Exactly why I created this post. I've purchased several large pockets of land in Northern Ontario and would like to plan out how I would go about accommodating my EV's once I swap DD's.
Initial plan is for Solar stands + batteries. But I know there are some very intelligent people on this forum and hoping to gleam some tips/tricks/plans,
I am sure this forum will start getting far busier as we get into Summer of 2018.

unclewill

Now is the time to plan your solar system - you have 10 days until solstice! Due to geography, I receive less than 6 1/2 hours per day of low angle sun for 20 days before and 20 days after solstice. In order to recharge a battery pack capable of supporting my needs during this time, I'd need solar panel area measured in acres. This time of year is the limiting factor in any solar system and the reality may crush your off grid dreams unless you have unlimited space and budget for such endeavors.

unclewill

Also, there is V2H:
http://www.nissan-global.com/EN/TECH...e_to_home.html

daveo4porsche

off grid is hard - the problem is that my solar system produces an excess of 2 megawatts during hte summer months which I need to use during the winter months - 2 mega watts of battery storage is a very very very big system - and might cost several million dollars...

having given this some thought - I've decided on the following:

Solar System - 15 kW or larger
Battery system - 100-200 kWh of storage
tri-fuel 15,000 watt generator

use the batteries as much as possible, solar to fill the batteries on a daily basis, use the generator only when the Solar falls short…