Tesla Powerwall in South Africa - prices and what it offers

[SauRoNZA]

I dream of owning a Tesla Powerwall

Had the same dream and now that I have the money it just doesn’t make any sense.

At least not in SA.

 

[SauRoNZA]

So they will cover the installation and removal as well? Just making sure I get this right. Because all warranties do not work like that.

Correct.

Things like SolarEdge you can even extent it to 25 years.

 

[RedViking]

Correct.

Things like SolarEdge you can even extent it to 25 years.

In South Africa?.

Eish know I'm being a pain. But article does not include installation in the price which I then assumed you are responsible for that.

 

[SauRoNZA]

In South Africa?.

Eish know I'm being a pain. But article does not include installation in the price which I then assumed you are responsible for that.

Yup.

This is why you get “approved installers” by the manufacturer to do the work, it’s part and parcel of why they are approved.

****

Also I’ve done many many warranty claims for various things and it’s never ever been a personal cost to me in any way. No reputable brand operates like that.

 

[RedViking]

Yup.

This is why you get “approved installers” by the manufacturer to do the work, it’s part and parcel of why they are approved.

****

Also I’ve done many many warranty claims for various things and it’s never ever been a personal cost to me in any way. No reputable brand operates like that.

Cool man!

I would then say the Powerwall is worth it as a premium product.

 

[SauRoNZA]

Cool man!

I would then say the Powerwall is worth it as a premium product.

But this isn’t just a Powerwall thing, it should be the case for any of them really.

 

[SpaceY]

Tesla and enphase is the best combination in terms of life span of a system. Tesla for me, doesn't have any issues as far as battery/inverter faults, a simple sliding bar in the settings tab in your app will adjust your battery reserve and your on your way.

I have personally seen the new powerwall 2 push up to 10kw on back up, apparently powerwall 2+ (the solar addon) can do 22kw peak.

 

[Speedster]

Tesla and enphase is the best combination in terms of life span of a system. Tesla for me, doesn't have any issues as far as battery/inverter faults, a simple sliding bar in the settings tab in your app will adjust your battery reserve and your on your way.

I have personally seen the new powerwall 2 push up to 10kw on back up, apparently powerwall 2+ (the solar addon) can do 22kw peak.

What is the installed cost of that Powerwall 2+?

 

[SauRoNZA]

What is the installed cost of that Powerwall 2+?

Don’t think we get them in SA at all.

 

[Mr Justice]

They could have saved themselves the cost of a small car by buying less cool-looking batteries and inverters that work exactly the same way with the same specs for half the price, lol.

Hows the warranty and running cost looking like

 

[TheChamp]

The value proposition still does not sound right no matter how much it's made to sound great. What I see is that they do offer a couple of solutions to a couple of problems that are not really a problem, like the ability to be mounted outside.

It's honestly something that would be installed by someone who puts too much value in wanting to look different, which is a big deal to some people, in terms of functionality I honestly don't see the big hullabaloo.

 

[backstreetboy]

“Residential solar in South Africa is showing positive signs, and we expect that trend to continue for the foreseeable future.”. Eskom: "Hold my beer."

 

[Bobbin]

Why isn't it working?

According to electrician, it must have had a surge from Eskom side and the inverter board is blown. Now waiting for insurance to do their thing.

But even though all the kit is less than 3 years old, technology advances already renders it outdated. So for example my solar panels are now difficult to come by in the market, and the inverter is also apparently no longer in the market. So if I ever want to upgrade, I'd have to redo some things, I can't just add-on anymore.

So there's another issue with solar power and battery backup, seems stuff gets outdated quick :/

 

[rvZA]

Using a 7.5kva generator will be much cheaper in the long run. My generator powers my whole house, except the geyser, stove and oven. It gives us 7.5 hours easily per day and uses less than 1/2 a tank of petrol.

Since the 13kva only provides electricity for 5 hours, it will not work in SA. We recently had 3 outages a day which lasted 2.5 hours each. The Powerwall won't even have time to charge again between outages, which means you would have paid R170k, excluding installation, just to end up with loadshedding and no power. It is expensive and impractical.

 

[itareanlnotani]

Using a 7.5kva generator will be much cheaper in the long run. My generator powers my whole house, except the geyser, stove and oven. It gives us 7.5 hours easily per day and uses less than 1/2 a tank of petrol.

Since the 13kva only provides electricity for 5 hours, it will not work in SA. We recently had 3 outages a day which lasted 2.5 hours each. The Powerwall won't even have time to charge again between outages, which means you would have paid R170k, excluding installation, just to end up with loadshedding and no power. It is expensive and impractical.

How about 5kWhr of LFP battery for 25k and an 5KW inverter for another 10k?
These are typical prices for non-tesla products.

Total 35k + electrician to install and CoC - say 40k installed.

Does that change the math? I think it does.
Need more runtime - add more battery as needed. The next obvious step from that would be to add in some alternate power source from solar. Before you know it, Eskom is making even less money.

 

[rvZA]

How about 5kWhr of LFP battery for 25k and an 5KW inverter for another 10k?
These are typical prices for non-tesla products.

Total 35k + electrician to install and CoC - say 40k installed.

Does that change the math? I think it does.
Need more runtime - add more battery as needed. The next obvious step from that would be to add in some alternate power source from solar. Before you know it, Eskom is making even less money.

5kw is a bit low for my needs. Alternative energy is not really a solution anywhere in the world, even more so in SA where everything is just simply priced out of proportion. It is simply too expensive and very temporary in the event you have power failure. But, the biggest drawback is pricing. Cost of equipment. Cost of installing. Cost of maintaining. It is tremendously high. If you do not earn a decent income, any setup will be very temporary.

 

[TheChamp]

According to electrician, it must have had a surge from Eskom side and the inverter board is blown. Now waiting for insurance to do their thing.

But even though all the kit is less than 3 years old, technology advances already renders it outdated. So for example my solar panels are now difficult to come by in the market, and the inverter is also apparently no longer in the market. So if I ever want to upgrade, I'd have to redo some things, I can't just add-on anymore.

So there's another issue with solar power and battery backup, seems stuff gets outdated quick :/

It's not really a big deal, it's the same as cars, new ones come with plenty fancy features but a 20 year old car still does the most basic thing a car was designed for with no issues.

 

[TheChamp]

Using a 7.5kva generator will be much cheaper in the long run. My generator powers my whole house, except the geyser, stove and oven. It gives us 7.5 hours easily per day and uses less than 1/2 a tank of petrol.

Since the 13kva only provides electricity for 5 hours, it will not work in SA. We recently had 3 outages a day which lasted 2.5 hours each. The Powerwall won't even have time to charge again between outages, which means you would have paid R170k, excluding installation, just to end up with loadshedding and no power. It is expensive and impractical.

It provides power according to what you draw from it, just like you have the presence of mind not to plug in your geysers on the generator, anyone can decide to limit the amount of draw during a loadshedding period plus the whole point of solar is to supplement the batteries while also providing power to your loads.

I agree it's expensive but there are plenty options between that and the generator, some people just value convenience more and a droning generator is not exactly a shining star if you are that way inclined.

 

[itareanlnotani]

5kw is a bit low for my needs. Alternative energy is not really a solution anywhere in the world, even more so in SA where everything is just simply priced out of proportion. It is simply too expensive and very temporary in the event you have power failure. But, the biggest drawback is pricing. Cost of equipment. Cost of installing. Cost of maintaining. It is tremendously high. If you do not earn a decent income, any setup will be very temporary.

Your 7.5KW gennie probably has a 25L tank?
10K zar for a 7.5KW gennie. Running costs R22 per litre? (and increasing).

At some point you might want to reconsider.


SA pricing for Solar isn't actually too bad if you look at it in $ or GBP. The issue is that most of the population only earn Rands.

Maintenance for solar or loadshedding solutions is pretty minimal at best. Batteries and Inverter aren't really huge issues unless you go for cheap brands. Equipment cost is higher than your gennie for sure, but it's more of an investment vs a running cost. I don't see why an inverter + battery install would cost more than a generator install. With the generator you'd need an ATS switch, and some wiring. With the inverter would need some wiring. Both would need CoC's. Costs should be similar for either to be installed correctly.

 

[Speedster]

5kw is a bit low for my needs. Alternative energy is not really a solution anywhere in the world, even more so in SA where everything is just simply priced out of proportion. It is simply too expensive and very temporary in the event you have power failure. But, the biggest drawback is pricing. Cost of equipment. Cost of installing. Cost of maintaining. It is tremendously high. If you do not earn a decent income, any setup will be very temporary.

Get two :rofl: :rofl: