Tomorrow’s battery technologies that could power your home

[Kevin Lancaster]

Tomorrow’s battery technologies that could power your home

The recent announcement by Tesla of Powerwall, its new lithium-ion based residential battery storage system, has caused quite a stir. It even raises the possibility of going off-the-grid.

 

[itareanlnotani]

Rather bad article.

Doesn't do proper comparisons to things - eg 10KW of Lead Acid is apparently equivalent to 10KW of Lithium Ion (its not).
No discussion of depth of discharge (i.e. whats actually usable from a battery) etc.

I'd get my info elsewhere.

 

[heartbroken]

Has pretty pictas though

 

[satanboy]

tl'dr

 

[siraman]

Don't know what the hell I just read here, anyway pls help me here with a complete off the shelf inverter and battery system that is grid tied that can run the following, 2X42inch TV's,decoder, Xbox,Desktop PC(450w PSU),2X laptops,router+nas,charge 5X smart phones and tablets and lastly 4X energy efficient lamps for a minimum of 4 hrs and maximum 6. A link would be appreciated.

 

[avert]

a 20kwh household would probably connect 2 tesla powerwalls in parralel, not series. 700volts would be a pain in the arse to charge

 

[Swa]

Shouldn't let reporters report on sciency things. With a battery the electrolyte provides the power. It doesn't separate the electrodes like in a capacitor. I don't see the powerwall doing anything in the short term. This isn't like somebody just invented cheap power storage. Price is still about the same but it will result in more competition and better prices in the long term.

 

[Chris.Geerdts]

The key variables missing in the discussion are

1. depth of discharge (how much of the reported battery capacity is usable) (as stated by Isheed_cn)
2. how well the battery holds its voltage at deeper discharge.

For SA home market, customers may be less concerned with
1. battery weight
2. size (may weigh against cost)