Is The Tesla Powerwall Worth It (Honest Answers)

The Tesla Powerwall is a battery that you can use at home, which stores any energy that is generated by the solar panels on your home.

It is believed that this Powerwall can help you save money on your electrical bills. In this article, we will be giving you honest answers on whether the Tesla Powerwall is actually worth it

What Is The Tesla Powerwall?

The Tesla Powerwall is a home battery system that will store some of the solar energy that you generate to be used as a backup, or if there is a sudden increase in your electrical needs. It is important to note that this Powerwall isn’t a solar generator.

Instead, it just stores some power from the grid or your solar panels. Thus, making it ideal to be used when there is a power outage, cloudy days or at night when your solar panels cannot generate any power as there is no sunlight. 

The Tesla Powerwall has a modular design. What this means is that you can stack multiple batteries in this Powerwall, if your house has an unusually high power demand. As a result, you can easily stack around 10 of these batteries to create one very large power storage system. 

Who Uses A Tesla Powerwall?

There are three different reasons why people may use a Tesla Powerwall. They are the following:

Independence For Your Home

Every home in the country is attached to the power grid, where you will draw on this power all the time. However, even though the grid is a reliable source of power, it can still have power outages sometimes for various reasons.

Thus, power outages can sometimes come at the worst times.

Yet, a Tesla Powerwall can give you some more independence when it comes to your energy usage. If there happens to be a power outage, you don’t have to worry about your food going off in the fridge or freezer.

Alongside that, you don’t have to worry about going without heating for a few days in the winter if there happens to be a blackout. 

Energy Bills Reduced

Once you install a Tesla Powerwall, you will see a slight difference in your energy bills. Generally, you can use your solar panels during the peak daylight hours.

However, at night, the Powerwall allows you to use free electricity that it has stored up over the course of the day. This means you save on the amount of electricity you need to use off the grid at night. 

As energy bills are rising, the Tesla Powerwall is a good consideration as it allows you to use less grid electricity. Thus, you will notice a difference in your energy bills over time as well. 

Reduced Carbon Footprint

Solar panels are the first step to reducing your overall carbon footprint. Then, by installing the Tesla Powerwall, you are reducing the amount of fossil fuel energy that you are using in your home as well.

This is because the Powerwall keeps supplying you with renewable energy when you need it most, when the solar panels aren’t working. 

How Does The Powerwall Work?

To begin with, you need to have solar panels that are installed onto your house. It is also important to note that at the moment, the Tesla Powerwall only works with Tesla solar panel systems. 

The power that your solar panels produce, will run to the inverter where the DC power turns into AC power for your home to use. The excess power that is converted and not being used in your home, goes to the battery in the Powerwall.

The Powerwall uses 3 different operating modes for you to choose from. 

Solar Use And Charging

When the sun is out and powering your house, it is also charging the Powerwall at the same time. This energy can then be stored to be used on cloudy days or at night.

Backup Power Source

With this mode, the Powerwall becomes a backup energy source. Normally it will only be used in emergencies if there happens to be a power outage.

Time Controlled

This mode is great if your utilities charge differently depending on the time of day. Therefore, you can set that your Powerwall will only charge itself up at the cheaper times of day. Then it will automatically shut itself off at the more expensive times of day. 

What Can A Tesla Powerwall Power?

When there is no sun out, it is known that the Tesla Powerwall can provide your home with around 5.8W of power. However, when the sun is out, it can provide you with 7.6W of continuous power. As a result, this device can power the majority of 120 volt outlets and appliances easily. 

With that being said, if you need to power high energy appliances like a well pump or an air conditioner, then you may need to install an additional Powerwall.

In addition to this, if you are using a Powerwall as a backup energy source, then you will need to calculate how much energy you will need to store. To do this, you need to make a list of your main appliances and their power ratings.

With this list, add up all the power ratings together. The total is how much power you will need. You may find that your power requirements exceed the capacity of a single Powerwall, and that your ideal installation would include two or more Powerwalls.

Something quite interesting about the Tesla Powerwall is that many customers have noticed that the battery will provide you with more power when it is not operating with the grid.

Thus, when it is off-grid, and depending on the weather conditions, in a power outage, your Powerwall could provide you with  7 to 9.6kW of power. 

Warranty And Lifespan

The Tesla Powerwall is quite an experience purchase, however Tesla are providing you with a 10-year warranty on this product. 

This warranty ensures that you will receive 10 years of unlimited charging cycles, with the battery capacity retaining around 70%. Alongside that, this warranty states that your Powerwall will be defect free for up to 10 years after the installation date.

There is no denying that the Tesla Powerwall has been made to be durable and last. 

The warranty may last 10 years, but a lot of people have found that their Powerwall has lasted much longer than this. However, over time the battery capacity has begun to drop, but the battery still charges up easily. 

Conclusion 

The Tesla Powerwall offers important benefits, as it allows you to reduce the amount of power that you consume from the grid, which lowers your overall electricity bills and carbon footprint.

The Powerwall works well in all different types of weather conditions, and is great for power outages. 

However, it isn’t all great news, as these Powerwall’s are expensive. They are now only sold with other Tesla solar panels and systems. Also, one Powerwall isn’t enough, if you want to come completely off the grid. 

If you are looking to become slightly more energy independent, then the Tesla Powerwall is a great consideration for your home.

The Tesla Powerwall is one of the leading home energy battery storage solutions on the market, however there are other options available too.

You might be interested in my in-depth comparisons the Tesla Powerwall with its strongest competitors, such as the Enphase Encharge 10, or the Generac Pwrcell.