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I can buy a tri-fuel 10/8kw+ generator for ~$1k, which can run all the standard stuff at home - and some extras, depending on fuel. How's a Powerwall competitiv

I can buy a tri-fuel 10/8kw+ generator for ~$1k, which can run all the standard stuff at home - and some extras, depending on fuel. How's a Powerwall competitive with that? Sure, no seamless transition and a bit of light maintenance. It all depends on how many times per year you need it and for how long. To be honest, I'd love to have a Powerwall - but with the huge cost difference it is unfortunately a no-no.

theshrike79 4y ago
Batteries + solar means that you're producing your own electricity every day too. You can't do that with a generator unless you start cooking biodiesel in your garage. For you light maintenance of a 10kW generator might be easy, but for most of us it isn't. It still has a ton of moving parts, each of which can fail and will be hard or impossible to replace in an emergency situation. It's like backups, you really don't have them unless you've restored them once. With a solar+battery setup you're testing the system every hour of every day. With a generator you need to actually schedule a test time every X months and make sure the fuel is still valid.
whartung 4y ago
Appreciate that what I got was a bid from a leading generator provider, and the cost included all of the installation, wiring, gas lines, trenching, permits, etc. Also appreciate that when it comes to mechanical things in general, I seem to excel at swinging hammers on to all 10 of my left thumbs. I'm not someone who's going to "do it myself" by any stretch. Just not my gift. I was as surprised as anyone at the overall cost of the project, and how the Powerwall had become competitive to it. I do not think I would have been as happy with the generator as I am with the Powerwall, and the daily utility of the system is just far higher than the occasional backup utility of the generator would have been.

theshrike79 4y ago

Batteries + solar means that you're producing your own electricity every day too. You can't do that with a generator unless you start cooking biodiesel in your garage. For you light maintenance of a 10kW generator might be easy, but for most of us it isn't. It still has a ton of moving parts, each of which can fail and will be hard or impossible to replace in an emergency situation. It's like backups, you really don't have them unless you've restored them once. With a solar+battery setup you're testing the system every hour of every day. With a generator you need to actually schedule a test time every X months and make sure the fuel is still valid.

whartung 4y ago

Appreciate that what I got was a bid from a leading generator provider, and the cost included all of the installation, wiring, gas lines, trenching, permits, etc. Also appreciate that when it comes to mechanical things in general, I seem to excel at swinging hammers on to all 10 of my left thumbs. I'm not someone who's going to "do it myself" by any stretch. Just not my gift. I was as surprised as anyone at the overall cost of the project, and how the Powerwall had become competitive to it. I do not think I would have been as happy with the generator as I am with the Powerwall, and the daily utility of the system is just far higher than the occasional backup utility of the generator would have been.