WEBVTT - Is the PowerWall a Wonder? 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:07.080 Brought to you by Toyota. Let's go places. Welcome to 0:00:07.280 --> 0:00:13.440 Forward Thinking. Be there, and welcome to Forward Thinking, the 0:00:13.560 --> 0:00:16.520 podcast that looks at the future and says you're gonna 0:00:16.520 --> 0:00:19.680 be the one that saves me. I'm Jonathan Strickland, I'm 0:00:19.760 --> 0:00:22.599 Joe McCormick, and our other host, Lauren big Obama is 0:00:22.640 --> 0:00:25.320 not with us today, but she will be back next time. Yeah, 0:00:25.360 --> 0:00:29.320 she is currently being famous doing something else, which is, 0:00:29.440 --> 0:00:31.200 you know, more or less true. She she has she 0:00:31.280 --> 0:00:33.800 has a lot of other shows that she's on, and 0:00:34.159 --> 0:00:37.400 so we're letting her go and be on her other 0:00:37.479 --> 0:00:40.199 show and we are going to carry on here, but 0:00:40.240 --> 0:00:43.280 she will be on the next episode. So we're going 0:00:43.320 --> 0:00:47.360 to cover something that was recently mentioned in the news 0:00:47.400 --> 0:00:51.640 and kind of made a big stir online coming from 0:00:51.880 --> 0:00:55.640 the company Tesla, which has been known to announced several 0:00:55.680 --> 0:00:58.680 things that have cost stirs in the past. Yeah, one 0:00:58.760 --> 0:01:03.160 might look at them as aspiring to create somewhat disruptive technologies, 0:01:03.320 --> 0:01:07.960 perhaps being the people who want to shake up the market. Yeah, 0:01:08.000 --> 0:01:11.640 maybe create a new market where one never existed before, 0:01:11.720 --> 0:01:14.960 which could potentially take some steam away from other markets, 0:01:15.040 --> 0:01:18.800 sometimes literally as a case. Maybe. Yeah, And so this 0:01:18.880 --> 0:01:21.600 technology that we're going to talk about today is the 0:01:21.600 --> 0:01:28.040 the widely hyped Tesla power wall, also known as a battery. Well, 0:01:28.120 --> 0:01:31.200 so what I imagined when I first heard somebody in 0:01:31.200 --> 0:01:33.600 the office here talking about the power wall, like, hey, 0:01:33.600 --> 0:01:36.040 did you hear about the power wall? I was like, Okay, 0:01:36.080 --> 0:01:39.360 what is that? It's some kind of like home defense 0:01:39.480 --> 0:01:42.759 system where if you touch the walls of the house, 0:01:43.240 --> 0:01:46.160 it's like a Tesla coil. It's like, it's like the 0:01:46.520 --> 0:01:51.800 house defense version of the car alarm and RoboCop. Yeah, okay, 0:01:52.400 --> 0:01:55.360 like the batmobile. That's that's not what it is, as 0:01:55.400 --> 0:01:58.880 it turns out. So what it is very simply is 0:01:59.240 --> 0:02:04.000 a home energy storage solution. Yeah, and that's that might 0:02:04.040 --> 0:02:06.280 sound pretty basic, and in a way it is, but 0:02:06.320 --> 0:02:10.240 we shouldn't talk about why home energy storage is a 0:02:10.280 --> 0:02:13.920 thing that actually matters and will matter more in the future, 0:02:13.960 --> 0:02:18.800 probably hopefully. There are some places in the world where 0:02:19.560 --> 0:02:24.240 this announcement truly makes a huge difference. Now the place 0:02:24.240 --> 0:02:27.720 where Joe and I live is not necessarily one of them, 0:02:27.720 --> 0:02:29.840 but we'll get into why that is. In fact, it 0:02:29.919 --> 0:02:33.440 might might benefit us to have a discussion really quickly 0:02:33.919 --> 0:02:38.120 about how electricity is measured in terms of pricing, because, 0:02:38.240 --> 0:02:42.600 as it turns out, the energy storage part has you know, 0:02:42.880 --> 0:02:45.680 a lot of the decision to switch to an energy 0:02:45.680 --> 0:02:48.880 storage system in your home has to do with the financial, 0:02:49.440 --> 0:02:53.079 uh situation you are in, the type of how much 0:02:53.080 --> 0:02:55.760 are you being charged for your electricity? Yeah? Well, okay, 0:02:55.840 --> 0:02:59.760 let's start off talking about about electricity pricing. How you 0:02:59.760 --> 0:03:03.160 get your electricity, how it's measured, and what it costs. 0:03:03.280 --> 0:03:05.760 So I've got a question. Okay, a lot of times 0:03:05.760 --> 0:03:08.800 you'll see an appliance, some kind of electrical device rated 0:03:09.560 --> 0:03:12.600 for like a number of watts or killer watts. But 0:03:12.720 --> 0:03:15.840 then it seems like when I have to pay for electricity, 0:03:15.880 --> 0:03:19.000 I'm being charged for kill a watt hours. Okay, yeah, 0:03:19.080 --> 0:03:22.160 so what's going on there? Your electronics require a certain 0:03:22.160 --> 0:03:25.440 amount of electricity in order to operate at any given instant, 0:03:26.040 --> 0:03:29.960 and watts is a way of measuring units of electricity 0:03:30.400 --> 0:03:33.399 in an instant. So it's it's kind of like if 0:03:33.440 --> 0:03:37.080 you are driving thirty five miles per hour, you wouldn't 0:03:37.120 --> 0:03:40.000 say how much time was that because that doesn't make 0:03:40.040 --> 0:03:42.960 any sense for that question at that instant you were 0:03:43.000 --> 0:03:45.200 going thirty five miles per hour, you would have to 0:03:45.200 --> 0:03:48.280 ask how long were you driving for thirty five miles 0:03:48.280 --> 0:03:50.640 per hour? That that would make sense. All right, I 0:03:50.760 --> 0:03:54.240 drew thirty five for ten minutes, that would make that's 0:03:54.240 --> 0:03:57.080 the question that makes sense. Same thing with electricity. You'd 0:03:57.080 --> 0:03:59.800 say how much electricity does this, uh this a lot 0:04:00.160 --> 0:04:02.920 electronic device require? And you'd say, like a hundred watts 0:04:03.440 --> 0:04:07.160 in an instant? How long did you operated it an hour? Well, 0:04:07.200 --> 0:04:09.800 that means that you were operating at one watts per hour. 0:04:09.960 --> 0:04:12.960 So when you are talking about electricity pricing, the utility 0:04:13.000 --> 0:04:16.600 companies look at kill a watt hours, how many killer 0:04:16.640 --> 0:04:20.920 watts were used per hour in your home? And you 0:04:21.120 --> 0:04:23.920 figure this out by looking at all the different electronic 0:04:23.960 --> 0:04:27.320 devices you have, right finding out how much how much 0:04:27.320 --> 0:04:31.880 wattage they require, multiply that by how long they were 0:04:31.880 --> 0:04:35.520 in operation, and then divide that by one thousand, because 0:04:35.560 --> 0:04:38.360 one thousand watts equals one kill a watt. And once 0:04:38.400 --> 0:04:41.360 you do all that, you know how many killer watts 0:04:41.360 --> 0:04:44.520 per hour were used for any given amount of time, 0:04:45.120 --> 0:04:47.720 uh like over the you can average that out over 0:04:47.760 --> 0:04:50.599 a month, which is what utility companies do. And then 0:04:51.160 --> 0:04:54.040 in order for you to figure out how much you're paying, 0:04:54.360 --> 0:04:56.600 you would look at your bill and you this gets 0:04:56.640 --> 0:04:59.240 a little complicated depending upon where you live. Um, your 0:04:59.320 --> 0:05:01.600 you might have a statement right there that says how 0:05:01.680 --> 0:05:04.880 much has charged per kilowatt hour, and essentially you would 0:05:04.920 --> 0:05:07.480 multiply that figure by the number of kilowatt hours you 0:05:07.600 --> 0:05:10.839 consumed in that that time period, or you might have 0:05:10.880 --> 0:05:12.680 to actually do the math yourself. Right, You might have 0:05:12.720 --> 0:05:16.120 to take the total and take out any additional fees 0:05:16.120 --> 0:05:17.760 that were at on top of it, and then divide 0:05:17.760 --> 0:05:19.680 the number of kilowatt hours you used to find out 0:05:19.680 --> 0:05:22.360 how much they're charging you per kill a watt hour. Well, 0:05:22.400 --> 0:05:25.239 that sounds pretty straightforward. If you just have a price 0:05:25.279 --> 0:05:28.320 per kilowatt hour and then you've used this many kilowatt hours, 0:05:28.760 --> 0:05:31.159 that sounds like a simple way to calculate your bill. 0:05:31.240 --> 0:05:34.880 But not all kilowatt hours are the same. This is 0:05:34.960 --> 0:05:38.520 this is true, yeah, because there so One of the 0:05:38.520 --> 0:05:41.120 things about the power grid, especially in the United States, 0:05:41.680 --> 0:05:45.560 is that there are peak hours of usage and there 0:05:45.600 --> 0:05:49.920 are slow hours of usage. And depending on the power grid, uh, 0:05:50.080 --> 0:05:53.240 it may be operating at near capacity, as in it 0:05:53.400 --> 0:05:57.200 is carrying a load that is the maximum for what 0:05:57.360 --> 0:06:00.160 it is capable of handling. Right, and you can think 0:06:00.200 --> 0:06:03.160 about this in terms of your own daily habits. I mean, 0:06:03.160 --> 0:06:05.720 how do you use electricity in your house or your 0:06:05.720 --> 0:06:08.279 apartment wherever you live. Well, you probably, if you're like 0:06:08.360 --> 0:06:10.359 most people, wake up in the morning, you turn on 0:06:10.440 --> 0:06:13.760 some lights, You maybe run the dishwasher, take a shower, 0:06:13.920 --> 0:06:16.760 run the water heater. You use some power. Then you 0:06:16.839 --> 0:06:19.040 leave for work, and then for most of the day 0:06:19.080 --> 0:06:22.080 you're not using much power. Then you come back home 0:06:22.120 --> 0:06:24.279 in the evening, turn a bunch of lights on, run 0:06:24.360 --> 0:06:28.159 some appliances, turn on the TV, use your computer, and 0:06:28.200 --> 0:06:30.400 then you go to bed, and then suddenly the power 0:06:30.480 --> 0:06:34.280 drops again. So there's a pretty standard, common sort of 0:06:35.080 --> 0:06:38.520 time of day surge in the demand for power throughout 0:06:38.560 --> 0:06:41.279 the grid, and often you will find out that the 0:06:41.520 --> 0:06:44.800 times when you most use power are the ones that 0:06:44.880 --> 0:06:48.080 have surge pricing on them. A tiered pricing level, so 0:06:48.640 --> 0:06:51.640 that price per kilo what hour maybe a range. Right, 0:06:51.720 --> 0:06:53.920 You might have an average of how much you paid 0:06:53.920 --> 0:06:57.320 per kilo one hour, but that that actual amount might 0:06:57.400 --> 0:07:00.360 change throughout the day, So in the big lead part 0:07:00.360 --> 0:07:01.760 of the day or at the end of the day, 0:07:01.839 --> 0:07:05.440 it might be higher because increased demand is putting increased 0:07:05.440 --> 0:07:08.240 demand on the system. And it also means that it 0:07:08.279 --> 0:07:11.720 creates an incentive for you to use less electricity, thus 0:07:11.840 --> 0:07:15.040 decreasing the demand on the power grid. Um. Keeping my 0:07:15.160 --> 0:07:18.240 most power companies in the United States are like co 0:07:18.320 --> 0:07:21.560 ops or government owned utilities. They're not it's and they 0:07:21.560 --> 0:07:24.920 are also regulated, so they're not able to go for 0:07:25.120 --> 0:07:28.600 crazy profits there. It's not in their interest to try 0:07:28.720 --> 0:07:33.480 and uh uh you know, create the money making scheme 0:07:33.640 --> 0:07:35.880 of some sort because they're regulated to the point where 0:07:35.880 --> 0:07:39.840 they can't do that anyway. So they're operating under these 0:07:39.920 --> 0:07:43.080 rules and uh and and they want to make sure 0:07:43.320 --> 0:07:47.520 that they can supply electricity to all the customers who 0:07:47.600 --> 0:07:50.040 demand it. But in part of that they have this 0:07:50.080 --> 0:07:55.239 tiered pricing to help mediate that demand. Otherwise you would 0:07:55.280 --> 0:07:58.160 end up having demands that power grid couldn't meet, and 0:07:58.200 --> 0:08:02.520 you could have some pretty serious consequences like brownouts or worse. 0:08:02.960 --> 0:08:05.680 Um and uh you know, one of the things we 0:08:05.680 --> 0:08:07.720 could talk about a little bit later is how this 0:08:08.600 --> 0:08:10.880 is the perfect set up for us to say, yeah, 0:08:10.880 --> 0:08:13.000 it is time for us to look in two ways 0:08:13.040 --> 0:08:15.920 to address this, because it's a problem that's not going 0:08:16.000 --> 0:08:18.080 to get better over time. We're going to have an 0:08:18.080 --> 0:08:21.920 increasing demand for electricity. So we need to start figuring 0:08:21.960 --> 0:08:25.680 out one how we can decrease our individual consumption levels 0:08:26.000 --> 0:08:29.480 and to make the infrastructure to deliver electricity more efficient 0:08:29.880 --> 0:08:34.120 so that we're not constantly at that that edge where 0:08:34.160 --> 0:08:37.280 things could spill over into a problem. There's some states 0:08:37.280 --> 0:08:40.240 like California that are really close to that a lot 0:08:40.280 --> 0:08:43.520 of the time. Okay, Jonathan, Well here I've got a solution. Okay, 0:08:43.600 --> 0:08:46.360 say I look at this situation and I say, oh man, 0:08:46.559 --> 0:08:49.320 some some of these you know, power providers, they're straining. 0:08:49.320 --> 0:08:52.080 We're we're going to max out the grid. I'm gonna 0:08:52.160 --> 0:08:56.040 put some solar panels on my house, and then I 0:08:56.080 --> 0:08:59.280 will be energy independent and I won't have to worry 0:08:59.320 --> 0:09:01.960 about this, you know, peak surge pricing at the time 0:09:02.000 --> 0:09:05.200 of day or possible brown outs when other people need electricity. 0:09:05.480 --> 0:09:07.920 I'll just be I'll be completely free. I'll be like 0:09:07.960 --> 0:09:11.319 the Superman of home energy usage. Right. It's not quite 0:09:11.320 --> 0:09:13.439 that way, is it. No, It's a little more complicated 0:09:13.480 --> 0:09:16.600 for two reasons, too big reasons. The first reason is 0:09:16.679 --> 0:09:20.920 that the installation cost of solar panels is something you 0:09:20.960 --> 0:09:24.040 can't ignore. Right, That's an upfront cost that is also 0:09:24.200 --> 0:09:27.400 going to require replacement over time. So you have to 0:09:27.440 --> 0:09:32.120 factor in how much am I spending for the system? Uh, 0:09:32.160 --> 0:09:35.040 and if I'm spending more like if you figure out 0:09:35.040 --> 0:09:37.720 for the lifetime of those solar panels, if you're spending 0:09:37.720 --> 0:09:40.719 more per kilo lot hour effectively for the lifetime of 0:09:40.760 --> 0:09:42.360 those solar panels than you would if you were getting 0:09:42.360 --> 0:09:46.319 it off the power grid, it doesn't make financial sense. Environmentally, 0:09:46.400 --> 0:09:49.640 that's a different question, but financially that doesn't make sense. Okay, 0:09:49.640 --> 0:09:52.640 well let's say we ignore that. Okay, we've still got 0:09:52.760 --> 0:09:56.920 another problem. Time problems actually eider that for a different 0:09:56.960 --> 0:10:01.840 reason now, right, because solar panels will convert solar power 0:10:01.880 --> 0:10:06.600 to electricity, but that's immediate. That's it happens when it 0:10:06.760 --> 0:10:09.600 when the solar power, when the sun light hits those 0:10:09.600 --> 0:10:13.520 solar panels. Yeah, that's when the electricity gets generated, whether 0:10:13.600 --> 0:10:16.079 you are using it or not. That's when the electricity 0:10:16.120 --> 0:10:19.920 is there and it doesn't stick around. So we talked 0:10:19.920 --> 0:10:22.160 earlier about the peak times when we're going to be 0:10:22.240 --> 0:10:25.400 using electricity, first thing in the morning and in the evening, 0:10:25.480 --> 0:10:28.720 especially once it starts getting dark and we need to 0:10:28.720 --> 0:10:31.040 turn lights on so we can see well when it 0:10:31.080 --> 0:10:34.080 gets dark, we're not getting any sunlight on the solar panels. 0:10:34.120 --> 0:10:35.760 In the morning, we may not be getting very much 0:10:35.760 --> 0:10:39.559 sunlight either, and so you're not generating a lot of electricity. 0:10:39.600 --> 0:10:42.040 You're generating the most electricity in the middle of the day, 0:10:42.080 --> 0:10:44.160 which we have already established the time when you're not 0:10:44.240 --> 0:10:47.000 at home. It's the cruel irony of nature. So you 0:10:47.040 --> 0:10:51.920 need some way to store that electricity so that you 0:10:51.960 --> 0:10:55.560 can then access electricity during the hours when you need it. 0:10:55.600 --> 0:10:59.120 But it's also the hours when you're not generating electricity, 0:10:59.120 --> 0:11:02.520 at least not through solar panels. Right. So we've reached 0:11:02.559 --> 0:11:05.800 the point where whether you're just drawing grid electricity or 0:11:05.920 --> 0:11:08.240 you want to outfit your home with solar panels and 0:11:08.280 --> 0:11:11.880 stuff like that. Either way, it would be really advantageous 0:11:11.920 --> 0:11:14.280 if you had an efficient way to store a lot 0:11:14.320 --> 0:11:18.120 of energy without much loss, uh, that you could use 0:11:18.200 --> 0:11:21.160 whenever you really needed it, right, Yeah. And this would 0:11:21.160 --> 0:11:23.240 allow you to do things like even like you were saying, 0:11:23.280 --> 0:11:25.679 even if you don't have solar panels, you could use 0:11:25.720 --> 0:11:30.320 a battery and charge your batteries when the peak, yeah yeah, 0:11:30.320 --> 0:11:33.440 when the pricing is at its lowest, and then in 0:11:33.520 --> 0:11:35.840 the day when it get parts of the day where 0:11:35.880 --> 0:11:39.360 the pricing is higher. Instead of pulling your electricity off 0:11:39.400 --> 0:11:41.640 of the grid, you pull it from the batteries, so 0:11:41.679 --> 0:11:44.480 you're still getting the electricity you need, but you're only 0:11:44.840 --> 0:11:48.040 sipping from the power grid during the hours when it's 0:11:48.080 --> 0:11:51.200 at the low off hour times. And this would usually 0:11:51.240 --> 0:11:55.240 be at night, so you'd be probably asleep your batteries 0:11:55.320 --> 0:11:56.839 charged in the middle of the night. That's the only 0:11:56.880 --> 0:11:58.599 thing that's really going. There might be a couple of 0:11:58.640 --> 0:12:01.199 other systems like air conditioning, especially here in the South, 0:12:01.520 --> 0:12:04.640 some other things that might be running, but in general 0:12:04.720 --> 0:12:07.240 most of your electronics are off or in sleep mode 0:12:07.280 --> 0:12:11.319 or whatever. Uh so you would be sipping power from 0:12:11.320 --> 0:12:13.760 the power grid at a lower cost per kill a 0:12:13.760 --> 0:12:17.160 lot hours. Let's say, let's arbitrarily say it's eight cents 0:12:17.240 --> 0:12:19.840 for off peak hours, which is you know, low, but 0:12:19.920 --> 0:12:22.760 it is not unheard of. I've seen between five and 0:12:22.800 --> 0:12:25.600 ten cents, depending upon where you live. Um, there are 0:12:25.640 --> 0:12:28.079 other parts of the country where it's very different. But 0:12:28.880 --> 0:12:31.560 if it's eight cents per killer whatt hour off peak hours, 0:12:31.880 --> 0:12:35.360 that's when you're pulling your charging your battery. Then during 0:12:35.440 --> 0:12:38.800 peak hours it might be something closer to eighteen cents 0:12:38.840 --> 0:12:41.200 per kill a lot hour. Well, instead of pulling your 0:12:41.200 --> 0:12:43.160 electricity for the power grid there, you're pulling it from 0:12:43.160 --> 0:12:46.080 the battery. So this is electricity that you only spent 0:12:46.280 --> 0:12:48.120 eight cents per kill a watt hour to get in 0:12:48.160 --> 0:12:50.800 the first place. And if you do that time and 0:12:50.800 --> 0:12:55.280 time again over time, that difference between the the peak 0:12:55.360 --> 0:12:59.920 hour usage and the off peak our usage costs will 0:13:00.040 --> 0:13:05.120 offset the the the purchase and installation price of the 0:13:05.120 --> 0:13:09.600 battery hopefully, right, So whether you whether you go grid 0:13:09.720 --> 0:13:12.080 or whether you go solar, either way it could be 0:13:12.120 --> 0:13:15.520 a big help to have a large energy storage unit 0:13:15.559 --> 0:13:18.920 in your home. It could make financial sense, yes, depending 0:13:18.920 --> 0:13:21.040 on what it costs exactly and how much energy it 0:13:21.080 --> 0:13:25.360 can hold, and that and a lot of other considerations. 0:13:25.360 --> 0:13:26.800 But all of this is what brings us to the 0:13:26.840 --> 0:13:31.599 power wall. So ultimately, let's let's you know, to deconstructed. 0:13:31.679 --> 0:13:34.240 It is a battery. It is a lithium ion battery, 0:13:34.240 --> 0:13:39.800 but it's a very inexpensive lithium ion battery, particularly for 0:13:39.960 --> 0:13:43.080 the capacity, the efficiency in the number of cycles it has. 0:13:43.600 --> 0:13:46.640 So I don't want to take anything away from the 0:13:46.679 --> 0:13:49.280 achievement because battery technology is one of those things we've 0:13:49.280 --> 0:13:52.040 talked about in the past about how you know to 0:13:52.040 --> 0:13:55.360 to get it to a point where it has advanced 0:13:55.800 --> 0:13:59.880 similar to how other technologies have advanced. Is really really hard. Yeah, 0:14:00.080 --> 0:14:02.280 I think I've said this on the podcast before. I 0:14:02.280 --> 0:14:05.840 think batteries are one of the great overlooked marvels of 0:14:05.880 --> 0:14:08.240 modern life. They're one of the things we take for granted. 0:14:08.320 --> 0:14:11.080 We don't often think to be thankful for batteries, but 0:14:11.200 --> 0:14:16.440 just think how amazing batteries are. Awesome they make your life. Yeah, yeah, 0:14:16.480 --> 0:14:18.160 the only time we tend to think about them is 0:14:18.160 --> 0:14:21.640 when a battery's juice runs out and then were cursing, right, Like, 0:14:21.920 --> 0:14:23.720 if you walk into your house and you hear the 0:14:23.760 --> 0:14:26.880 tell tale beeping noise of a smoke detector was as 0:14:26.920 --> 0:14:28.960 its battery is dying, You're like, I've got to go 0:14:29.040 --> 0:14:32.120 replace that. But assuming it's functioning properly, I mean the 0:14:32.160 --> 0:14:34.320 fact that you can like put a little thing in 0:14:34.400 --> 0:14:36.960 your cell phone or your laptop and then go use 0:14:37.040 --> 0:14:40.320 this device for hours without plugging it in, that's amazing. 0:14:40.400 --> 0:14:42.200 It is phenomenal, and it gives us. It gives us 0:14:42.240 --> 0:14:44.880 a lot of independence and freedom that we would not 0:14:44.920 --> 0:14:49.240 otherwise have. So certainly very important and uh and again, 0:14:49.320 --> 0:14:52.120 Tesla has done a lot to bring that price down, 0:14:52.200 --> 0:14:55.880 which is one of the big barriers to using energy 0:14:55.920 --> 0:14:58.320 storage at home. Now there are people who have had 0:14:58.360 --> 0:15:00.880 solar pedals on their homes for years, and they have 0:15:00.960 --> 0:15:04.600 had batteries for years, because you have to have a 0:15:04.640 --> 0:15:07.560 battery if you want solar panels to make sense, or 0:15:07.600 --> 0:15:10.320 you're using the solar panels to help offset how much 0:15:10.320 --> 0:15:13.520 you're pulling from the grid, because otherwise you're that again, 0:15:13.560 --> 0:15:15.640 that electricity that is being generated is just going to 0:15:15.640 --> 0:15:17.120 waste if you're not using it. Well, I think in 0:15:17.200 --> 0:15:20.760 some scenarios you can you can sell excess energy back 0:15:20.800 --> 0:15:24.360 to the grid. Yeah, depending upon the utility company in 0:15:24.680 --> 0:15:27.200 the region you're in there and the laws of the 0:15:27.240 --> 0:15:29.440 state you are in. This is very complicated when it 0:15:29.440 --> 0:15:31.600 gets down to it, but yes, there are some places 0:15:31.600 --> 0:15:35.240 where if your house is actually generating an excess of electricity, 0:15:35.280 --> 0:15:37.160 you can sell it back off to the grid, which 0:15:37.720 --> 0:15:39.680 makes sense. It it ends up taking some of the 0:15:39.720 --> 0:15:42.240 load off the grid itself. They don't have to produce 0:15:42.320 --> 0:15:45.280 as much electricity. Okay, but so, how is the power 0:15:45.320 --> 0:15:48.560 wall different from the batteries that, say, a solar panel 0:15:48.560 --> 0:15:52.360 equipped house has had before. Okay, well, one the design, 0:15:53.120 --> 0:15:56.920 it's pretty I mean it looks kind of like a 0:15:56.960 --> 0:16:00.840 big like pictures mound or like home plate. Like I 0:16:00.920 --> 0:16:03.640 was thinking that it looks like it's kind of bigger. 0:16:04.120 --> 0:16:07.120 And it's also uh, like you said, it's a lithium 0:16:07.160 --> 0:16:09.320 ion battery. Right. A lot of the batteries that were 0:16:09.360 --> 0:16:12.840 used in solar panel technology before now had been lead 0:16:12.840 --> 0:16:15.320 acid batteries, which are the same type of batteries that 0:16:15.360 --> 0:16:17.880 you would have in a vehicle like a car. Lead 0:16:17.880 --> 0:16:21.720 acid batteries. Um are you know, they're they're sturdy, they're 0:16:21.800 --> 0:16:25.760 proven technology, they cry horrible acid, they are all. They 0:16:25.800 --> 0:16:28.520 also can be bulky. Uh. If you have a bunch 0:16:28.560 --> 0:16:30.400 of them in series then one of them goes out, 0:16:30.480 --> 0:16:32.000 then you're in trouble because then you have to find 0:16:32.000 --> 0:16:35.440 the one that's gone out and replace it. Um. It's 0:16:35.480 --> 0:16:39.000 it's not the Uh, it's not the easiest technology to 0:16:39.000 --> 0:16:42.440 swap in and out, and it definitely has its disadvantages, 0:16:43.000 --> 0:16:46.360 but it's proven it works. Lithium ions worked too, but 0:16:46.400 --> 0:16:50.200 they had been very expensive until Tesla had said, Hey, 0:16:50.240 --> 0:16:53.520 we're gonna come out with these couple of models. Um, 0:16:53.600 --> 0:16:56.800 so let's talk a little bit about the the actual 0:16:57.320 --> 0:17:00.080 power wall batteries. There are two models of them that 0:17:00.160 --> 0:17:02.280 they have. As far as I know, they are the 0:17:02.360 --> 0:17:05.119 same um size, right, yeah. I think one of the 0:17:05.160 --> 0:17:06.680 first things a lot of people would want to know 0:17:06.680 --> 0:17:09.159 about it is simply how big is this thing? Like 0:17:09.200 --> 0:17:11.600 where does it go? So they suggest, well, you put 0:17:11.640 --> 0:17:13.080 it on the wall, you mounted on one of the 0:17:13.119 --> 0:17:17.200 walls in your house, and it is in inches fifty 0:17:17.240 --> 0:17:20.959 one point to by thirty three point nine by seven 0:17:21.000 --> 0:17:25.800 point one, so so not a not an insignificantly small box. 0:17:25.960 --> 0:17:30.919 It is smaller, probably smaller than you in metric what 0:17:31.160 --> 0:17:38.479 is that It is a d millimeters by eight hundred 0:17:38.520 --> 0:17:42.480 sixty millimeters by one hundred and eighty millimeters and they 0:17:42.560 --> 0:17:46.720 are producing Tesla's producing two different types of power wall batteries. 0:17:46.760 --> 0:17:51.119 There's also another um power battery that Tesla's coming up 0:17:51.160 --> 0:17:54.480 with for like industrial use, but we're not really focusing 0:17:54.480 --> 0:17:57.159 on that. We're looking at the home use ones. So 0:17:57.359 --> 0:18:00.000 the two models they're looking at is a seven kilowatta 0:18:00.000 --> 0:18:03.280 our daily cycle capacity, meaning that it has the capacity 0:18:03.320 --> 0:18:07.119 to hold seven kilowatt hours of electricity. Then there is 0:18:07.160 --> 0:18:11.399 a ten kilowatt our weekly cycle battery. So we can 0:18:11.440 --> 0:18:14.560 hold ten kilo one hours. But you heard me say 0:18:14.640 --> 0:18:18.360 daily cycle and weekly cycle. And that's important, I think 0:18:18.359 --> 0:18:20.120 because a lot of people have been using the ten 0:18:20.200 --> 0:18:25.480 kilowatt hour cycle weekly cycle battery as their um basis 0:18:25.560 --> 0:18:28.960 to explain how this would work. But it would require 0:18:29.040 --> 0:18:33.600 you to essentially use and charge that battery every day, 0:18:33.680 --> 0:18:36.400 which is not a good idea for a weekly cycle battery. 0:18:36.840 --> 0:18:41.840 The cycles refer to how how much charged, how much 0:18:41.840 --> 0:18:44.480 capacity that battery can hold over a certain given amount 0:18:44.520 --> 0:18:47.600 of time or certain number of uses. Really is what 0:18:47.680 --> 0:18:52.400 I should say. So, Uh, the simplest way of explaining 0:18:52.400 --> 0:18:54.640 a cycle is, let's say you've got a battery, it's 0:18:54.720 --> 0:18:58.080 charged full. You use the battery until the charge has 0:18:58.160 --> 0:19:01.720 hit quote unquote zero percent. Trually do that. You shouldn't 0:19:01.760 --> 0:19:03.919 necessarily do that, depending on the battery. Some batteries it 0:19:03.920 --> 0:19:06.320 doesn't matter, but we won't get into all that. Then 0:19:06.359 --> 0:19:07.920 you recharge it all the way back up to full. 0:19:08.080 --> 0:19:10.680 That's a cycle. From full to empty to full. That's 0:19:10.680 --> 0:19:13.399 a cycle. But you don't necessarily have to do it 0:19:13.440 --> 0:19:16.440 that way. If you if you end up using half 0:19:16.480 --> 0:19:19.600 the charge, recharged it, then used half the charged and 0:19:19.640 --> 0:19:23.440 recharged it that's a full cycle too, so it's really 0:19:23.520 --> 0:19:27.280 just the the representation of a of that battery's capacity 0:19:27.320 --> 0:19:31.159 being used and recharged, and there's a limited number of 0:19:31.200 --> 0:19:35.240 those per battery. The battery officials decreases, like you get 0:19:35.240 --> 0:19:37.080 a new laptop or something, and it will tell you 0:19:37.119 --> 0:19:40.560 the battery has this many cycles in its lifetime. And 0:19:40.880 --> 0:19:44.320 I said efficiency, it shifts at just capacity, because what 0:19:44.400 --> 0:19:47.040 I mean to say is that after you hit that number, 0:19:47.160 --> 0:19:50.720 there's no guarantee that capacity is going to be the 0:19:50.760 --> 0:19:52.760 same as what it was when you first got the battery. 0:19:52.960 --> 0:19:55.359 In fact, it probably won't be right. So let's say, 0:19:55.440 --> 0:19:58.600 for example, here's here's I'm just using this as a 0:19:58.840 --> 0:20:01.600 as a out of the blue kind of example. Let's 0:20:01.600 --> 0:20:05.200 say that you have a ten kilowatt hour capacity battery 0:20:05.320 --> 0:20:10.080 and after ten thousand cycles, it's capacity has dropped, so 0:20:10.119 --> 0:20:14.399 now it's closer to nine kilowatt hours of capacity. Again, 0:20:14.440 --> 0:20:17.960 I just grabbed that out of nowhere. That would mean 0:20:18.000 --> 0:20:22.080 that that battery would now be nine kilowatt hours, but 0:20:22.160 --> 0:20:24.680 when you first got the battery, of that capacity would 0:20:24.680 --> 0:20:28.120 be ten kilowatt hours, and over time that that full 0:20:28.200 --> 0:20:30.840 capacity would drop more and more and you would need 0:20:30.880 --> 0:20:33.359 to replace the battery because you would no longer be 0:20:33.440 --> 0:20:36.120 able to store as much electricity in the battery as 0:20:36.160 --> 0:20:39.040 you could when you first got it. Uh. And sometimes 0:20:39.080 --> 0:20:41.640 this drop off can be pretty dramatic, and depending upon 0:20:41.640 --> 0:20:43.800 the type of battery, you can have issues. Like the 0:20:43.840 --> 0:20:46.480 reason why Joe was saying you don't necessarily want to 0:20:46.560 --> 0:20:51.440 drain a battery completely and recharge it is that sometimes 0:20:51.440 --> 0:20:54.560 with some batteries you can't recharge it, like it gets 0:20:54.560 --> 0:20:56.320 all the way down to the bottom and it won't 0:20:57.000 --> 0:20:59.280 charge back up. Yeah. Well, the horrible thing to do 0:20:59.440 --> 0:21:01.800 is like let it go to zero, charge it to 0:21:03.040 --> 0:21:05.359 use it, let it go to zero. Don't do that 0:21:05.400 --> 0:21:08.840 to your battery. Yeah. Depending again, depending on the battery, 0:21:08.880 --> 0:21:11.119 you can build up a memory of that where the 0:21:11.200 --> 0:21:16.119 battery starts to think of as being its new and 0:21:16.160 --> 0:21:18.480 then you've got a battery can hold half the capacity 0:21:18.520 --> 0:21:20.560 of what it used to. That's not as big a 0:21:20.560 --> 0:21:22.359 problem these days as it used to be, but it 0:21:22.480 --> 0:21:25.800 is still something like you really shouldn't do that all 0:21:25.800 --> 0:21:30.840 the time. Um, it's better to avoid it. So uh. Anyway, 0:21:30.840 --> 0:21:33.760 if you're using the ten kilowatt hour battery, it's suggesting 0:21:33.800 --> 0:21:38.840 weekly cycles, so they Tesla's marketing as a backup battery, 0:21:39.280 --> 0:21:42.399 something that would be used in times where perhaps you 0:21:42.480 --> 0:21:45.520