Build a $3000 "Telsa Powerwall" Battery for $300

[presence]

Telsa Powerwall technology revolves around "18650" size lithium batteries.

90% of the retail cost is marketing and hype.

[luctor-et-emergo]

Well.. If you add labor cost, cost of factory, machines, development, packaging, marketing etc. Oh, and some profit.. You'll probably end up at the Tesla figure... Which isn't too unreasonable I think.

BTW, would insurance companies pay out if your house burns down due to a homemade battery pack? If I had one of these Tesla batteries or any other large quantity of those kinds of cells I'd keep them away from my house... Maybe in a shed that's far enough away in case the thing decides to burst into flame.

[jmdrake]

Well.. If you add labor cost, cost of factory, machines, development, packaging, marketing etc. Oh, and some profit.. You'll probably end up at the Tesla figure... Which isn't too unreasonable I think.

I take it you didn't watch the video. If you did you'd know the Tesla powerwalls are on back order so if you want one you need to DIY.

BTW, would insurance companies pay out if your house burns down due to a homemade battery pack? If I had one of these Tesla batteries or any other large quantity of those kinds of cells I'd keep them away from my house... Maybe in a shed that's far enough away in case the thing decides to burst into flame.

If an insurance company is so lame that they won't insure you for wiring a bunch of batteries together then they suck and you should be insured by somebody else. What's next? "Don't reload your own ammo because it might catch fire and you won't be insured?"

[luctor-et-emergo]

I take it you didn't watch the video. If you did you'd know the Tesla powerwalls are on back order so if you want one you need to DIY.

Yeah I saw that but what does that have to do with my comment ? I merely pointed out that the $3000 figure isn't too bad.

If an insurance company is so lame that they won't insure you for wiring a bunch of batteries together then they suck and you should be insured by somebody else. What's next? "Don't reload your own ammo because it might catch fire and you won't be insured?"

Calculated risks, which is why I wouldn't put a large amount of those cells inside my house.

[jmdrake]

Yeah I saw that but what does that have to do with my comment ? I merely pointed out that the $3000 figure isn't too bad.

Because you can't even by one for $3,000 if they aren't available? And "bad" is relative. I don't think anybody said it was $3,000 was an unreasonable price. But building a $3,000 device for $300 means you're saving a lot of money. If you like saving money, really would like one of these house batteries, and have the skill to do this safely, why not? It's like any DIY project.

Calculated risks, which is why I wouldn't put a large amount of those cells inside my house.

Minuscule risk. Your house is more likely to burn down from someone forgetting to turn off something on the stove. And I was specifically responding to your point about insurance companies rather than your own "risk calculation." If you don't want to take such a tiny risk then that's certainly your prerogative. But an insurance company that wouldn't insure someone over a powerwall, be it factory made or DIY, isn't worth doing business with IMO.

[spudea]

I thought this was really cool! And sometimes it is said it's too difficult to build an electric charging infrastructure. These could easily be setup at parking lots and maybe a quick charging version at gas stations.

[Bruehound]

I am a solar professional and the Tesla price point is very very good. As for insuring a DIY battery bank, in a perfect world you would have a company willing to underwrite that but I doubt you could find any insurer currently in the marketplace who would be willing to take that risk. This type of battery technology can be a very serious fire risk if you dont do everything right.

[jmdrake]

I am a solar professional and the Tesla price point is very very good. As for insuring a DIY battery bank, in a perfect world you would have a company willing to underwrite that but I doubt you could find any insurer currently in the marketplace who would be willing to take that risk. This type of battery technology can be a very serious fire risk if you dont do everything right.

If you have fire insurance and your insurance carrier doesn't specifically exclude experimental electronics (and they probably don't but you should read the fine print) then you will probably be covered. Again, the normal electric or gas cook stove in most homes is more of a fire risk because a lot of people will start cooking something, get distracted and then not come back unto it until the smoke alarm is going off.

[luctor-et-emergo]

If you have fire insurance and your insurance carrier doesn't specifically exclude experimental electronics (and they probably don't but you should read the fine print) then you will probably be covered. Again, the normal electric or gas cook stove in most homes is more of a fire risk because a lot of people will start cooking something, get distracted and then not come back unto it until the smoke alarm is going off.

I'm right there with you that insurance companies should in theory provide insurance for such purposes. My question however was if they were likely to do so right now. I do not know the market in this regard.

I wouldn't say a normal gas stove has more of a fire risk. It's a completely different fire risk.

[jmdrake]

I'm right there with you that insurance companies should in theory provide insurance for such purposes. My question however was if they were likely to do so right now. I do not know the market in this regard.

Fair enough. My argument is this. It's unlikely that the big insurance companies have paid enough attention to the "home battery" market to put a disclaimer in their policies such that you wouldn't be covered. Without such a disclaimer you are covered by default.

I wouldn't say a normal gas stove has more of a fire risk. It's a completely different fire risk.

I would say that a normal gas stove or electric stove is most certainly more of a fire risk. Yes it's a different risk. It's a worse risk. On top of manufacturer defect, you have a bigger risk of operator error. Again...someone puts some oil in a skillet to heat up to fire something (pancakes, chicken, whatever), gets called away and forget about it, grease fire ensues, person mistakenly throws water on the grease fire....that actually happens more than you'd think.