As anyone who has spoken to me about my solar panels knows, I want a house battery. Its the reason I went so big on the system.

Contrary to popular belief, I’m not just after a Tesla Powerwall because I love all things Tesla.  I’d also like to point out that my solar installer Sussex Energy Advisors had told me that though they were certified Tesla installers they couldn’t see how the numbers would work for their customers and so would not quote me for an install until they knew it was the right thing to do.

Of course being me I pursued the idea of a Powerwall even harder after hearing that.

Now I’m not looking to make a large return on this investment, for me this has always about pushing this technology forward setting the example to my daughter.  I do however have to be fiscally responsible as anything I spend to pursue this ideal is money that I am taking away from the family. I’m trying to take in a real world view on this technology, factoring in things like panels becoming less efficient over time, things breaking and needing replacing etc.

I spoke to various installers and asked for multiple quotes and after months of trying to get a Powerwall quote I finally got one, and yes the numbers just didn’t work.  It was about £1000 beyond the maximum I was willing to pay.  Then amazingly I managed to get a second quote! That one came in £500 cheaper but still £500 over the amount I was willing to spend. To be honest if someone had facilitated their promise to me to see a Powerwall I would have probably just paid the money, but no one  ever came back to me.  Back to the drawing board.

So I cast my net wider and started looking at other battery options. I even came very close to buying a LG-Chem battery that I thought would be a good fit for what I wanted and could afford. Unfortunately again I couldn’t get a quote for the installation, though that seemed to be a supplier issue.  I then received a quote for a Solax Battery solution, but that involved replacing my inverter, and being as I have a Solaredge inverter with a 20 year extended warranty, I wasn’t really interested in that solution either.

At this point we had moved through the summer and generation was dropping. I decided to put it all on hold as the whole market seemed to be lost in its own marketing hype. NOTE to any one in the sales of this stuff, if you are providing printouts from a spreadsheet with a predicted ROI, remember that anyone can just plug those numbers in to their own spreadsheet and work out what your assumptions are.

Then my Dad got really sick and all this stuff went right out the window…

Part 2 – Price Tag – Powerwall 2