Tesla Power wall questions

Russ Smith

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We went house shopping with one of our nieces yesterday and her BF. They were looking at a new development by Lennar that has "all electric" homes with solar panels. I eventually got frustrated with the sales guy he clearly didn't know what stuff meant so when we got home I googled it. All electric means no gas, so heating is electric too. He had told me that everything runs off the solar panels there are no batteries you don't need any. 2000 plus square foot house, in a place that gets over 100 regularly in the summer.

I eventually found on Lennar's website the houses are pre wired with conduit etc for Tesla Power walls so the intent is you WILL in fact have batteries which seemed obvious but they kept insisting you didn't.

Some questions.

1) I am seeing 15 to 20K installed for a Power wall 3 does that sound right?

2) Tesla loves proprietary but if it's pre done for a Power Wall I assume that doesn't mean you HAVE to install one, that you could buy something similar from someone else that might be cheaper? if so any recommendations or is Tesla the way to go?

3) The site says power walls can be "stacked" so you can increase amperage. Power Wall 3 is 60 amps so you can increase that. Are the add ons configurable, that is would they need to buy a 2nd power wall 3 or can they just get some smaller addon that increases the capacity by say 25% for less money?

I actually wasn't all that impressed the quality of build doesn't seem great and the sales people had no clue. We saw Beazer homes too and exact same thing, they didn't know about the power wall, and they kept talking up how they duct the AC direct to the unit but had no idea WHY they do that and what advantage it has. And they were touting this air cleaner they install in all homes that improves the quality of air. I took a pic of it and eventually found what it actually does, it brings in outside air to mix with the circulating air to make it "fresh". So it's basically an economizer being renamed as an air freshener if I'm understanding it correctly.
 

Devilmaycare

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I don't know about the power wall stuff. Haven't looked into them yet since I've been renting. I'll do a deep dive once I'm ready to buy again.

On the "wasn't all that impressed with the quality of build." You're spot on with that. If they're going to buy a new build make sure they get a thorough inspection on their own and do not use anything that the builder gives you. There's a good YouTube channel of an inspector here in AZ looking at new builds and it's appalling how bad the quality is on them. Basic stuff that's not done correctly. You really have to be careful that you're not buying a money pit.

Don't be Tom Hanks and Shelley Long. ;)
 

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