Tesla Powerwall is the most technologically advanced home battery storage product in the UK
The Tesla Powerwall is manufactured by the American company, Tesla, Inc.
It allows you to:
- Store excess solar electricity for later use
- Store cheap, off-peak electricity for later use
- Power devices in your home
- Charge your electric car
- Have power in a power-cut, with the Backup Gateway 2
- Keep your solar PV system working in a power-cut
Tesla, Inc.
The company Tesla has become a house-hold name together with the likes of Google, Amazon, Uber, Facebook, Apple, etc.
Its CEO, Elon Musk, is a pioneer of several industries, including electric vehicles, battery storage, space exploration, and – bizarrely – drilling tunnels.
Tesla built the first, famous Gigafactory in Nevada, USA. It’s an absolutely massive factory that churns out batteries as fast as they can make them for both the Powerwall and Tesla electric cars. At the moment, demand is far outstripping supply.
Battery Cells
The Tesla Powerwall product uses the same battery cells as the Tesla cars.
This is good news. Think about it. A Tesla electric vehicle can function in very cold weather (e.g. Finland), as well as in a very hot environment (e.g. Dubai).
Each battery cell has its own temperature management system that keeps the battery at an optimum working temperature.
The Tesla Powerwall can therefore be mounted either internally in your home or on an external wall exposed to the elements.
No other battery products currently available in the UK can function properly below freezing.
Storage Capacity
The Powerwall also packs a considerable punch for its size.
It is 1,150mm tall, 755mm wide, and 155mm deep.
But inside that relatively small form factor comes a great deal of storage capacity. It holds 13.5 kWh of electricity, when fully charged.
The typical price in the UK to supply and install the Tesla Powerwall can be found in the table below.
The Tesla Powerwall is very good value in terms of price per kWh of storage.
Power in a Power-cut
The Backup Gateway 2 next to its big brother, the Powerwall
In March 2019, Tesla released the ‘Backup Gateway 2’ which allows you to use the electricity stored in your Powerwall in the event of a power-cut.
Of course you might argue, “I never get power-cuts!” For many people that will be true. However, there are also many locations in the UK where power-cuts are surprisingly common. If that’s true for you, read on…
With a Backup Gateway, you gain two major advantages if there is a power-cut:
- You can power devices in your home, using electricity stored in your Powerwall, and
- If you have solar panels, they will continue to work, providing electricity both to your home and your Powerwall.
Point 2 is really important. Solar inverters have to – by law – turn off if there is a power-cut, otherwise the electricity from your panels might electrocute an engineer working to repair the line.
However, the Backup Gateway gets round this problem. It completely isolates your house from the grid. In this way, the Backup Gateway makes your solar inverter think it is still connected to the grid, and so it carries on working.
In addition, Backup Gateway 2 for Tesla Powerwall provides you with energy management and monitoring for solar electricity self-consumption, plus time-based control. All this is managed via the Tesla app.
The Backup function kicks in very quickly in a power outage. In fact, you may not even notice there is a power-cut at all. The first clue you’ll get that there is no electricity in the area is when your neighbours come round asking why your lights are still on!
Tesla Powerwall – who is it for?
The Tesla Powerwall is a premium product; there are cheaper home battery products out there.
Nonetheless, it is very popular and capable. Typical buyers include:
- Tesla car owners with solar panels
- Other brand EV car owners with solar panels
- Customers who want the very best storage technology available today
- People who want to make use of smart tariffs
- Customers who want an aesthetically pleasing, all in one product
- Home owners who would like to mount the battery outside
- Customers who suffer from power-cuts
Powerwall – Video
VIDEO REVIEW
Powerwall
> Tesla
- Interviewed: Robert Llewellyn
- Organisation: Tesla
- Date published: 10 September 2017
- Length: 1 minutes 39 seconds
Product Details
Here is all the data you need to evaluate the Tesla Powerwall.
We display the information in the same format for all the battery storage products we list, so you can compare and contrast.
The prices below include the Backup Gateway 2, allowing you to access electricity stored in your Powerwall in a power-cut.
Product name
Tesla Powerwall
Manufacturer
Tesla, Inc.
Place of manufacture
USA
Storage capacity
13.5 kWh
Power output rating (discharge)
5 kW
Power output rating (charge)
3.68 kW
Dimensions
1,150 mm tall, 755 mm wide, and 155 mm deep
Weight
125 kg
Mounting options
Floor or wall mount
Mounting location
Inside or outside
Operating temperature
–20°C to 50°C
Defect warranty
10 years
Degradation warranty
20% degradation at 10 years
Cycle warranty
Unlimited cycles
Throughput warranty
Unlimited throughput
Permitted uses
Solar electricity capture and discharge, Off-peak grid electricity capture and discharge
Typical cost, fully installed
£7,300 inc. VAT @5% (when installed at the same time as a solar panel system), £8,342 inc. VAT @20% (when installed on its own)
Typical price per kWh of storage
£541 with VAT @5%, or £618 with VAT @20%
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