I have been off grid for 7 years . My system is 72kwh's of chevy volt batteries, 21000 watts of used panels. I run 2 inverters one 12kw low frequency split phase. A 6kw low frequency inverter charges my chevy volt. My inverters have no software ! And they don't need the internet to make it work. It's been running seven years this way.
How do you manage to survive winter? I generate the most power in summer - when I don't need heating and car requires less powermto run, etc. In winter, the production is horrible (we had a period with less than 5kWh from 12kW array - in 14 days!!!).
Then start arguing for removing the regulations into the energy market. Because it is the single source of corruption and easier for companies to lobby politicians to pass regulations that favour then and destroy the competition. The only reason the power company has monopoly in any given area is because it is legally mandated by government regulations. Start arguing for 100% removal of regulations and then you migh see competition increasing and you as a customer benefiting form it. Because little bit of regulation is again the same, the regulations started as just little and we know what they are now. If you wish gov to regulate just a little bit then you are just naively hoping that the same corrpt politicians will by magic be not corrupt this time. Imagine if there were regulations on how many political parties can there be any given area? What if it was legally mandated that any area can only have 1 political party? What would you call it? And wont you argue to remove all restrictions on no of political parties and candidates as much as they want to, and argue for removing all bariers of entry right(exceptions : convicted violent criminals eg terrorists/murderers etc banned from being a candidate)? Same logic applies to power companies.
What they charge you for electricity is insane!! In Western Washington state we pay about 11 cents a Kw. Moving out of California in 2018 was the best decision of my life!
Just a little bit North of you in British Columbia we have a government electricity monopoly, but we pay even lower rates than you. I don’t think energy monopolies themselves are the problem, it’s whether they’re public or private, and how they’re regulated.
@@jamesvandamme7786 Yup, here we have Hydro-Quebec , my rate is 0.06509 per Kw/hour then it go up to 0.10041 if I pass a certain amount per 2 months. I still need to insulate my house more, got some major heat loss from old windows ,doors and the floor joist, this should lower my heating/cooling bill.
Just something you mentioned pertaining to your gas usage. It's now been 17 years since I've had any heat in my house no gas whatsoever. I insulated everything floors wall ceilings attics. The gas company chargers based on your usage during the summer months. Anything over that allotment during those warm months they charge 5 times the rate of what you use in winter time. As far as it goes with cooling the house I can't Express more than the use of thermal tint on the windows. You can feel almost the 20% drop difference in heat coming through the windows. It's a bit pricey but it paid for itself. Just like the insulation a little more pricey initially. I have 10 tons of air conditioning in my home and I only turned the system on to test during final inspection17 years ago.These little things reduce my bill to the point where at the moment my simple solar generator is keeping the utility companies at bay. When you don't have to pull permits and get anybody involved with what you do to stay off grid, I I'm smiling all the way to the bank.
Tips for stretching the battery life over night - turn off things you don't need. Running servers? Are you sure you need all of them 24/7? Running lights? Are all of them off when nobody is in the room? For things like this, there is perfect cooperation between presence sensors (radar based) and in-wall light switches. If nobody is in the room for 5 minutes, just turn the light off. Same thing about opened windows - few sensors will tell home automation that the window is opened for too long and you should close it to avoid heat creep. Car charging - leave the car plugged and charge only when your battery is already full and only use the excess energy that would normally go back to grid. Garage doors - long-opened garage doors will again allow heat creep into the house - be it hot or cold air, that you will then need to spend energy to compensate. Simple notification on the phone for garage doors opened for more than 3 minutes (usual time to put kids and bags into the car and leave garage) will remind you to close it, avoiding heat differences. But no matter what, in the end, you will still need utility company if you want to keep your standard of living. Just use it as little as possible.
Ricky forgot about the energy stored in the EV. It holds more than all three of the Franklin batteries. It's called V2H - vehicle to home. If he had a Bidirectional charger, the EV could supply enough energy to run his house all year. Putting a few more panels on the roof would charge both batteries and EV, taking the load off the batteries. Also converting the appliances to heat pumps will reduce the load on the batteries. The problem with network equipment is it makes enough heat to require 24/7 air conditioning, so turning off all but a minimum will do little to reduce the air conditioning. Plus the equipment that makes the most heat has to stay on 24/7. What saves money is insulating the dwelling. When a company gets a law made that costs the consumer money, that's known as rent seeking to the economics field. It's a legal form of corruption that should be outlawed.
@@acmefixer1 The problem is that almost no V2H or V2L currently on the market can supply a house. One reason is peak and sustained capacity. An F150 Lightning CAN supply a house with a max of 80A. However almost all other EVs can only supply a paltry 3.3 kW or so (13 amps). That's not enough to run the average AC unit - though it could run the average home.
@@StevenChristenson By your logic, if the EV can't keep the air conditioning running, then the battery ESS can't either since it has much less capacity than the EV. But on hot days the Sun shines brightly so if the house has rooftop solar, it can run the air conditioning and have some left over to charge the EV and/or batteries. This is why they say it's best to insulate a home since it will reduce the amount of energy needed for heating and air conditioning.
You can go off grid without sacrificing your standard of living. You just get very good at finding more efficient ways of doing things. Running the washing machine on sunny days when you've got lots of power coming in is better anyway, because that's good weather for hanging the washing out to dry. A more efficient and possibly smaller fridge doesn't warm up your house as much, and if it's smaller, that reminds you to use your bought food while it's fresh and not let it sit there going stale until you throw it away. A well insulated house uses very little heating and cooling, and is pleasanter to live in than a poorly insulated house even with the HVAC running. Lights are a red herring in energy efficiency. I have all 12vDC LED lights in my house, on a separate battery set and everything isolated from the 240vAC system, and I leave my outdoor lights on 24/7. There's just no reason to switch them off.
@@tealkerberus748 There is a reason to switch off the LED lights: the more hours they're on, the dimmer they get. Finally they're putting out too little light and must be replaced. Same with the wearing out of the electric system.
This time last year, we were in the process of having battery backup installed along with expanding our solar before NEM 3.0 went into effect here in California. Our choice was NeoVolta based in Poway, CA. The NeoVolta system is 14kWh expandable to 24kWh (we did that) with an integrated Solar Inverter as well as a secondary input for pre-existing solar or a fuel generator. They also use LFP batteries which was a selling point because we feared NMC battery problems which were getting a lot of attention at that time. We have PG&E, but live in an area where a local Irrigation District has been fighting to offer service for over 20 years but can't get PG&E to sell the infrastructure. Mind you, we are being hit for most of 2024 with a PG&E price increase because they haven't done even basic maintenance in our area in 25 years. PG&E, SDG&E, SoCal Edison are all for-profit corporations that have played fast an loose with maintenance for decades and when they get caught red handed (the San Bruno pipeline explosion, all of the forest fires. Destroying the entire town of Paradise.) Killed people and then somehow weasel their way out of it by filling false bankruptcy-- since when does bankruptcy discharge court ordered settlements? If I could cut the PG&E connections to my property, I'd do it in a second but until I can, I'm going to self-generate as much as I can.
Great comment on moving off natural gas to solar/battery. We replaced the HVAC (heat pump), R8 duct, added additional return to guarantee 1600 cfm in and out (4 ton). When Jan 2023 cold season hit our natural gas bill went from $30 to $99. Our neighbors went from $30 to $300-$600. Our water heater is in our insulated garage and suffered from the cold. My daughter and I spent a couple hours with a R8 insulation wrap. Following cold months dropped to high thirty’s. My conclusion is HVAC Heatpump is extremely efficient and has 99 speeds of operation maximizing efficiency. It does not take a huge hit on the battery to start as ramp up, maintain and ramp down keeps the home comfortable for winter or summer. Last comment, I would not switch the water heater from natural gas as there is literally no maintenance for 15-20 years (optional yearly discharge or anode replacement if you want 20-30 year life). Heat pumps require monthly/quarterly air filter cleaning, they are noisy, produce vibrations, require exhaust duct (my opinion for cold air) and the cost at the end of day are pretty close in Southern California.
My GE heat pump/resistance heat hybrid water heater ($1,400 price in 2010, then less a $400 utility rebate) is still running fine in 2024 after fourteen years. No maintenance required except rinsing off the air filter. It never shows it using the resistance heater. 50 gallon capacity, 63 gallons at selected temperature (130F) for the first hour. I did put a water softener in front of it to avoid our hard water lime buildup.
Have you considered how to reduce your power consumption in the first place? That is usually the best thing to do before considering how to generate more with solar. I Denmark where I live there is a great focus on building low energy houses - to minimize energy consumption for heating. But the isolation works both ways - so also against heat in the summer 😉
$0.42/kWt hour? Crazy! I pay $0.09/kWt hour and I live in the desert where we run our AC 24/7 for at least 5 months out of the year. I'll have to confirm it with my wife, but I'm pretty sure my electric bill is NEVER more than $200/month.
Most of the cost of electricity is infrastructure, so the actual $price/kWh tends to depend on usage. States with very high consumption tend to have lower $/kWh rates. But the bills wind up being comparable for average homes. California isn't even in the top-10. It's middling for actual electricity bills and a bit higher for electricity + NG bills (around #10-#12). In fact, the average electricity bill in Arizona is higher than the average bill in California even though Arizona electricity costs only $0.15/kWh. New Mexico, on the other-hand, has the 2nd lowest electricity bill in the U.S. Low prices and low bills. It varies. That said, heavy electricity users in California do get dinged. If you are a heavy user you really need Solar to keep the bills reasonable. I also live in California and am a fairly heavy user. I save around $3000/year by having roughly 7kW worth of solar on my home. My monthly electricity bill (not including natural gas) varies between $25/month in summer to $150/month or so in winter. And that includes charging an EV. I'm working towards reducing it even further. -Matt
@@brawnbenson552 I don't know about SDGE, but Pacific Gas And Electric will NOT let you use a tiered plan in Northern Califonia, you MUST go with a Time of Use Plan. The reason is simple... if you don't have a battery the peak electricity costs can kill you because they occur as production wanes and ends. In fact due to a snafu, I was on the 2-tier plan for almost 3 months. It's pretty amazing how much more reasonable costs are when you can stay in the first tier all day and month! To add insult to injury, however the default Time of Use plan charges MORE per "off-peak" kWh than the tier-1 plan! Only when you move to say EV-2 plan do you actually get a decent spread in rates between peak and off-peak AND a reduction in the off-peak rate over the other plans.
My backup generator is going to be my Cybertruck. I’m also going to adjust my batteries to feed our home/grid during peak cost hours. No system is perfect, but I’m grateful to have solar, batteries and EVs. Thanks for your great videos :-)
Cool. Specs say the Cybertruck can supply 11.5 kW to the house I assume that's continuous. That's some real power. Most home batteries can supply about 3-7 kW continuous. But most EVs on the market are capped at about 3.3 kW (if they offer Vehicle to Home at all!)
I have experienced multiple 10 day outages and many shorter duration outages, some lasting hours, some lasting days. We've always lived just on the edge of urban areas but far enough out to be among the last restored during am outage. Our most recent 10 day outage was last year. We have had whole home backup generators for years and plan to go solar in the near future. Franklin is at the top of our list for battery backup because of their ability to use the backup generator to recharge the batteries.
Perfect timing on this episode. We’re specifying a solar system right now. We have a SPAN, would love a detailed followup video on the SPAN/FRANKLIN integration. SPAN’s documentation naturally doesn’t play favorites when it comes to integration. I’d value your take. Thanks.
If you use both 5G and cable internet, you aren't fighting your cable monopoly even a little. You're still paying them and that's what they care about.
only way to beat it is using a small business wisp... which most people dont know about in many areas. There used to be a mapsearch ability but it got bought out and taken down (ubiquiti wisp tools)
Not true. I live in Seattle and had no issues with weather-related outages. I don’t know the tech to know why they don’t suffer from the same issues as satellite TV but am guessing the low-earth orbit is part of it.
That said, I ditched Starlink, not because it doesn’t work, but because it was oversubscribed, thus not always the greatest performance, and AT&T came out with their $50/mo home 5G internet, half the price of Starlink and better performance.
I am so glad someone recognized the power of an individual over legacy monopolies. I have 8.5kW system, Tesla Model 3 (no gasoline), heat pump HVAC and hot water (no natural gas), and most disruptive of all... I am plant based vegan (No meat, dairy, or processed food monopolies).
My parents lived in North County with SDG&E as their energy provider for over 40 years and the cursing never slowed. As a high school kid I can remember so many cars with bumper stickers that said: "Welcome to North County. Owned and Operated by SDG&E."
Are you considering replacing your A/C with a heat pump? This will save you big money in the summer as it runs off DC power and will also give you heat in the winter. Since it does not get very cold in San Diego this is a better option than your gas furnace.
the costs are going up, since ford and gm are now going to use tesla system (deal done last july with all three).... in michigan, four times lower cost than a normal sedan engine at todays price
Wow! You really should look at using less electricity rather than getting a larger battery and solar system. I live in an off grid house, and our battery bank is 9KW, and works fine for us. We are very conscious of the power everything consumes, and our power consumption is below average. Also... All our heating is not electric. We have solar hot water, with one of those glass tube systems (works amazing) and for heating we got a wood stove. Heating on the winter consumes too much power, so if you offload that to other systems, you will have enough electricity with the current system. So if you have a heat pump I would say, just use it as an air conditioner in summer when energy is plentiful, but for heating get a pellet stove and a solar heater for the water, as it is way more efficient than making electricity, and then heating the water. And then, just reduce the amount of stuff plugged in 24/7, get timer switches or something at least, and only buy high efficiency household appliances, and try to use them efficiently also.
Here in Puerto Rico most people are getting solar. is required to stay connected to the grid to get the project approved. is insane but is the reality. The best thing is the peace of mind.
work with a food group that installed a dual battery franklin system, really looks pro.. no solar , powers a dozen big 2 door freezers... and a walk in... no grid downs yet.. SoCal for my small house. 1 server rack battery and victron 3KW. inverter off grid in town all summer 50 % so far this winter.. with 13 panels. from salvage job.. thanks
Yes - in Australia power has increased greatly in the past few years to around $0.32c per kilowatt, but solar here is huge so many who can afford are investing in both solar + batteries.
Another way to fight monopolies is to practice permaculture and related disciplines, as well as going for localization instead of sourcing to outside areas. If you harvest rainwater to water tanks and soil you lessen grid dependency and build personal resiliency. Pumping water from afar pulls a lot of electricity, as well as requires a lot of infrastructure. Harvesting your own rainwater lessens brownouts because less electrical grid strain. Harvesting rainwater also assures people lower in the water table have less flooding as well as a more stable clean water source. Letting rainwater evaporate off is a huge waste. Worse (cost-wise) is letting rainwater run to a storm drain network. Most storm drain networks then commingle sewage and rainwater and then dump the system overload into rivers, lakes and the ocean. This is wastes higher quslity water as well. Letting stormdrains be the sold source of rainwater management adds to carbon lost to water instead of soil . Higher carbon in water adds to screwed up weather patterns, and also loses soil fertility, permeability and water retention in soil. If you install raingardens/bioswales you also reduce ground subsidence and related foundation repairs, as well as reduce irrigation costs. If you recycle your greywater you also reduce the amount of carbon lost through poorly-managed, centralized systems, and more pumping costs...
I agree it’s valuable to go off-grid in any way you can, not just solar. We live in the country, so, an old-fashioned pump and a septic system takes care of most of that by default. Rainwater goes into the ground except for what we divert into rain barrels for the garden & greenhouse. Permaculture is a little tough here (MT) but we are working on it. There are many ways to reduce stress on the environment and avoid monopolies, depending on where one lives.
@@DDGLJ Have you seen how Brad Lancaster manages rainwater run off? He's brilliant. Greywater is an excellent resource as well, and can be easy to harvest with a simple set up. It can be nutrient-rich without the pathogen issues of blackwater. Make a set up that diverts it to landscaping or trees/orchard. Every bit helps.
I wouldn't say we're in a gold age of batteries yet. I think we have the potential to be in a golden age within the next 10-15 years, but we certainly seem to be on the cusp of that transition point.
What a company that installs Tesla batteries wanted for 2 Powerwalls was insane. I laughed on the phone, I thought it was a joke quote. If I remember correctly, for just 1 it was $24K and 2 was $35K or something dumb. They are obviously trying to rip me off, I know the units themselves are about $8400. Add the gateway + install....I installed 8kW of solar + a 200 amp panel upgrade and move 100amp panel to subpanel in garage for under $20K (before tax credit). Huge battery packs in cars are under $20K for about 80kWh. I just want between 20 and 30kwh of hours batteries for a reasonable price. Anyway, I'll go through with it within 3-4 years. That will help bring an ROI with it, right now I don't have financial incentive and I have 2 Ecoflow Delta Pros that can backup my house when needed manually (minus the high ticket electric demand things of course).
Excellent presentation. I'll add that you wouldn't need to charge your vehicle during extended outages, or low solar production periods (use public charging instead for that two weeks per year scenario). And soon you'll be able to use your EV to feed your home batteries, if not already. This would eliminate the need for additional solar panels and batteries.
Hey Ricky, you do great work. Would you consider doing an objective video on Quantumscape? It's a developing solid state battery company that is getting very close to solving the lithium-ion shortcomings and going into production. They have reached all their milestones over the last couple years. The big question, will it ever come to be?
My wife and I just bought a piece of property in upstate NY (50 acres) and we're hoping to build our house on it completely off-grid. We're not sure yet just how big of an array we'll need, but we expect to put in around 30-35kwh of batteries along with 20kw-30kw of solar panels. We're planning on making sure that the system is easy to expand just in case it's not enough to begin with, but we'll get there eventually. Thank you for the information you provide, it really helps us to at least know what questions to ask and were to look for solutions.
Be sure to focus on conservation of energy first and then size the system. Insulation, air seating and low energy devices should be foremost in your mind :)
Great Report, one additional point to LFPs , the code allows to have them in closer proximity, thus increasing the density of the setup, Franklin can scale, a lot.
SPAN + FranklinWH are truly a power couple! SPAN Panel integrates seamlessly with FranklinWH for smarter home energy management that helps you save more and extend your battery during power outages. Thank you, Ricky for showing us how to enable ultimate home energy management system! 🔋☀⚡👏
I'd say many around the world in general couldn't easily do this. But even being in a situation where it's not possible to do this in my situation I'd like to know what the projected maintenance cost of the system (Solar Pannels, Batteries, Control Units) is on top of the initial investment. Also does the system have any requirements for certain features (beyond updates) tied to being online? This was a great vid though, super interesting. Be so good if the utilities would still take power and store it in some manner for the community.
Question; Does Franklin have a resale program like, Tesla where they grab all of their customers batteries and resell the energy back to the utility company as a block of power? I'm pretty sure this will be a big selling point for Franklin.
I feel you! PG&E JUST JACKED our rates to $.51 and I also have solar NEM2. There's no reason to pass on the costs the way they do. Something is extremely wrong. Literally they just ask to charge more and BAM they do. Our generation cost is low...it's all transmission cost.
Wow, Franklin batteries are way cool. Question, is wind generation an option during cloudy days? I live Jamul zip code and keeping my eyes on wind generators, Matt just did a new video on the subject, but still no one with the must have solution.
The most important thing, is running refrigerators and freezers. A person can get large enough portable batteries for emergencies, that can be charged from the grid, later they can invest in solar etc.
First love the channel, you as the thought provoking host and this episode. I can’t help to ask questions for myself as if I were in your situation . 1) solar/battery for off grid living ain’t there yet… right? 2) the pinnacle would be off-grid energy charges my EV. And maybe we, I mean me, are seeking solutions to self-sufficiency at the wrong end. Maybe it’s reducing consumption. Like the Eco Resort we stayed at in Belize… it ran on 4kW per day. I have found some success with multiple heating/cooling sources here in the Pacific Northwest. And my take home point is lessening energy consumption where I can, i.e. 110watt oven and likely a future 110watt water heater and a safari hunt for energy hogs. Hello SPAN. I ask: should we look for the balance of energy independence from many sources rather from one magic bullet…While we await affordable technology? PS I love and am envious of your system. Thanx for the straight up review. Cheers!
This is just like the Tesla Powerwall 2 really, except you can disconnect from the grid via the Tesla App. The weather here in South Australia is similar to San Diego (not as hot as it used to be but that's another story), our return on roof-generated solar works differently though in that we pay top price for incoming electricity at peak times and get 5c/KWh when feeding solar back to the grid, so it's a no-brainer to install whatever batteries you can afford to soak-up your own solar output during the day to use when the incoming supply is at its most expensive. As pointed out in the video, some battery systems will keep your solar panels working during a grid failure and some won't, so do your homework. I have 2x Powerwalls which have largely contributed to credits on my power bill for the last two (summer) quarters while running whatever appliances I want day or night, including some significant airconditioning during the few really hot events we get these days. The bottom line is whether you continue to pay for peak grid electricity or pay to have batteries installed, you will eventually reach a point where the batteries have paid for themselves and you will truly be getting "free" electricity.
Great presentation I put solar in 2005 with the goal of taming the energy cost. By 2019 I realized that Pg&E was just raising the energy price and storage of my energy was the best way to fight back. I put in 4 power walls net cost 5k each. The system worked great. PG&E keeps changing the rates (what do people think when they sue the utilities for natural/arson fires) to pay for the costs they are incurring. 2020 I got my model Y and my energy bills strarted going up so in 2021 i added more solar. I’m up to 20.2 kw now minus the panel degregation of aging. 2023 just added two more powerwalls I’am hoping this Spring/summer to be able to be off the grid.😊 Any way you slice it as George Carlin says “They got you by the Balls” Tell me more about the cable.
Hi, connections to the grid will have the future possibility of selling power as part of a cooperative to sell as part of a peaking plant ie high export prices… coming soon to a district near you (hopefully)
I had T-Mobile internet and it worked great until more users were added to the services and at some point had been throttled so bad that I could not work from home and speeds were under 10Mps. Had to go back to cable internet not willingly but had no choice as there were no affordable options. I have solar and powerwall for years and I believe in using the battery backups during peak rates times to save on paying the higher rates. I am mostly self sufficient but use only about 1/4 of the battery during the peak times, I need the remainder in case for power outages. We need more affordable battery options for backup and to add more capacity for backup and for daily use. My hope is one day to be off grid but it appears we would need more solar panels to do this during the winter. Summer/spring/fall is not a problem, but winter is tough for power production due to short daylight hours. I believe the route you are going is cool, but yes this type of projects are so costly to be green.
I bought my house in Sacramento and it needed a new HVAC system and water heater before we could move in and had both switched to electric. Got the whole house on electricity and had PG&E disconnected and the meter removed. So glad we did it. See all the gas surcharges that people are dealing with is bananas.
Those batteries do look very cool. They seem large for only 5kwh each, or maybe I misunderstood I have 5.6 kwh batteries that are server rack size approx. 5 inches tall by 24 inches deep by 19 inches wide. They now sell for about 1300.00 each. I do love solar
I think "virtual power plants" are going to become standard for new construction projects as a means to protect against blackouts & also for demand-smoothing. It'd be nice to set them up on a neighborhood level or block-by-block incorporating different types of batteries for different purposes - long-term storage with slow charge/discharge vs shorter-term storage with quicker response & more power.
Power company’s are going to start adding a base fee so that even if you are 100% Solar , you are still gonna have a bill every month unless you go off the grid because they know it isn’t worth going off the grid relative to the cost of their fees
Gas and leccy companies in the UK have had a daily fee for having a connection to them for decades. It's about 50p. On the plus side, our ancient mechanical gas meter jams in cold weather XD
"Net Zero" means that over the course of a whole year, you generate as much power as you use. That's kind of the bare minimum threshold for self-sufficiency. When you're going off grid, it's not enough to generate as much excess power in summer as you need to heat your house in winter, because electricity doesn't store well over that sort of time span. You need to measure your 'Net Zero' over each day. Generating excess power during the day in order to have that power to use overnight is a good time span for most batteries. If you can do that, you're free of the electricity company.
Talk to your utility to see if you can get a load shedding rate. I work in a hospital and we get the load shedding rate. We pay 3 cents per kW. Also power rates are usually cheaper after 9 pm, talk to your utility to see if you can charge your batteries when rates are cheaper.
All power companies are connected to each other via grid that runs across the whole country because of that if you live in California and wanted to buy electricity from New York, you should be able to do that. It’s the lobbyist at the federal government that keeps us from getting cheaper power off the grid. I appreciate your research and knowledge of solar systems. I’m too old to be able to take advantage of it but thank you anyway.!!
I'm sorry, Ricky, but using 1100 kWh per month sounds absolutely insane to me. Our family of 3 uses between 400 and 500 kWh per month. That even includes an EV in our garage. Your utilities and the CA state legislature are absolutely doing you dirty, but your usage is also sky high.
I live in canada where the eletricity is state own in my part of country. Our electricity is notoriously cheap, but everything your saying for your own benefit should also be apply to a state monopoly. Even more so I think. We should all have solar and battery in these time of climate change. It would benefit everyone with redundancy for the grid, eventhough it would take major updates on it. That would be great if politicians could acte for things that are more than 4 years ahead. Another kind of problematic monopoly.
Holy crap! Those three units cost $54,000! There's so many other battery options out there that you could have. God, at least three times the amount of battery storage that you have right now. And probably still put about $20,000 back in your pocket.
So, in a lot of places in the USA, the monopolies for utility companies is actually legally protected. Building out the infrastructure for the power grid is extremely expensive, so it really only made sense financially for companies to build in large cities where they would have more potential customers in a smaller area to recoup those investment costs. When the country was first becoming electrified, the government didn't want to leave behind rural communities, so they promised the utility companies a non-competitive monopoly in different areas in exchange for building out the grid to customers who otherwise wouldn't have made financial sense for the utilities. That is also why you are legally required to be connected to the grid in some places, because the government promised the utility that if they built the grid every home in that area would be their customer. In an attempt to protect consumers from the typical monopoly B.S., the government also made the utilities agree that they couldn't charge whatever they wanted and could only raise rates by a small amount each year or to pay for upgrades and expansion of their infrastructure. This is why the utilities are constantly upgrading, because every time they swap out a transformer they are allowed to charge you a little more. These laws achieved their goal of electrifying the country, but it has left many consumers tied to corporations that see them more as their asset/property rather than a valued customer, and their behavior often reflects that.
Seems like getting the battery system first would allow a home owner to get around billing rates at peak hours. I can see how a $700 monthly bill would translate into "well 80K is just prepaying 10 years of bills at the recent rates". Between keeping the business running and dodging random price swings you'll cut the break even point. Every year when they raise rates it'll drag that break even closer and closer, just try not to celebrate too hard! Industrial diesel and gas generators are pretty efficient. They come in handy when power lines get ripped out by storms. They'd probably work just as well to keep you going when you aren't able to generate solar. I know, fossil fuels are the worst, but uh... monopolies created by government to keep energy prices low through buying power seem pretty bad too, when they're changing rates by the hour and setting prices based on median salaries instead of cost. No point in concentrating all the public cash into one company for the public's good, if that company is allowed to leverage its monopoly power against everyone.
Been looking into getting solar and possibly wind power as well because here in Massachusetts its like living in a wind tunnel and it is common to lose power for 3 days or more! I lose power for a couple hours total per month if I'm lucky
Here in the UK, a $80k investment would take more than 20 years to pay back, by which time solar panel and battery efficiency will have declined somewhat. I believe panels last maybe 20 years, many large solar farms here change them out at 10 - 15 years for more efficient later generation panels, sadly they go to landfill. It would not make financial sense here as rhe number of panels needed in the not so sunny UK would mean a much higher up front cost. I doubt anyone would be able to get a 22kw charge for an EV from home solar, unless they have literally hundreds of panels.
This is by far the video that has caused the weirdest vibes with me on this channel... First of all, I really envy you for your relatively stable solar production. My home system generates 4.400 kWh in its peak month (July) but only 550 kWh in the worst month (December), which for me makes any effort to go full zero futile. But what was really weird to listen to is all the things you said about the Franklin system. All the major contenders on the European market for Solar+Battery systems have all the features you mentioned included per default. Hearing the implication that it is not that way in the US makes me cringe a little.
@@serversurfer6169 It very much depends on how far away from the equator you live. And also to a certain extend to the weather condition. (We tend to have a lot of fog during the winter months.) But yeah, when I first planned the system, I had planned for the 50% rate too... And with that I would have been able to be fully autonomous...
My system meant I had to get a second breaker box which was bigger and move all breakers to the new one for my house. The original breaker box brings grid in then my inverters take it and supply to my new breaker box only If I need grid power which means batteries are low. In winter If I can get 2.5 hours of full sun I can power house for a day. That doesn't happen as its cloudy here for 5-15 days straight. What happens is I switch to grid to cover loads but my inverter each use 42 watts per hour to run inverters which means almost 2 kw a day. On those days I tell my inverters to charge at 2 amps which covers my e inverter usage and then I might get 3-8kw a day from solar until my batteries get charged enough to run house for a day and it switches. That happens every 3-6 days or a sunny day hits. I am looking into wind so maybe I can in winter add 400 watts an hour to batteries That would cut my grid usage a lot in winter and if that works I would add 2 more of those wind turbines. That would be the cheapest way to go for long term.
The crazy thing is even if you have a good well, solid home power generation exceeding your needs there are jurisdictions where a place not connected to the grid is not considered habitable and they won't let you live there, sometimes this extends to municipal water and or sewage when you have a well/sceptic.
I found there are 2 ways of buying solar set up. The first way is to spend 100k or more on a system that runs your whole home. The second way is the route I took . U scrap every appliance. Then u buy all new energy efficient appliances. The current technology is ridiculously efficient. That way you can run your house on a much cheaper system.
That's more power outages than I have seen in a single year in SC. I have only ever seen SC grid go out three times and that because of hurricane season.
$120,000 is equal to paying for 25 years worth of electricity. How does it make sense to get solar while the set up cost is still so expensive? By the time the system starts paying for itself you will need new batteries or have moved house. What am I missing here?
Thank you, dear... Sometimes, it is not under their control. When they lose input1 and input2 and remaining only input 3 and 4. That's will not be enough to run their bussiness and have no other choice than to increase the cost... Good choice to have back up. Thanks.
How long would it take for someone to steal one of those batteries? Just wondering whether they should be ideally installed inside or if there is extra security to them. An alarm/alert is not going to help if it takes less than 30 mins to take them away in a van. Even if they get a quarter of the value it would be 20k for an hour of effort. You may have a security system or cameras but it may not stop folk from trying. Theft is a supply and demand industry and these are not cheap items.
Go to the junkyard and get some bicycles, alternators, washer/dryer motors and work on some homemade wind power.... that would be cool.... got a flowing water source next to you? Try hydro
WOW that is insane how much you had to pay in Jan 23. Crazy. I have added Solar to my house and it has helped cut my bill a lot. Last year I produced 129% of my electric energy needs.
In Switzerland if you use a lot electricity for a 5 person household you pay around 100-120 Francs! Your bills are insane! The electricity market in Switzerland is state controlled. That's why no crazy prices can occure!
I don’t think energy monopolies themselves are the problem, it’s whether they’re public or private, and how they’re regulated. In Canada, the provinces with government-owned electricity companies have very high reliability and very low rates. I pay the equivalent of less than $0.10 USD per kW.
Try doing a story on your home getting an energy audit to work out ways to reduce its consumption levels, which may allow your batteries to see you through the evening even in winter.
how much did all this cost? 80k today and 120k all-in? crazy. thats almost 8 years of your worst bill ever full time. the other issue is in many places home insurance will drop you if you put panels on your roof. and also if more than 11kw is installed, they require extra liability and umbrella insurance to cover the feedback current "risks." until the government gets on the side of the people there are some places where its nearly impossible to use solar. the government and these local monopolies are working together against the people and that needs to change.
It makes me laugh a bit that the state the touts as the most green friendly is the one that has tried to kill solar with the regulations. I'm lucky in Virginia where I have 1 to 1 net metering. Now, if solar gets too popular here, then I can see that changing as they would happily lobby to change it. I have no time of use billing and it is the same all day. Until those things change, there is little incentive to get batteries as we have lost power for maybe 6 hours in the time span of a year. Now if the utility wants to start paying for sending power back into the grid at peak times...it might be worth it. You have a nice setup for sure!
5:27 Pretty impressive Franklin PowerWall. I have never heard of them before. BTW, do you know what the standby power draw is, meaning the inverter is on but no AC loads running?
I am Kenyan, and our energy demand is not that high as we do not heat or cool our houses. I have a modest 1kWp solar system with storage that I have put up together (DIY) 25.6V 280Ah, I can generate an average of 4 kWh per day. Since we have no winter, there is no problem.
I have heard that having MORE solar than is needed so even when it is not producing at 'full value' you can get a lot of solar that you can collect even in cloudy days. So even using 'recycled' panels could be a help in those long term outages. Curious, can we mix/match Franklin & Tesla & others?
Until you said San Diego I kept thinking this could be my utility company you were talking about. And then you said their name, and was like yep. I hate the them more than you do bro. They are the worst.
Even countries with a freedom of choice for the electrical energy supplier, you still have a monopoly supplier for the grid - from the lowest house supply to the highest transmission lines. In these countries, you are charged seperately for the energy and for the supply connection. In my country, Denmark, we have variable time dependent rates. The energy is paid on a variable supply-demand scheme fixex each day at 1300 hours for the next day, AND time dependent connectivity cost (all the line costs from house to supply). Because of high taxes, the end user price normally varies from 1,25 / kWh to 2,50 / kWh i local currency. The point is 1) the variation, and 2) even with 0 for the energy (relative often occurance), the price to the user is never 0.
I agree with you about the electric utility monopolies, but like any privately owned business, they have to make money for their investors. I have Tesla solar panels and Powerwall batteries which seem to cover all the points I'm looking for and that Franklin seems to cover - just need more panels and battery so I can charge my EV at night too! Looking for a similar system for another property; I'd be very interested in a 'compare and contrast' bit on Franklin versus Tesla.
I have been off grid for 7 years . My system is 72kwh's of chevy volt batteries, 21000 watts of used panels. I run 2 inverters one 12kw low frequency split phase. A 6kw low frequency inverter charges my chevy volt. My inverters have no software ! And they don't need the internet to make it work. It's been running seven years this way.
It must be good to live in a free state instead of a slave state.
How do you manage to survive winter? I generate the most power in summer - when I don't need heating and car requires less powermto run, etc. In winter, the production is horrible (we had a period with less than 5kWh from 12kW array - in 14 days!!!).
Wow, nice! How much was the batteries and how did you get them. I’m starting putting in my small system to follow your lead
What is the life expectancy on each equipment…..$120K is quite a bit…panels needs to be replaced…etc
I use chevy volt batteries broken down into forty eight volt segments.@@randymatthews5263
What is infuriating to me is that some of my power bill ends up paying lobbyists to bribe politicians into continuing the monopoly.
Honestly that is no surprise that's how power company get their support and funding
yeah man but becareful how u say that or else you sound crazy
The ones here in Illinois went to jail. One was the ComEd president
That’s why they’re called “power companies”…
Then start arguing for removing the regulations into the energy market. Because it is the single source of corruption and easier for companies to lobby politicians to pass regulations that favour then and destroy the competition. The only reason the power company has monopoly in any given area is because it is legally mandated by government regulations. Start arguing for 100% removal of regulations and then you migh see competition increasing and you as a customer benefiting form it. Because little bit of regulation is again the same, the regulations started as just little and we know what they are now. If you wish gov to regulate just a little bit then you are just naively hoping that the same corrpt politicians will by magic be not corrupt this time.
Imagine if there were regulations on how many political parties can there be any given area? What if it was legally mandated that any area can only have 1 political party? What would you call it? And wont you argue to remove all restrictions on no of political parties and candidates as much as they want to, and argue for removing all bariers of entry right(exceptions : convicted violent criminals eg terrorists/murderers etc banned from being a candidate)? Same logic applies to power companies.
What they charge you for electricity is insane!! In Western Washington state we pay about 11 cents a Kw. Moving out of California in 2018 was the best decision of my life!
Just a little bit North of you in British Columbia we have a government electricity monopoly, but we pay even lower rates than you. I don’t think energy monopolies themselves are the problem, it’s whether they’re public or private, and how they’re regulated.
@@ScrapKing73 It also helps to have real cheap hydroelectric power.
@@jamesvandamme7786 Yup, here we have Hydro-Quebec , my rate is 0.06509 per Kw/hour then it go up to 0.10041 if I pass a certain amount per 2 months. I still need to insulate my house more, got some major heat loss from old windows ,doors and the floor joist, this should lower my heating/cooling bill.
Alberta Canada, $0.30/kwh after fees
@@MitchOfCanada That's insane. I'm really lucky to have $50 electric bills. I also have natural gas but that's $180 max for the coldest month or two.
When there is no competition, be the competition! Good for you! Take back the power, fight the power!
Put a soft start on the AC and it will save a bit more. Awesome set up.
Just something you mentioned pertaining to your gas usage. It's now been 17 years since I've had any heat in my house no gas whatsoever. I insulated everything floors wall ceilings attics. The gas company chargers based on your usage during the summer months. Anything over that allotment during those warm months they charge 5 times the rate of what you use in winter time. As far as it goes with cooling the house I can't Express more than the use of thermal tint on the windows. You can feel almost the 20% drop difference in heat coming through the windows. It's a bit pricey but it paid for itself. Just like the insulation a little more pricey initially. I have 10 tons of air conditioning in my home and I only turned the system on to test during final inspection17 years ago.These little things reduce my bill to the point where at the moment my simple solar generator is keeping the utility companies at bay. When you don't have to pull permits and get anybody involved with what you do to stay off grid, I I'm smiling all the way to the bank.
Tips for stretching the battery life over night - turn off things you don't need. Running servers? Are you sure you need all of them 24/7? Running lights? Are all of them off when nobody is in the room? For things like this, there is perfect cooperation between presence sensors (radar based) and in-wall light switches. If nobody is in the room for 5 minutes, just turn the light off.
Same thing about opened windows - few sensors will tell home automation that the window is opened for too long and you should close it to avoid heat creep.
Car charging - leave the car plugged and charge only when your battery is already full and only use the excess energy that would normally go back to grid.
Garage doors - long-opened garage doors will again allow heat creep into the house - be it hot or cold air, that you will then need to spend energy to compensate. Simple notification on the phone for garage doors opened for more than 3 minutes (usual time to put kids and bags into the car and leave garage) will remind you to close it, avoiding heat differences.
But no matter what, in the end, you will still need utility company if you want to keep your standard of living. Just use it as little as possible.
Ricky forgot about the energy stored in the EV. It holds more than all three of the Franklin batteries. It's called V2H - vehicle to home. If he had a Bidirectional charger, the EV could supply enough energy to run his house all year. Putting a few more panels on the roof would charge both batteries and EV, taking the load off the batteries. Also converting the appliances to heat pumps will reduce the load on the batteries.
The problem with network equipment is it makes enough heat to require 24/7 air conditioning, so turning off all but a minimum will do little to reduce the air conditioning. Plus the equipment that makes the most heat has to stay on 24/7. What saves money is insulating the dwelling.
When a company gets a law made that costs the consumer money, that's known as rent seeking to the economics field. It's a legal form of corruption that should be outlawed.
@@acmefixer1 The problem is that almost no V2H or V2L currently on the market can supply a house. One reason is peak and sustained capacity. An F150 Lightning CAN supply a house with a max of 80A. However almost all other EVs can only supply a paltry 3.3 kW or so (13 amps). That's not enough to run the average AC unit - though it could run the average home.
@@StevenChristenson
By your logic, if the EV can't keep the air conditioning running, then the battery ESS can't either since it has much less capacity than the EV. But on hot days the Sun shines brightly so if the house has rooftop solar, it can run the air conditioning and have some left over to charge the EV and/or batteries. This is why they say it's best to insulate a home since it will reduce the amount of energy needed for heating and air conditioning.
You can go off grid without sacrificing your standard of living. You just get very good at finding more efficient ways of doing things. Running the washing machine on sunny days when you've got lots of power coming in is better anyway, because that's good weather for hanging the washing out to dry. A more efficient and possibly smaller fridge doesn't warm up your house as much, and if it's smaller, that reminds you to use your bought food while it's fresh and not let it sit there going stale until you throw it away. A well insulated house uses very little heating and cooling, and is pleasanter to live in than a poorly insulated house even with the HVAC running.
Lights are a red herring in energy efficiency. I have all 12vDC LED lights in my house, on a separate battery set and everything isolated from the 240vAC system, and I leave my outdoor lights on 24/7. There's just no reason to switch them off.
@@tealkerberus748
There is a reason to switch off the LED lights: the more hours they're on, the dimmer they get. Finally they're putting out too little light and must be replaced. Same with the wearing out of the electric system.
This time last year, we were in the process of having battery backup installed along with expanding our solar before NEM 3.0 went into effect here in California.
Our choice was NeoVolta based in Poway, CA. The NeoVolta system is 14kWh expandable to 24kWh (we did that) with an integrated Solar Inverter as well as a secondary input for pre-existing solar or a fuel generator. They also use LFP batteries which was a selling point because we feared NMC battery problems which were getting a lot of attention at that time.
We have PG&E, but live in an area where a local Irrigation District has been fighting to offer service for over 20 years but can't get PG&E to sell the infrastructure. Mind you, we are being hit for most of 2024 with a PG&E price increase because they haven't done even basic maintenance in our area in 25 years. PG&E, SDG&E, SoCal Edison are all for-profit corporations that have played fast an loose with maintenance for decades and when they get caught red handed (the San Bruno pipeline explosion, all of the forest fires. Destroying the entire town of Paradise.) Killed people and then somehow weasel their way out of it by filling false bankruptcy-- since when does bankruptcy discharge court ordered settlements?
If I could cut the PG&E connections to my property, I'd do it in a second but until I can, I'm going to self-generate as much as I can.
Great comment on moving off natural gas to solar/battery. We replaced the HVAC (heat pump), R8 duct, added additional return to guarantee 1600 cfm in and out (4 ton). When Jan 2023 cold season hit our natural gas bill went from $30 to $99. Our neighbors went from $30 to $300-$600. Our water heater is in our insulated garage and suffered from the cold. My daughter and I spent a couple hours with a R8 insulation wrap. Following cold months dropped to high thirty’s. My conclusion is HVAC Heatpump is extremely efficient and has 99 speeds of operation maximizing efficiency. It does not take a huge hit on the battery to start as ramp up, maintain and ramp down keeps the home comfortable for winter or summer. Last comment, I would not switch the water heater from natural gas as there is literally no maintenance for 15-20 years (optional yearly discharge or anode replacement if you want 20-30 year life). Heat pumps require monthly/quarterly air filter cleaning, they are noisy, produce vibrations, require exhaust duct (my opinion for cold air) and the cost at the end of day are pretty close in Southern California.
My GE heat pump/resistance heat hybrid water heater ($1,400 price in 2010, then less a $400 utility rebate) is still running fine in 2024 after fourteen years. No maintenance required except rinsing off the air filter. It never shows it using the resistance heater. 50 gallon capacity, 63 gallons at selected temperature (130F) for the first hour. I did put a water softener in front of it to avoid our hard water lime buildup.
Have you considered how to reduce your power consumption in the first place? That is usually the best thing to do before considering how to generate more with solar. I Denmark where I live there is a great focus on building low energy houses - to minimize energy consumption for heating. But the isolation works both ways - so also against heat in the summer 😉
$0.42/kWt hour? Crazy! I pay $0.09/kWt hour and I live in the desert where we run our AC 24/7 for at least 5 months out of the year. I'll have to confirm it with my wife, but I'm pretty sure my electric bill is NEVER more than $200/month.
Most of the cost of electricity is infrastructure, so the actual $price/kWh tends to depend on usage. States with very high consumption tend to have lower $/kWh rates. But the bills wind up being comparable for average homes.
California isn't even in the top-10. It's middling for actual electricity bills and a bit higher for electricity + NG bills (around #10-#12). In fact, the average electricity bill in Arizona is higher than the average bill in California even though Arizona electricity costs only $0.15/kWh. New Mexico, on the other-hand, has the 2nd lowest electricity bill in the U.S. Low prices and low bills. It varies.
That said, heavy electricity users in California do get dinged. If you are a heavy user you really need Solar to keep the bills reasonable. I also live in California and am a fairly heavy user. I save around $3000/year by having roughly 7kW worth of solar on my home. My monthly electricity bill (not including natural gas) varies between $25/month in summer to $150/month or so in winter. And that includes charging an EV.
I'm working towards reducing it even further.
-Matt
He didn’t mention his family and business use so much electricity that they most likely are in the highest usage tier.
@@junkerzn7312
I live in northern Arizona and pay $0.09/kWh.
@@brawnbenson552 I don't know about SDGE, but Pacific Gas And Electric will NOT let you use a tiered plan in Northern Califonia, you MUST go with a Time of Use Plan. The reason is simple... if you don't have a battery the peak electricity costs can kill you because they occur as production wanes and ends. In fact due to a snafu, I was on the 2-tier plan for almost 3 months. It's pretty amazing how much more reasonable costs are when you can stay in the first tier all day and month!
To add insult to injury, however the default Time of Use plan charges MORE per "off-peak" kWh than the tier-1 plan! Only when you move to say EV-2 plan do you actually get a decent spread in rates between peak and off-peak AND a reduction in the off-peak rate over the other plans.
My dog hates it when the stranger utility person goes on the yard and checks the meter! Bravo to you leading the charge to fight the monopolies!
I didn't realize they still had that anywhere lol. My meters all go through cell service for usage.
My backup generator is going to be my Cybertruck. I’m also going to adjust my batteries to feed our home/grid during peak cost hours. No system is perfect, but I’m grateful to have solar, batteries and EVs. Thanks for your great videos :-)
Cool. Specs say the Cybertruck can supply 11.5 kW to the house I assume that's continuous. That's some real power. Most home batteries can supply about 3-7 kW continuous. But most EVs on the market are capped at about 3.3 kW (if they offer Vehicle to Home at all!)
Couldn’t agree with you more about fighting against monopolies, wish I could hit the like button on this video more than once. 👍👍👍
I have experienced multiple 10 day outages and many shorter duration outages, some lasting hours, some lasting days. We've always lived just on the edge of urban areas but far enough out to be among the last restored during am outage. Our most recent 10 day outage was last year. We have had whole home backup generators for years and plan to go solar in the near future. Franklin is at the top of our list for battery backup because of their ability to use the backup generator to recharge the batteries.
Perfect timing on this episode. We’re specifying a solar system right now. We have a SPAN, would love a detailed followup video on the SPAN/FRANKLIN integration. SPAN’s documentation naturally doesn’t play favorites when it comes to integration. I’d value your take. Thanks.
Awesome video Ricky! Lifepo is my favorite chemistry too! I like things that just ALWAYS work, forever.....or as close to it as I can get 😄
sodium ion is on it's way. 20%cheaper than LFP
If you use both 5G and cable internet, you aren't fighting your cable monopoly even a little. You're still paying them and that's what they care about.
I like Starlink. It has been an option but it has also been my only choice at times.
@@snookmeister55 still does not work in rain and snow... i would not be reading your reply if i had it in the woods three miles away heh
only way to beat it is using a small business wisp... which most people dont know about in many areas. There used to be a mapsearch ability but it got bought out and taken down (ubiquiti wisp tools)
Not true. I live in Seattle and had no issues with weather-related outages. I don’t know the tech to know why they don’t suffer from the same issues as satellite TV but am guessing the low-earth orbit is part of it.
That said, I ditched Starlink, not because it doesn’t work, but because it was oversubscribed, thus not always the greatest performance, and AT&T came out with their $50/mo home 5G internet, half the price of Starlink and better performance.
Seriously impressive setup.
I am so glad someone recognized the power of an individual over legacy monopolies. I have 8.5kW system, Tesla Model 3 (no gasoline), heat pump HVAC and hot water (no natural gas), and most disruptive of all... I am plant based vegan (No meat, dairy, or processed food monopolies).
My parents lived in North County with SDG&E as their energy provider for over 40 years and the cursing never slowed.
As a high school kid I can remember so many cars with bumper stickers that said:
"Welcome to North County.
Owned and Operated by SDG&E."
Are you considering replacing your A/C with a heat pump? This will save you big money in the summer as it runs off DC power and will also give you heat in the winter. Since it does not get very cold in San Diego this is a better option than your gas furnace.
42 cents is insane. You’re saving money if you pay to use a super charger to charge a car.
the costs are going up, since ford and gm are now going to use tesla system (deal done last july with all three).... in michigan, four times lower cost than a normal sedan engine at todays price
Wow! You really should look at using less electricity rather than getting a larger battery and solar system. I live in an off grid house, and our battery bank is 9KW, and works fine for us. We are very conscious of the power everything consumes, and our power consumption is below average. Also... All our heating is not electric. We have solar hot water, with one of those glass tube systems (works amazing) and for heating we got a wood stove. Heating on the winter consumes too much power, so if you offload that to other systems, you will have enough electricity with the current system. So if you have a heat pump I would say, just use it as an air conditioner in summer when energy is plentiful, but for heating get a pellet stove and a solar heater for the water, as it is way more efficient than making electricity, and then heating the water. And then, just reduce the amount of stuff plugged in 24/7, get timer switches or something at least, and only buy high efficiency household appliances, and try to use them efficiently also.
Agreed, 1000 kWh+/month seems crazy to me. I don't own an EV though.
Your channel is one of my favorites! Keep it up buddy!
Here in Puerto Rico most people are getting solar. is required to stay connected to the grid to get the project approved. is insane but is the reality. The best thing is the peace of mind.
I'm particularly impressed with the fast response time.
The problem is not the hardware. The problem is the politicians.
work with a food group that installed a dual battery franklin system, really looks pro..
no solar , powers a dozen big 2 door freezers... and a walk in... no grid downs yet.. SoCal
for my small house. 1 server rack battery and victron 3KW. inverter off grid in town all summer 50 % so far this winter.. with 13 panels. from salvage job.. thanks
Please talk about thermoelectric generation. I have a fireplace and lots of free wood as a possible source of supplemental energy generation
Yes - in Australia power has increased greatly in the past few years to around $0.32c per kilowatt, but solar here is huge so many who can afford are investing in both solar + batteries.
Another way to fight monopolies is to practice permaculture and related disciplines, as well as going for localization instead of sourcing to outside areas.
If you harvest rainwater to water tanks and soil you lessen grid dependency and build personal resiliency. Pumping water from afar pulls a lot of electricity, as well as requires a lot of infrastructure. Harvesting your own rainwater lessens brownouts because less electrical grid strain. Harvesting rainwater also assures people lower in the water table have less flooding as well as a more stable clean water source.
Letting rainwater evaporate off is a huge waste. Worse (cost-wise) is letting rainwater run to a storm drain network. Most storm drain networks then commingle sewage and rainwater and then dump the system overload into rivers, lakes and the ocean. This is wastes higher quslity water as well.
Letting stormdrains be the sold source of rainwater management adds to carbon lost to water instead of soil .
Higher carbon in water adds to screwed up weather patterns, and also loses soil fertility, permeability and water retention in soil.
If you install raingardens/bioswales you also reduce ground subsidence and related foundation repairs, as well as reduce irrigation costs.
If you recycle your greywater you also reduce the amount of carbon lost through poorly-managed, centralized systems, and more pumping costs...
I agree it’s valuable to go off-grid in any way you can, not just solar. We live in the country, so, an old-fashioned pump and a septic system takes care of most of that by default. Rainwater goes into the ground except for what we divert into rain barrels for the garden & greenhouse. Permaculture is a little tough here (MT) but we are working on it. There are many ways to reduce stress on the environment and avoid monopolies, depending on where one lives.
@@DDGLJ
Have you seen how Brad Lancaster manages rainwater run off? He's brilliant.
Greywater is an excellent resource as well, and can be easy to harvest with a simple set up. It can be nutrient-rich without the pathogen issues of blackwater. Make a set up that diverts it to landscaping or trees/orchard.
Every bit helps.
I wouldn't say we're in a gold age of batteries yet. I think we have the potential to be in a golden age within the next 10-15 years, but we certainly seem to be on the cusp of that transition point.
What a company that installs Tesla batteries wanted for 2 Powerwalls was insane. I laughed on the phone, I thought it was a joke quote. If I remember correctly, for just 1 it was $24K and 2 was $35K or something dumb. They are obviously trying to rip me off, I know the units themselves are about $8400. Add the gateway + install....I installed 8kW of solar + a 200 amp panel upgrade and move 100amp panel to subpanel in garage for under $20K (before tax credit). Huge battery packs in cars are under $20K for about 80kWh. I just want between 20 and 30kwh of hours batteries for a reasonable price.
Anyway, I'll go through with it within 3-4 years. That will help bring an ROI with it, right now I don't have financial incentive and I have 2 Ecoflow Delta Pros that can backup my house when needed manually (minus the high ticket electric demand things of course).
Excellent presentation. I'll add that you wouldn't need to charge your vehicle during extended outages, or low solar production periods (use public charging instead for that two weeks per year scenario). And soon you'll be able to use your EV to feed your home batteries, if not already. This would eliminate the need for additional solar panels and batteries.
Hey Ricky, you do great work. Would you consider doing an objective video on Quantumscape? It's a developing solid state battery company that is getting very close to solving the lithium-ion shortcomings and going into production. They have reached all their milestones over the last couple years. The big question, will it ever come to be?
My wife and I just bought a piece of property in upstate NY (50 acres) and we're hoping to build our house on it completely off-grid. We're not sure yet just how big of an array we'll need, but we expect to put in around 30-35kwh of batteries along with 20kw-30kw of solar panels. We're planning on making sure that the system is easy to expand just in case it's not enough to begin with, but we'll get there eventually. Thank you for the information you provide, it really helps us to at least know what questions to ask and were to look for solutions.
Be sure to focus on conservation of energy first and then size the system. Insulation, air seating and low energy devices should be foremost in your mind :)
Great Report, one additional point to LFPs , the code allows to have them in closer proximity, thus increasing the density of the setup, Franklin can scale, a lot.
SPAN + FranklinWH are truly a power couple! SPAN Panel integrates seamlessly with FranklinWH for smarter home energy management that helps you save more and extend your battery during power outages. Thank you, Ricky for showing us how to enable ultimate home energy management system! 🔋☀⚡👏
I'd say many around the world in general couldn't easily do this. But even being in a situation where it's not possible to do this in my situation I'd like to know what the projected maintenance cost of the system (Solar Pannels, Batteries, Control Units) is on top of the initial investment. Also does the system have any requirements for certain features (beyond updates) tied to being online?
This was a great vid though, super interesting. Be so good if the utilities would still take power and store it in some manner for the community.
Question; Does Franklin have a resale program like, Tesla where they grab all of their customers batteries and resell the energy back to the utility company as a block of power?
I'm pretty sure this will be a big selling point for Franklin.
I feel you! PG&E JUST JACKED our rates to $.51 and I also have solar NEM2. There's no reason to pass on the costs the way they do. Something is extremely wrong. Literally they just ask to charge more and BAM they do. Our generation cost is low...it's all transmission cost.
Wow, Franklin batteries are way cool. Question, is wind generation an option during cloudy days? I live Jamul zip code and keeping my eyes on wind generators, Matt just did a new video on the subject, but still no one with the must have solution.
The most important thing, is running refrigerators and freezers.
A person can get large enough portable batteries for emergencies, that can be charged from the grid, later they can invest in solar etc.
First love the channel, you as the thought provoking host and this episode. I can’t help to ask questions for myself as if I were in your situation . 1) solar/battery for off grid living ain’t there yet… right? 2) the pinnacle would be off-grid energy charges my EV. And maybe we, I mean me, are seeking solutions to self-sufficiency at the wrong end. Maybe it’s reducing consumption. Like the Eco Resort we stayed at in Belize… it ran on 4kW per day. I have found some success with multiple heating/cooling sources here in the Pacific Northwest. And my take home point is lessening energy consumption where I can, i.e. 110watt oven and likely a future 110watt water heater and a safari hunt for energy hogs. Hello SPAN. I ask: should we look for the balance of energy independence from many sources rather from one magic bullet…While we await affordable technology? PS I love and am envious of your system. Thanx for the straight up review. Cheers!
This is just like the Tesla Powerwall 2 really, except you can disconnect from the grid via the Tesla App. The weather here in South Australia is similar to San Diego (not as hot as it used to be but that's another story), our return on roof-generated solar works differently though in that we pay top price for incoming electricity at peak times and get 5c/KWh when feeding solar back to the grid, so it's a no-brainer to install whatever batteries you can afford to soak-up your own solar output during the day to use when the incoming supply is at its most expensive. As pointed out in the video, some battery systems will keep your solar panels working during a grid failure and some won't, so do your homework. I have 2x Powerwalls which have largely contributed to credits on my power bill for the last two (summer) quarters while running whatever appliances I want day or night, including some significant airconditioning during the few really hot events we get these days. The bottom line is whether you continue to pay for peak grid electricity or pay to have batteries installed, you will eventually reach a point where the batteries have paid for themselves and you will truly be getting "free" electricity.
My goal is to try solar /w batteries, but for me there is a cost barrier.
Same here I'm off grid check out places like battery hookup for plug and play systems please don't spend what he spent
Great presentation I put solar in 2005 with the goal of taming the energy cost. By 2019 I realized that Pg&E was just raising the energy price and storage of my energy was the best way to fight back. I put in 4 power walls net cost 5k each. The system worked great. PG&E keeps changing the rates (what do people think when they sue the utilities for natural/arson fires) to pay for the costs they are incurring. 2020 I got my model Y and my energy bills strarted going up so in 2021 i added more solar. I’m up to 20.2 kw now minus the panel degregation of aging. 2023 just added two more powerwalls I’am hoping this Spring/summer to be able to be off the grid.😊 Any way you slice it as George Carlin says “They got you by the Balls” Tell me more about the cable.
You just described grid tie like every would go for that option. Try mini split rather than central heating to reduce energy usage
Hi, connections to the grid will have the future possibility of selling power as part of a cooperative to sell as part of a peaking plant ie high export prices… coming soon to a district near you (hopefully)
I had T-Mobile internet and it worked great until more users were added to the services and at some point had been throttled so bad that I could not work from home and speeds were under 10Mps. Had to go back to cable internet not willingly but had no choice as there were no affordable options. I have solar and powerwall for years and I believe in using the battery backups during peak rates times to save on paying the higher rates. I am mostly self sufficient but use only about 1/4 of the battery during the peak times, I need the remainder in case for power outages. We need more affordable battery options for backup and to add more capacity for backup and for daily use. My hope is one day to be off grid but it appears we would need more solar panels to do this during the winter. Summer/spring/fall is not a problem, but winter is tough for power production due to short daylight hours. I believe the route you are going is cool, but yes this type of projects are so costly to be green.
I bought my house in Sacramento and it needed a new HVAC system and water heater before we could move in and had both switched to electric. Got the whole house on electricity and had PG&E disconnected and the meter removed. So glad we did it. See all the gas surcharges that people are dealing with is bananas.
Important datum: How long to recharge from full discharge on solar?
Those batteries do look very cool. They seem large for only 5kwh each, or maybe I misunderstood I have 5.6 kwh batteries that are server rack size approx. 5 inches tall by 24 inches deep by 19 inches wide. They now sell for about 1300.00 each. I do love solar
I think "virtual power plants" are going to become standard for new construction projects as a means to protect against blackouts & also for demand-smoothing. It'd be nice to set them up on a neighborhood level or block-by-block incorporating different types of batteries for different purposes - long-term storage with slow charge/discharge vs shorter-term storage with quicker response & more power.
Power company’s are going to start adding a base fee so that even if you are 100% Solar , you are still gonna have a bill every month unless you go off the grid because they know it isn’t worth going off the grid relative to the cost of their fees
Gas and leccy companies in the UK have had a daily fee for having a connection to them for decades. It's about 50p. On the plus side, our ancient mechanical gas meter jams in cold weather XD
"Net Zero" means that over the course of a whole year, you generate as much power as you use. That's kind of the bare minimum threshold for self-sufficiency.
When you're going off grid, it's not enough to generate as much excess power in summer as you need to heat your house in winter, because electricity doesn't store well over that sort of time span. You need to measure your 'Net Zero' over each day. Generating excess power during the day in order to have that power to use overnight is a good time span for most batteries.
If you can do that, you're free of the electricity company.
Talk to your utility to see if you can get a load shedding rate. I work in a hospital and we get the load shedding rate. We pay 3 cents per kW. Also power rates are usually cheaper after 9 pm, talk to your utility to see if you can charge your batteries when rates are cheaper.
4:56
It looks like a Nintendo Wii 😂
What do you know about bladeless wind turbines? It would add some percentage to the annual power generation when the sun is ineffective.
All power companies are connected to each other via grid that runs across the whole country because of that if you live in California and wanted to buy electricity from New York, you should be able to do that. It’s the lobbyist at the federal government that keeps us from getting cheaper power off the grid. I appreciate your research and knowledge of solar systems. I’m too old to be able to take advantage of it but thank you anyway.!!
I'm sorry, Ricky, but using 1100 kWh per month sounds absolutely insane to me. Our family of 3 uses between 400 and 500 kWh per month.
That even includes an EV in our garage.
Your utilities and the CA state legislature are absolutely doing you dirty, but your usage is also sky high.
I live in canada where the eletricity is state own in my part of country. Our electricity is notoriously cheap, but everything your saying for your own benefit should also be apply to a state monopoly. Even more so I think. We should all have solar and battery in these time of climate change. It would benefit everyone with redundancy for the grid, eventhough it would take major updates on it. That would be great if politicians could acte for things that are more than 4 years ahead. Another kind of problematic monopoly.
So well said!
Thank you for explaining your reasons for choosing Franklin.
Holy crap! Those three units cost $54,000! There's so many other battery options out there that you could have. God, at least three times the amount of battery storage that you have right now. And probably still put about $20,000 back in your pocket.
So, in a lot of places in the USA, the monopolies for utility companies is actually legally protected. Building out the infrastructure for the power grid is extremely expensive, so it really only made sense financially for companies to build in large cities where they would have more potential customers in a smaller area to recoup those investment costs. When the country was first becoming electrified, the government didn't want to leave behind rural communities, so they promised the utility companies a non-competitive monopoly in different areas in exchange for building out the grid to customers who otherwise wouldn't have made financial sense for the utilities. That is also why you are legally required to be connected to the grid in some places, because the government promised the utility that if they built the grid every home in that area would be their customer. In an attempt to protect consumers from the typical monopoly B.S., the government also made the utilities agree that they couldn't charge whatever they wanted and could only raise rates by a small amount each year or to pay for upgrades and expansion of their infrastructure. This is why the utilities are constantly upgrading, because every time they swap out a transformer they are allowed to charge you a little more. These laws achieved their goal of electrifying the country, but it has left many consumers tied to corporations that see them more as their asset/property rather than a valued customer, and their behavior often reflects that.
Seems like getting the battery system first would allow a home owner to get around billing rates at peak hours.
I can see how a $700 monthly bill would translate into "well 80K is just prepaying 10 years of bills at the recent rates". Between keeping the business running and dodging random price swings you'll cut the break even point. Every year when they raise rates it'll drag that break even closer and closer, just try not to celebrate too hard!
Industrial diesel and gas generators are pretty efficient. They come in handy when power lines get ripped out by storms. They'd probably work just as well to keep you going when you aren't able to generate solar. I know, fossil fuels are the worst, but uh... monopolies created by government to keep energy prices low through buying power seem pretty bad too, when they're changing rates by the hour and setting prices based on median salaries instead of cost. No point in concentrating all the public cash into one company for the public's good, if that company is allowed to leverage its monopoly power against everyone.
Been looking into getting solar and possibly wind power as well because here in Massachusetts its like living in a wind tunnel and it is common to lose power for 3 days or more! I lose power for a couple hours total per month if I'm lucky
Here in the UK, a $80k investment would take more than 20 years to pay back, by which time solar panel and battery efficiency will have declined somewhat. I believe panels last maybe 20 years, many large solar farms here change them out at 10 - 15 years for more efficient later generation panels, sadly they go to landfill. It would not make financial sense here as rhe number of panels needed in the not so sunny UK would mean a much higher up front cost. I doubt anyone would be able to get a 22kw charge for an EV from home solar, unless they have literally hundreds of panels.
Consider a soft start for your 4 ton air conditioner . To reduce the amount of energy for surge when its compressor kicks on.
This is by far the video that has caused the weirdest vibes with me on this channel... First of all, I really envy you for your relatively stable solar production. My home system generates 4.400 kWh in its peak month (July) but only 550 kWh in the worst month (December), which for me makes any effort to go full zero futile. But what was really weird to listen to is all the things you said about the Franklin system. All the major contenders on the European market for Solar+Battery systems have all the features you mentioned included per default. Hearing the implication that it is not that way in the US makes me cringe a little.
And he has a lot of roof area. I can manage 4kW on my south-facing roof. I can't even go to 5kW without dual junction cells (not currently available).
Your winter output should be about half of your summer output, not the 12% that you report. 🤔
@@serversurfer6169 It very much depends on how far away from the equator you live. And also to a certain extend to the weather condition. (We tend to have a lot of fog during the winter months.) But yeah, when I first planned the system, I had planned for the 50% rate too... And with that I would have been able to be fully autonomous...
@@TheNewAccount2008 Maybe you can try to supplement with wind. 😅
Just like we we did in the telephone co. Battery back up and generators.
My system meant I had to get a second breaker box which was bigger and move all breakers to the new one for my house. The original breaker box brings grid in then my inverters take it and supply to my new breaker box only If I need grid power which means batteries are low. In winter If I can get 2.5 hours of full sun I can power house for a day. That doesn't happen as its cloudy here for 5-15 days straight. What happens is I switch to grid to cover loads but my inverter each use 42 watts per hour to run inverters which means almost 2 kw a day. On those days I tell my inverters to charge at 2 amps which covers my e inverter usage and then I might get 3-8kw a day from solar until my batteries get charged enough to run house for a day and it switches. That happens every 3-6 days or a sunny day hits. I am looking into wind so maybe I can in winter add 400 watts an hour to batteries That would cut my grid usage a lot in winter and if that works I would add 2 more of those wind turbines. That would be the cheapest way to go for long term.
The crazy thing is even if you have a good well, solid home power generation exceeding your needs there are jurisdictions where a place not connected to the grid is not considered habitable and they won't let you live there, sometimes this extends to municipal water and or sewage when you have a well/sceptic.
I found there are 2 ways of buying solar set up.
The first way is to spend 100k or more on a system that runs your whole home.
The second way is the route I took .
U scrap every appliance.
Then u buy all new energy efficient appliances.
The current technology is ridiculously efficient.
That way you can run your house on a much cheaper system.
Here on Prince Edward Island we only have one energy company, out electric bill runs $400 a month
What happened to your investment in ECOFLOW?
Checked my bills. $550/yr. for gas, 500/elec. No way I could even justify solar panels. I'm by Lake Mich. in Illinois.
Probably not solar panels, but a single solar panel might work out fine you.
DePIN, and self sufficiency is the only fight we have against these corporations
That's more power outages than I have seen in a single year in SC. I have only ever seen SC grid go out three times and that because of hurricane season.
$120,000 is equal to paying for 25 years worth of electricity. How does it make sense to get solar while the set up cost is still so expensive? By the time the system starts paying for itself you will need new batteries or have moved house. What am I missing here?
Thank you, dear...
Sometimes, it is not under their control.
When they lose input1 and input2 and remaining only input 3 and 4. That's will not be enough to run their bussiness and have no other choice than to increase the cost... Good choice to have back up.
Thanks.
How long would it take for someone to steal one of those batteries? Just wondering whether they should be ideally installed inside or if there is extra security to them. An alarm/alert is not going to help if it takes less than 30 mins to take them away in a van. Even if they get a quarter of the value it would be 20k for an hour of effort. You may have a security system or cameras but it may not stop folk from trying. Theft is a supply and demand industry and these are not cheap items.
Go to the junkyard and get some bicycles, alternators, washer/dryer motors and work on some homemade wind power.... that would be cool.... got a flowing water source next to you? Try hydro
WOW that is insane how much you had to pay in Jan 23. Crazy. I have added Solar to my house and it has helped cut my bill a lot. Last year I produced 129% of my electric energy needs.
In Switzerland if you use a lot electricity for a 5 person household you pay around 100-120 Francs! Your bills are insane!
The electricity market in Switzerland is state controlled. That's why no crazy prices can occure!
Great setup, mate
I don’t think energy monopolies themselves are the problem, it’s whether they’re public or private, and how they’re regulated. In Canada, the provinces with government-owned electricity companies have very high reliability and very low rates. I pay the equivalent of less than $0.10 USD per kW.
That's the key, taking essential services out of the hands of profiteers. In the UK it's around £0.35 per Kw and rising.
Try doing a story on your home getting an energy audit to work out ways to reduce its consumption levels, which may allow your batteries to see you through the evening even in winter.
Super cool battery system. Exactly what I’m looking for… once I get a house
how much did all this cost? 80k today and 120k all-in? crazy. thats almost 8 years of your worst bill ever full time.
the other issue is in many places home insurance will drop you if you put panels on your roof. and also if more than 11kw is installed, they require extra liability and umbrella insurance to cover the feedback current "risks."
until the government gets on the side of the people there are some places where its nearly impossible to use solar.
the government and these local monopolies are working together against the people and that needs to change.
It makes me laugh a bit that the state the touts as the most green friendly is the one that has tried to kill solar with the regulations. I'm lucky in Virginia where I have 1 to 1 net metering. Now, if solar gets too popular here, then I can see that changing as they would happily lobby to change it. I have no time of use billing and it is the same all day. Until those things change, there is little incentive to get batteries as we have lost power for maybe 6 hours in the time span of a year. Now if the utility wants to start paying for sending power back into the grid at peak times...it might be worth it. You have a nice setup for sure!
5:27 Pretty impressive Franklin PowerWall. I have never heard of them before.
BTW, do you know what the standby power draw is, meaning the inverter is on but no AC loads running?
Any thoughts of adding a wind generator to help supplement?
I am Kenyan, and our energy demand is not that high as we do not heat or cool our houses. I have a modest 1kWp solar system with storage that I have put up together (DIY) 25.6V 280Ah, I can generate an average of 4 kWh per day. Since we have no winter, there is no problem.
THOSE are some CRAZY BILLS!!!!!!
I have heard that having MORE solar than is needed so even when it is not producing at 'full value' you can get a lot of solar that you can collect even in cloudy days. So even using 'recycled' panels could be a help in those long term outages.
Curious, can we mix/match Franklin & Tesla & others?
you should move 2 hrs. east to Yuma az. In the 18 years I lived there it only went down below freezing a couple times
Az and south Utah are definitely Interesting to me! I love the culture food and weather tho.
Until you said San Diego I kept thinking this could be my utility company you were talking about. And then you said their name, and was like yep. I hate the them more than you do bro. They are the worst.
Even countries with a freedom of choice for the electrical energy supplier, you still have a monopoly supplier for the grid - from the lowest house supply to the highest transmission lines. In these countries, you are charged seperately for the energy and for the supply connection. In my country, Denmark, we have variable time dependent rates. The energy is paid on a variable supply-demand scheme fixex each day at 1300 hours for the next day, AND time dependent connectivity cost (all the line costs from house to supply). Because of high taxes, the end user price normally varies from 1,25 / kWh to 2,50 / kWh i local currency. The point is 1) the variation, and 2) even with 0 for the energy (relative often occurance), the price to the user is never 0.
I agree with you about the electric utility monopolies, but like any privately owned business, they have to make money for their investors. I have Tesla solar panels and Powerwall batteries which seem to cover all the points I'm looking for and that Franklin seems to cover - just need more panels and battery so I can charge my EV at night too! Looking for a similar system for another property; I'd be very interested in a 'compare and contrast' bit on Franklin versus Tesla.