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U.S home battery installations hit record high on rising electricity costs | Record home battery installations unlock options for grids—and AI data centers. (arstechnica.com)
submitted 3 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 35 points 3 months ago (11 children)

I started my battery installation months before electricity costs started escalating. Going to finish it up phase I this week. It's not the kind that connects to the grid. Just don't trust the electric company.

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  • [–] 16 points 3 months ago (8 children)

    That's my plan, I'm cutting myself off from the grid. My electric company announced rate increases just 2 weeks ago. AI data center rumors while pro AI data center propaganda is being aired on commercial slots on local news affiliates. They are slow boiling the frog

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  • [–] 15 points 3 months ago (3 children)

    Same here. We not only got a rate increase notification but also "demand pricing". Higher rates from 4 pm to 9 pm, which is a bigger hike than the rate increase. Once again undermining people with grid tie systems, which fall off after 4 pm. They're diabolical. It may be a bit paranoid but my plan is to go solar and use the grid for backup power.

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  • [–] 5 points 3 months ago

    This was my plan 3-4 yrs ago when there was a big solar company "get in before the subsidy goes away" push. I must have had 5 or 6 solar companies I talked to, all of them wouldn't touch that setup with a 10ft pole. They think the money is in credits/chargeback. I want independence. I have since moved and haven't tried here but that area would get large storms and issues that would require me to have a generator anyway, so Solar + Batteries seemed a no brainer. I still want power independence, but it's less a necessity here.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 months ago

    It’s because your utility power costs go up at that time too. Since they didn’t prepare for the eventual home solar uprising they now have to find a way to make a profit somehow, and papa sing the cost through to you is the only thing they can think of.

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  • [–] 0 points 3 months ago* (3 children)

    Aren’t there a whole bunch of interesting battery designs that can be worked into the land if you design the house to use it?

    Like… (1) design the house to have solar, (2) solar power puts tension on giant underground springs, (3) slowly unwind springs for the power.

    Or, lift a weight through some kind of gravity generator. Power generates at night when the weight falls back down.

    I don’t know… I’m just assuming there’s got to be pretty neat designs when you figure that you’ve got a giant plot of land and only need enough power for a home on top of it. Do we really need to rely on giant chemical battery manufacturers?

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  • [–] 4 points 3 months ago* (2 children)

    Undecided Matt Ferrell did this with his new home minus the springs, he uses his underground for geothermal. I'm basically doing a retrofit. Solar panels on roof and in my yard if I need them to meet demand. Sodium batteries if I can get a good deal, else I'll find a wrecked EV on the cheap and get the batteries.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    I hope you aren't putting wrecked EV batteries anywhere there may be flammable anything, such as near your house, your neighbor's house, a forest...

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  • [–] 3 points 3 months ago

    “Wrecked EV battery” usually actually means batteries that were in damaged shipping containers. Perfectly good and never used for anything, but not sellable for car use anymore.

    At least all the ones I looked at were like that.

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    • [–] 13 points 3 months ago (5 children)

    Anyone know of a jail break for Tesla's PowerWall?

    My understanding is the battery/inverter will go into something like safe mode after a certain number of days of not being able to call home. I haven't been able to confirm or deny this but I do know Tesla doesn't like you interacting with the battery directly.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago (2 children)

    Worst case scenario you can bypass whichever circuit board is controlling that logic. It could be the inverter itself or some other board but either way the batteries themselves are fine. Inverters and control boats are relatively compared to the price of batteries.

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    • [–] 2 points 3 months ago

    Base

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