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Is a Tesla Powerwall 2 Worth the Money? - YouTube
Channel: Ben Sullins
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I just got my tesla powerwall is
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installed and sort of in love with them
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it's just such a cool feeling to know
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that you no longer need the energy grid
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for you know your daily life however
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when I started to look into the data it
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came clear to me that not everyone
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should buy one of these so I wanted to
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dig into just kind of my experience so
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far what I've learned and maybe help
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guide you on whether or not a tesla
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powerwall makes sense for your home
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let's dive in the latest version of the
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tesla powerwall also called the tesla
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powerwall 2 has just under 14 kilowatt
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hours of energy 13.5 is what they list
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and this is part of the tesla eco system
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where if you get solar and you have the
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home batteries and then you have the
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cars you have a lot of freedom and
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independence based on just the stuff
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you're generating and storing at your
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own home most houses use around 28
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kilowatt hours of energy per day so with
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two of these at 27 kilowatt hours more
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or less
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you're pretty good to be a full day
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off-grid and then of course within those
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27 hours if the Sun comes out even a
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little bit your solar panels should
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charge them back up giving you this kind
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of off-grid energy independent feeling
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now typically these run around 7,000
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dollars with installation every install
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is different so when you go through this
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process you have to fill out a form take
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pictures of lots of things and send it
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to them and then they come back with a
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quote I earned these two power walls
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from the Tesla referral program back in
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2017 thank you to everyone that used my
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code because these are super cool and as
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I mentioned I am really really stoked on
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them now the ones I got were the white
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ones these are the standard ones you buy
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you may have seen some other folks that
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received the red ones that were actually
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physically signed by JB and Elon and
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Franz that's super cool but it actually
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kind of worked out better because I
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think the white ones look better and as
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you'll see when we talk about
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installation we had to put them outside
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there just be kind of a shame to have
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these really fancy ones with a hand
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signature sitting out getting rained on
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every day
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speaking of installation it actually was
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kind of
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the original idea I had was to put them
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in the garage but the garage where they
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would be located was over 100 feet from
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where the electrical panel is my house
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built in the 1950s put the electrical
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panel kind of on the opposite end and so
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it was gonna be too far because there's
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a communication wire that has to run and
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it runs in a very low voltage so over a
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hundred feet it just doesn't really work
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as well now they can change that
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apparently but then they'd have to kind
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of reconfigure the system and all that
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and it just didn't make a whole lot of
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sense to put them in the garage plus if
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they are in your garage they have to
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have these barriers in front of them so
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you don't hit them or they have to be
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amounted high enough that they would be
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above the standard hood height of a
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vehicle which is pretty high my garage
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is pretty short so it just didn't make
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sense so that plan was out the next
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challenge was to figure out where to put
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them outside we would just mount them on
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the house however they can't be next to
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a bedroom and so we had to find a place
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where we didn't have a bedroom and we
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could put it and so it ended up being
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just right between the studio that I
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used to work that I used to make these
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videos from and our master bathroom it's
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kind of right next to the AC unit and
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it's close to where the electrical panel
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is so it all made sense one of the
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interesting things is that we had to
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basically make a concrete pad for them
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to sit on because it's not there's no
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concrete there and I was able to find
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one for about 50 bucks from a local
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Building Supply Company so this is a tip
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if you are in this boat trying to do
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this like their initial thought was you
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need to actually pour concrete you know
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go make molds and and make a concrete
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pad but a local building company here in
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San Diego just had one that I could buy
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for 50 bucks so I went and did that
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worked out great so in addition to the
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power walls the both had to have their
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own AC disconnect switches then you had
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to have a gateway and a whole new panel
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set up with basically every circuit from
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the old electrical panel rewired into
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this new one and basically now the the
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grid itself is upstream from the rest of
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your house meaning the grid can go away
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and you can still function in fact
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that's how the primary function works
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typically if my solar system isn't
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generating enough power I am pulling
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from the battery
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so it's really cool and it and it does
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give you the sense of independence and
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freedom because in theory you could go
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off grid however that doesn't really
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make a whole lot of sense
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one thing Tesla just added was the
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ability to look at very detailed data
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about how you're using your energy and
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what Gloria's data it is so in the app
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you can see that I have my power wall
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here it's currently charging there's two
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of them listed there and you can click
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into the power flow which is easily my
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favorite diagram of all time showing
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exactly what's happening with your
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energy here we're looking at over four
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kilowatts of solar energy being
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generated right now three point six of
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that or three point five going back to
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the grid so I'm I'm building up a credit
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with the electric company here and point
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five of it powering the stuff that's
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currently used in my house and
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occasionally it's powering up or it's
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charging the power wall I can dive into
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the the history of this and see very
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detailed stats of what's happening with
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all these different sources and how the
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energy is flowing from one place to the
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other and until recently you could only
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look at today and yesterday in the app
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now you can actually click and look at a
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week or even a month I don't have that
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much data but you can kind of go back
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you know look at the lifetime of it etc
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etc so they're giving you just a really
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cool visualizations of ways to to
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understand this data and and I love that
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obviously that that's my thing but you
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know prior to this you had to go to the
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api's and kind of reverse engineer it so
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thankfully they did this and one of the
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cool things is if you don't like these
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visualizations I particularly don't find
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bar charts are good over time series
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which is the data we're looking to here
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you can download the data and obviously
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I did that either way I think it's
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really cool that they're giving you this
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data and it's really awesome just to see
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this I actually made an old iPad into
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sort of an art stand with that power
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flow thing so anytime we have people
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over I kind of explain what's going on
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it's just a really beautiful
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visualization so cheers said that tells
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the team for making that the bar charts
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the other stuff I think can be better
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but hey it's a step in the right
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direction and you're freeing the data
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about this which is amazing one of the
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challenges I've found so far with
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the powerwall is charging my car so
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typically I charge at work where I have
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a charger here and that kind of fills up
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mine but Jenny charges our model three
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at home now she doesn't drive a lot so
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she doesn't charge that often you know
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maybe once or twice a week at most but
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when she does if you think about it the
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model 3 long range has somewhere around
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78 kilowatt hours of energy stored and
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if she needs to fill that thing up from
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from close to zero this 27 kilowatt
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hours stored in the and the power walls
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are just a snack that's not even you
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know not even approaching enough on a
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regular basis if you went to work and
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came back and charged every night it
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would probably be fine but essentially
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what's gonna happen is we're just gonna
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just hammer that battery and then have
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to go to grid power now thankfully
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because we're using even less grid power
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than before we've built up enough
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credits to where it all kind of washes
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out going back to the app though there
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are a few ways to set up your power wall
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and I think it makes sense just to kind
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of talk about these and give you my
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thoughts on them I'm not sure I've had
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enough experience yet to be the expert
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at this or really figure out what's best
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but when you go into the customize
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option here you can see there are
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different ways to kind of use the energy
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stored in your power wall the first one
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is backup only where you never really
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use the the power wall except in the
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case of a backup so in the case of a
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storm or something like that the other
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one is this self powered one where
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generally all your energy is going to be
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coming out of there when instead of
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pulling from the grid I like this
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because that means I'm just reducing the
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actual load on the grid and I'm becoming
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more self-sufficient now in there you
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can and I've set it here to 20 percent
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you can reserve a certain percent of the
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battery for power outages for here in
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San Diego it doesn't make a lot of sense
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because we really don't have power
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outages regularly but if you do you may
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want to set that up to thirty forty
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percent whatever really makes sense or
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just go on the backup only so I choose
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the self powered mode because I feel
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like it's just it's just really good
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being you know kind of off-grid as much
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as possible now there's also this
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time-based control so if I click on this
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advanced one here what you'll see is it
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actually will will learn the peak and
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off-peak schedule and so here in San
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Diego as well as many other parts of
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or other parts of the country now are
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based are going to this time of use
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rating where you pay more for the the
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peak rates versus the off-peak and this
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is pretty common and you can actually
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kind of design that and set it up to
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match whatever your local company
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charges you that way let's say here in
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San Diego it's between 4:00 and 9:00
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p.m. are the super high peak I think
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it's like 53 cents a kilowatt hour which
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is nuts you can you can say hey use the
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battery during that time but 12:00 to
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5:00 a.m. when the energy is much
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cheaper don't worry about it go ahead
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and pull from the grid just just kind of
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let the battery be this actually could
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save or help with that problem with
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charging the car where if the car is
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designed to charge between 12 and 5 a.m.
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and use this mode then it may you know
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not use the battery don't go straight to
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the grid which seems like a better deal
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so I'll have to play with this over time
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and see exactly what makes sense but
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right now I'm just kind of in love with
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this idea of being self powered and
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being off-grid as much as I can be
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living in a relatively a you know
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suburban kind of area and then of course
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you have the storm watch which which I
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kind of mentioned but they actually have
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a system here that monitors the weather
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patterns and looks for when there's a
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storm coming up and it will it will kind
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of prep the battery for that so you
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don't have to really worry about you
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just leave that on if there is a storm
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coming that looks like it may cause
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power it'll it'll adjust the the energy
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flow to optimize for that so that way if
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you guys do have an issue it you know
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it'll be fine so really cool really
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advanced you know and like I said I just
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love this concept of being off-grid or
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you know kind of is independent as I can
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be so speaking of going off grid it
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definitely is possible with solar panels
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and batteries but the cost of being
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connected to the grid and having it as a
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reliable backup is pretty low it's 10
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bucks a month and for me that that's
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something that that's worth it you know
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it's cheaper than Netflix and a lot of
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other things you probably spend money on
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and it gives you reliable backup power
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but another thing you could do is if you
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don't have solar right now you can take
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advantage of the federal 30% tax credit
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the federal ITC it's called and bundle
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this in so you would actually get 30
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off the cost of your power wall making
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the economics much more palatable much
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better much you know more in your favor
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versus just buying them outright we're
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honestly the economics don't make a lot
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of sense for most people let's look at
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my actual utility bill from last year
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and just kind of see how this would
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shake out without the power walls but
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with solar now most months I actually
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did not produce more than 100% of the
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power that I consume so I was still
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using the grid even though I had a
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relatively large solar system on my
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house but you know due to the power
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company giving me a $500 credit for
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having solar I ended up not knowing
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anything for all of last year
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other than that $10 a month connection
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fee which is kind of a separate thing
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that you just have to pay for and the
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reason this works is because of net
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energy metering now nem is a sort of
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controversial topic there were some some
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recent changes to it but in the end well
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the way it works is you sell back or you
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you know give back energy that is in
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excess of whatever you're consuming at
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that moment so what you do is you kind
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of use the grid as a battery here and
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you give them that excess storage and
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then when the Sun Goes Down in your
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solar panels are no longer working
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you essentially buy back you use those
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credits so if you're generating more
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energy than you're consuming you have a
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negative balance in general this is a
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super common thing that makes the
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economics of the power walls really not
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worth it for most people now you may be
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wondering hey do I have net energy
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metering well I'll put a link to that to
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a website there that'll let you know but
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38 states plus a lot of the territories
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and provinces of the United States offer
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this so chances are you do so in that
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case when you have solar and net energy
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metering it doesn't really make hardly
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any sense to actually put your money
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into this except for one case we'll talk
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about in a second but let's assume you
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don't have solar right now you could
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actually benefit from this and a recent
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Stanford study showed that across the
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the warranty period the 10-year warranty
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that you get on the power walls if your
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average per kilowatt hour price is above
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thirteen point nine cents you would at
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least break even if not come out you
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know well ahead now that comes out to
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about twelve states in the United States
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some of the
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places with the most expensive
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electricity are the ones you can imagine
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Hawaii of course being number one as
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always so in those places if you don't
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have solar this could make a lot of
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sense by doing what you know I like to
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call rate arbitrage another term you may
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see out there is called peak shaving
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where essentially when you have the
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lowest time of use rating the cheapest
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electricity you fill these up and then
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during the highest the peak time you you
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live off of them and that was in the app
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where I showed you that customized where
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it'll actually figure that out for you
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you just kind of go in and tell it when
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is the expensive you know the peak rates
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versus the off-peak rates but that other
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case where it does make sense is if you
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live somewhere that have regular power
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outages so in the United States this is
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kind of the the sub Atlantic area the
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south that is on the coastal side where
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hurricanes regularly come and you know
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knock out power or cause other kind of
[855]
problems like that these things could be
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really beneficial for you you know it
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could literally be the difference
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between life and death in some cases
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there are a lot of cases and a lot of
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people in the world that live in areas
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with kind of insecure or unstable
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electricity grids and so if you live in
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one of those places this could be
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something that whether or not the
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economics make a whole lot of sense
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having energy when the grid is down and
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not being a regular thing is totally
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gonna be worth it for you so it's not
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one of those things where you're just
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looking about looking to save money
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you're looking to just have a better or
[888]
a better quality of life with this and
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this definitely offers you that
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opportunity and lastly I really can't
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stress enough how awesome it feels to
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look and see that I am really not using
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any electricity from the grid at all I
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mean it's just just incredible seeing
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this and knowing that I have control
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over how I'm consuming energy and what's
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happening to it it really is a great
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feeling and so you know we're human and
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you know this is why behavioral
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economics exists because we're not
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machines this isn't just a math equation
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here and so you know that is definitely
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valuable and so if that's something that
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is valuable to you and you can do things
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like pair it with the solar purchase or
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get you know that one of the discounts
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from the SGI program in california or
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similar
[935]
where you live then this can totally
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make sense right if I naturally may not
[940]
be a hundred percent but knowing that
[943]
you have energy independence and
[945]
security could be enough for you
[948]
depending on your financial situation so
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I'm curious what you guys have to say
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about this do you have a power wall or
[953]
are you considering one do you have
[954]
solar let me know if there's anything I
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missed in these calculations because
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that's essentially what we're trying to
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do here is is explore sustainable
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technologies like this and see how
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they're transforming the world around us
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through the lens of data of course so
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thank you for watching don't forget when
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you free the data your mind will follow
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I'll see you guys back in the news hey
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thanks for watching the video I hope you
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got something out of it now if you want
[980]
to dive a little bit deeper become a
[982]
part of the Taz nama community consider
[984]
joining us on patreon so what we have
[987]
set up are different things and ways to
[989]
engage such as a discord group which is
[991]
like this chatroom that is just the
[992]
folks that support the channel through
[994]
patreon I'm on there almost daily
[996]
engaging in conversation about how Tesla
[998]
and others like them are changing the
[1000]
world around us for the better so if
[1001]
you'd like to learn more go ahead and go
[1003]
to patreon.com/scishow so mcc's and i
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hope to see you there soon
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