I have started doing some work on using certain tesla power packs from the secondary market as batteries for solar systems. There are some nice features like cooling and an available interface that make them a pretty good option. I'm trying to use them in a 24V configuration instead of 48V, because that saves a lot of money on switches and fuses, and we carry an inverter that works natively with those voltages. There are a few conditions and caveats, but there is a lot of promise for using them in a system to support a household or small grid once they are degraded from automotive use.
Follow up since this bubbled up again. I've got three sets of these installed in various places. All are working pretty well. BMS integration was a little tricky with them, and the most complex is installed in my own place. All are running very well, and tuned to 80% charge most of the time, they are cycling daily and working as expected. I'm coming up on 9 months at my place. Later this year I'll do a full load and capacity test just to see how they are doing.
My next project with them is to tie in the cooling loop and capture some of the waste heat as well. I'd like to figure out how to cycle it to my pool, but I don't think the math works out for that. It's sort of an ironic situation - I have so much free power 90% of the time it really doesn't make sense to optimize. I'm thinking about adding a heat pump so I can heat *AND* cool the pool. So in peak summer, I'll be using free electricity from the sun to take heat out of the pool and reject it into the desert.
Mark Rober tested Tesla Autopilot against simulated heavy rain but Kyle Paul tested the newest Tesla FSD self driving with Hardware 3 at the test was passed every time.
Projects like that could have promise for people who are physically unable to drive (e.g. blind or vision-impaired people, epileptics, neurological conditions, etc.), but it still seems like years away before it can be reliable.
coffee thoughts
practically every company (globally) that has the potential for self-driving is working on it
it's a form of artificial intelligence that has massive cross-over applications
we all think of next level robotics, however the real world and image recognition and visual processing will really take AI and make it much more useful
with transportation, as this tech is deployed, travel time will probably decrease and accidents will drop off
auto insurance execs are waking up and seem to be pretty concerned
and yes you can still drive your own car for sport/enjoyment if you like
your insurance premiums might be relative
also, rush hour/bumper to bumper traffic isn't that entertaining
$1200/year to not drive your car, or $8,000 for a lifetime of not driving it. If you sell the car, you don't own the self-driving...so the next buyer has to pay for the service.
I would likely use it a bit more than cruise control, but I'd pay myself the $25-$50/hour to drive me around (versus using this tech for 2-4 hours per month).
There is also the reality that Tesla doesn't triangulate a lot of traffic data the way that Google/Waze does... so it is likely to take you longer to get there.
When my kids are ready to take my keys because they worry I'm going to kill myself/others... Maybe then. Until that point, I enjoy driving too much to pay in case I don't want to.
Projects like that could have promise for people who are physically unable to drive (e.g. blind or vision-impaired people, epileptics, neurological conditions, etc.), but it still seems like years away before it can be reliable.
got a few minutes? take a look at one of the biggest ai projects on earth
$1200/year to not drive your car, or $8,000 for a lifetime of not driving it. If you sell the car, you don't own the self-driving...so the next buyer has to pay for the service.
I would likely use it a bit more than cruise control, but I'd pay myself the $25-$50/hour to drive me around (versus using this tech for 2-4 hours per month).
There is also the reality that Tesla doesn't triangulate a lot of traffic data the way that Google/Waze does... so it is likely to take you longer to get there.
When my kids are ready to take my keys because they worry I'm going to kill myself/others... Maybe then. Until that point, I enjoy driving too much to pay in case I don't want to.
got a few minutes? take a look at one of the biggest ai projects on earth
impressive, but I need about 5-10 more years of user data before I'd be less stressed letting a computer drive me through the city than doing it myself...
The role is to help ensure that the political, regulatory and fiscal frameworks in the âNordicsâ (Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland) support Teslaâs mission
We are looking for a sleazy lobbyist coke-head who also know their way around union-busting:
You have a proven track track record of getting regulatory changes made in the Nordics
Elon's ego is causing big troubles about five minutes from my house. His Boring Company and huge warehouse - for SpaceX I assume - are having a huge impact on traffic, road conditions, wastewater concerns...
The neighbors around there are pretty upset about the whole mess. Latest plan is to discharge ~ 140,000 gallons/day into the Colorado River nearby. 'Treated', they're saying. Right.
Elon gets stuff done, I'll admit that. But he does not follow the laws everyone else has to play by.
c.
Elon's ego is causing big troubles about five minutes from my house. His Boring Company and huge warehouse - for SpaceX I assume - are having a huge impact on traffic, road conditions, wastewater concerns...
The neighbors around there are pretty upset about the whole mess. Latest plan is to discharge ~ 140,000 gallons/day into the Colorado River nearby. 'Treated', they're saying. Right.
Elon gets stuff done, I'll admit that. But he does not follow the laws everyone else has to play by.
c.
do you wanna go to mars or not?
there will be trade-offs and sacrifices sacrileges!
Elon's ego is causing big troubles about five minutes from my house. His Boring Company and huge warehouse - for SpaceX I assume - are having a huge impact on traffic, road conditions, wastewater concerns...
The neighbors around there are pretty upset about the whole mess. Latest plan is to discharge ~ 140,000 gallons/day into the Colorado River nearby. 'Treated', they're saying. Right.
Elon gets stuff done, I'll admit that. But he does not follow the laws everyone else has to play by.
c.
The older packs were Lithium Ion, right? More prone to fires than Lithium Iron Phosphate / LFP. I started looking into adding solar + batteries to my home 10 years ago but balked because I knew the Lead Acid technology was soon going to be outdated. Finally pulled the trigger this month to beat the PG&E NEM3 deadline (California thing), with a Lithium Iron solution, which I feel better about from a safety perspective.
I'm sure the price is great on 2nd hand batteries, though, and also great to give them a new lease on life.
LFP is much better for mobile. We only use that for boats/vans/RVs, and would never use even the new tesla LFP pack for that. The older ones are NCA or NMC chemistry. They are less stable, but more energy dense. They are also problematic to extinguish if they get started. I'll be putting these in either containment boxes, or in an adjacent concrete structure with no flammables for this reason.
The prices have actually not been very good 2nd hand until very recently. It's also still hit and miss on availability at a good price. But I just scored several of the 5K packs for about $500 each (they are typically 700-900 or more depending on the source).
could do without the soundtrack - not that it is bad, but distracting for me however you get a look at the newer software...
I found out my wife had used the (fairly basic) adaptive cruise control on our Acura SUV to drive from the highway onto city streets (stop and go traffic) and back onto the highway again without touching the gas or brakes. I had to remind her that it's only looking at the car ahead, it would happily blow right through a red light if there wasn't a car in front! Presumably the Tesla software looks for red lights. It does show how one can get a false sense of security from such things.
I have started doing some work on using certain tesla power packs from the secondary market as batteries for solar systems. There are some nice features like cooling and an available interface that make them a pretty good option. I'm trying to use them in a 24V configuration instead of 48V, because that saves a lot of money on switches and fuses, and we carry an inverter that works natively with those voltages. There are a few conditions and caveats, but there is a lot of promise for using them in a system to support a household or small grid once they are degraded from automotive use.
The older packs were Lithium Ion, right? More prone to fires than Lithium Iron Phosphate / LFP. I started looking into adding solar + batteries to my home 10 years ago but balked because I knew the Lead Acid technology was soon going to be outdated. Finally pulled the trigger this month to beat the PG&E NEM3 deadline (California thing), with a Lithium Iron solution, which I feel better about from a safety perspective.
I'm sure the price is great on 2nd hand batteries, though, and also great to give them a new lease on life.
