Powerwall user update. That tipping point is here.
Tesla Powerwall: What's the verdict from the family who installed Australia's first unit?
702 ABC Sydney
By Amanda Hoh
Updated about an hour ago
PHOTO: Nick Pfitzner says his daily electricity bill has been slashed. (Supplied)
RELATED STORY: The Tesla Powerwall and what it means for Australia's energy market
MAP: Sydney 2000
Nick Pfitzner was the first person in Australia to have the Tesla Powerwall home battery unit installed in his Sydney home in January.
Six months on, Mr Pfitzner has cut his daily electricity bill by nearly 90 per cent and said the whole family had become "smarter" with their use of appliances.
"I have absolutely no regrets," he told 702 ABC Sydney from his home in the Hills district.
"The battery performance is still what it was on day one, and we'll be keeping an eye on that over the coming years.
"I'll consider more panels and another battery in a few years."
PHOTO: Nick Pfitzner regularly monitors how much power the household appliances use. (Supplied)
Mr Pfitzner spent $16,000 installing solar panels and the home battery system.
He said his power bill had reduced from $5 to $6 per day to just 59 cents.
The ability to monitor the household's usage meant the Pfitzner family had become more efficient and smarter with their appliance use.
"It's about eliminating waste ... so I'll say, 'hey kids turn off the lights'," Mr Pfitzner said.
"We run the dishwasher during the day and shift as much power use to the daytime so we're using solar power.
"But we haven't sat there frozen, turned off the lights and sat in the dark with candles.
"You still need to live."
What is the Tesla Powerwall?
The Powerwall, a lithium-ion battery system designed to store electricity generated from rooftop solar panels, is widely considered to be a game-changer for the electricity industry.
Mr Pfitzner joked that their new oven was the "problem child" as it drained some of the battery's juice when first switched on.
"The battery can handle most of it. It's the question of making sure you don't turn on everything at once," he said.
On a sunny day, the solar panels will power the house then charge up the home battery by around 11:00am.
If there is an oversupply of solar power, any excess will be fed back into the grid.
The battery can store 6.4 kilowatts hours of power.
On an average night, the Pfitzner house will use up half of the battery.
If all the power is used or if there is no power due to it being a cloudy day, then the house will draw from the electricity grid as needed.
Rechargeable batteries: facts, myths and explosions
Rechargeable batteries already power our phones, laptops and toothbrushes, and with solar battery storage and electric cars set to take off, it's time to sort the battery fact from fiction.
In the past six months, Mr Pfitzner said he used solar power and stored battery power for about three-quarters of the time.
"People with solar power know about the benefits but the Powerwall takes it to a new level for me," he said.
"When the sun goes down, I've still got peak power from the battery."
Mr Pfitzner anticipated it would take about 10 years for the system to pay itself off, though he said he was looking at other methods of saving more money in the meantime.
He wants to take up an off-peak system that will be able to predict what the weather will be, and if the battery is running low or cloudy days are expected, the system will draw power from the grid in cheaper, off-peak times of the day.
At the moment, the battery system draws power from the grid whenever it is needed and charges a single electricity rate for usage.
Mr Pfitzner said he expected more households might take up home battery systems in New South Wales when the Solar Bonus Scheme ends in December.
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