Hot Purple Energy is thrilled to announce we are now an official Tesla Powerwall Certified Installer. The Tesla Powerwall is one of the most widely used battery storage systems in homes and businesses, and we are thrilled to be adding it to our battery options to bring whole-home energy backup while mitigating costs to the utility.
As you may or may not know, HPE is no stranger to implementing battery storage into our solar solutions. In fact, we have over a decade of battery installation experience.
Why batteries?
In recent months, many utilities in California have transitioned their customers out of the standard tiered-billing structure and into time-of-use billing. All Southern California Edison customers can anticipate the change on their bills at some point before the end of the 2020 year.
What is the difference between Tiers and Time-of-Use?
Tiered billing was implemented to hinder customers from using an excessive amount of power by increasing the cost of power throughout the month. Basically, the more power you buy the more expensive the power becomes.
Time-of-Use billing means you are not punished for excessive power usage, but instead inconvenienced by paying a higher rate for power if you use energy during their “On-Peak” times (4pm/5pm-9pm).
For homeowners in the Coachella Valley, this poses an immediate threat. Due to our uniquely hot climate, air conditioning usage drives up our energy consumption far above the average SoCal home, and by tripling the cost of power between the hours of 4pm/5pm to 9pm, we can anticipate a massive spike in our bills.
In addition, the infrastructure of our grid in Southern California has been significantly affected by the extreme weather we have been experiencing in recent years. Wildfires, prolonged rain, and mudslides are all taking their toll on our grid, and the amount of upkeep and maintenance needed while also supplying power to millions of homes and businesses is nearly impossible to complete in a timely and affordable manner. With the addition of battery storage, we are taking a tremendous amount of pressure off our grid, which means fewer power-outages and a slowing of our increasing rates.
Tax Credit on Batteries?
The State of California is also incentivizing energy consumers to add a battery to their home and solar by implementing a Self-Generation Incentive Program rebate – a hefty rebate which reduces the cost of the battery by nearly 20%! But, the rebate is quickly dissolving, and one can only receive the 30% federal investment tax credit on the battery + solar cost if they are installed in 2019.
Another wonderful attribute of the battery, besides having total control of your rates and not being punished for using your power freely, is that you will have power in your home in the event of a grid outage.
You may be asking yourself, “How does Powerwall work during an outage?”
Powerwall can detect an outage, disconnect from the grid, and automatically restore power to your home in a fraction of a second. You will not even notice that the power went out. Your lights and appliances will continue to run without interruption. If you have solar and Powerwall, then solar energy will continue to power your home and recharge Powerwall. Without a battery, solar will shut down during an outage.
At this point, going solar without a battery is only getting half the solution you need, and Hot Purple is proud to offer full energy solutions to members of the Coachella Valley.