Free nighttime electricity in Texas!

Nice for Tesla owners. Also a good selling point for a power wall!

hobbes said:

Nice for Tesla owners. Also a good selling point for a power wall!

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Too bad the Powerwall can't take Texas heat.

jerry33 said:

Too bad the Powerwall can't take Texas heat.

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The powerwall might work fine in Texas, as long as owners are OK with it shutting down above its maximum operation temperature of 110 F.

GSP

More importantly if you care about the future of Tesla as a company, this is a perfect use case for a Tesla PowerPack.

The powerwall doesn't have to be outside. Why not install it in an inside utility room or basement?

PokerBroker said:

The powerwall doesn't have to be outside. Why not install it in an inside utility room or basement?

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We don't have basements in Texas.

ok, so I need this plan + a powerwall, because I work for a school and when I'm off and at home on the school holidays, it would cost a lot to run anything.....

Also, great...give an inch right? Come on....

“I never thought about it,” she said. In fact, she leaves lights on and even the television on when she leaves the room.
“I’m really wasteful now,” she said. “The first thing I tell my guests is my electricity is free after 9.”

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Double also,

Someone in the comments section makes a good point - this plan in the Summer? The bill would be outrageous!

Delivery charges though...

TexasEV said:

We don't have basements in Texas.

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Really? Everybody in my neighborhood has a basement.

mspohr said:

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/11/09/business/energy-environment/a-texas-utility-offers-a-nighttime-special-free-electricity.html

It seems that there is a glut of electricity during the night in Texas due to all of the wind power they generate (and lack of grid connections to other states) so some utilities are offering free power from 9pm to 6am.
This could be the picture of things to come in other states with wind power.

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Cool! Good example for nations all over the world.

reddy said:

Really? Everybody in my neighborhood has a basement.

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Yes, really. With the soil in Texas basements aren't viable. They would be flooded with every rain.

jerry33 said:

Yes, really. With the soil in Texas basements aren't viable. They would be flooded with every rain.

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I guess Texas is a big state. Reddy is from Amarillo.

Isn't there somewhere around Chicago that actually pays people around 1c/kwh used at night?

One of the strategies if you can handle it is to run your a/c hard all night long. I know my house can't raise much more than 10-12 degrees in a day. If I cool to 64 at night, I can pretty much skip a/c in the day (not Texas heat of course).

David_Cary said:

One of the strategies if you can handle it is to run your a/c hard all night long. I know my house can't raise much more than 10-12 degrees in a day. If I cool to 64 at night, I can pretty much skip a/c in the day (not Texas heat of course).

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We've been doing this at our house in California for several years to take advantage of the off-peak rate between midnight and 7 AM (not free but used to be about 5 cents, now 10 cents). Cool the house down to 68 or 69 and then let it coast with the windows closed during the day until the inside and outside temperatures are equal. We only need A/C about 10 to 15 days per year, fortunately. On other hot days we can dump enough heat using the whole house fan to bring in cooler evening air. But to use the A/C this way we needed a "head pressure relief valve" to prevent liquid refrigerant from flowing back into the compressor when there was not enough heat to evaporate it in the inside coil. We burned out one compressor first.

jerry33 said:

Too bad the Powerwall can't take Texas heat.

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Just air condition your garage. Heck with free AC from 9pm to 6am you can turn the AC down to 60F overnight and let the insulation + moderate AC hold you through to the next night.

Wonder how long until crypto mining farms in TX start construction.

SW2Fiddler said:

Delivery charges though...

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What I mean is, even if your utility "vendor" gives you electricity for free, the owner of the lines ("Transmission And Distribution Utility," or "TDU,") is allowed to charge for power delivered to you. Mine tacks on about 3.5 cents a kWh.
Read Thy Bill!

We have no TOU plans whatsoever here in San Antonio. Flat ~$.12 rate.