Let me start off by saying that the Power Wall combined with Solar is the best solution by far. However, if you're like me and you haven't converted to solar yet, I think investing in a Power Wall without Solar is still a very smart investment. Here's why:
I have a separate meter for my car that's on a Time of Use plan. That Time of Use plan has worked out very well for me and for the purposes of charging my car. I pay 11 cents per kWh during off peak hours which is an extremely good rate (even when compared to solar). But that's just for my car.
I've always felt that a Time of Use plan for my home would make sense if I could find a way to store the energy during Super Off Peak hours and use it during peak hours. With the Tesla Power Wall I can do that!
Right now my home is on a tiered system where I pay 15 cents a kilowatt for Tier 1 and max out at 31 cents a kilowatt for Tier 4. I'm almost always in Tier 3 or 4 by the end of the month.
But if I switched to a Time of Use plan my cheapest rate would be 11 cents a kilowatt during Super Off-Peak hours and 36 cents during On-Peak hours.
My plan is to buy one or two of the Power Walls and have them charge up during Super Off-Peak hours and set them to power the house during peak hours. That way I'm always paying 11 cents a kilowatt regardless of the time of day. That and it would get me one step closer to a perfect Solar solution when (not if) I eventually make the switch .
Note - Please do not email me or try to sell me on Solar. I've done all the math, I've had quotes from every Solar company you can imagine (including Solar City) and I haven't switched yet for reasons that I'm not going to discuss here. Every time I tell someone that I haven't switched to Solar yet I get an ear full. I will invest in Solar sometime in the next year or two, but I'm not doing it yet for reasons that - frankly - I'm tired of explaining. So please do not message me about it, I will not respond. Thank you
So did you go through with this? I was just thinking about this very topic last night and when I googled Powerwall without solar arbitrage, this is the first thing that popped up.
I haven't done a deep dive yet by I believe for my TOU plan my off peak rate is $0.01. Not sure what my Super Peak (2pm-6pm June-August) rates are yet, but right now I pay about $0.11 when not on a TOU plan.
Not sure If I could even buy powerwalls without solar but thought there might be a possibility of using powerwalls to arbitrage my rates (charge them at night and power house during the day) and also have them as back up during a power outage.