- Could get expensive flying a technician to every household to upgrade hardware in the racks
- Probably don't want everyone at home having physical access to storage devices
- Massive theft risk
- Homeowner's insurance would probably be irked
Data centre in the shed reduces energy bills to £40
adrianN•4h ago
> the average US home consumes about 889kWh per month, or about 29.2kWh per day
I assume most of that is HVAC? I use about 1500kWh a year, but I don’t need aircon and heating is district heating.
Jtsummers•3h ago
sixothree•3h ago
But yes, most of that would be heating and cooling single family homes. Many built during a time when insulation was an afterthought. Now homes are well insulated, but they are larger.
toomuchtodo•3h ago
thebruce87m•3h ago
Family of 3 in a Bungalow.
I’d love a system like this to charge on my cheap overnight tariff and use during the day. Solar just isn’t worth it here.
laurencerowe•1h ago
A 12kWh system costs £5880 including VAT. Assume 95% round trip efficiency and 80% cycle each night gives savings of £565 annually.
That's about the same as the cost of a loan at 5% for the total amount paid back over an estimated useful life of 15 years.
This assumes it doesn't need servicing in that time and you can DIY install.
I don't know whether home systems like this will get much cheaper as the batteries themselves probably only make up about 20% of the system cost.
There are huge economies of scale for utility scale storage with all in project costs now down to $125/kWh meaning 12kWh would cost just $1500 rather than $6600 for this home system. So I wouldn't be confident the price differentials between day and night rates will remain as high over its expected lifetime.
thebruce87m•42m ago
I don’t think these differentials will last either but I do like the idea of smart charging when there is too much wind. I suspect these grid storage systems currently being built won’t handle these peaks and will be designed for the average case so there will still be periods of cheap electricity.
My supplier already controls my car this way and charges it on a schedule it defines each night and also ad-hoc during low demand.
There is also some benefit to have a backup system for when the power goes out which happens a few times a year.
estimator7292•2h ago
1920s era homes are even worse, single hung windows in wooden frames, no insulation, no conception of managing airflow.
Modern homes are much more efficient, but they're a bit impractical to buy these days, and are increasingly built so shitty that their lifespan is less than their inhabitants.
LazyMans•1h ago
jmgao•1h ago
That's 171 W on average, that's about the same as my refrigerator (~150 W on average).