An Australian home builder has announced plans to include a Tesla Powerwall in all new homes. Arden Homes says they will outfit all their new homes with the energy storage technology through a partnership with solar energy company and certified Tesla Powerwall reseller Bradford Solar. The move is expected to slash electricity costs for homeowners.
Tesla Powerwalls will now be standard in Arden homes as part of the Bradford Solar ChargePack. Solar panels on home rooftops will gather energy, which can then “be used to power your appliances, fed back into the grid, or stored for later use,” according to an Arden brochure. The pack also includes cloud-based monitoring so people can track energy consumption right from their smartphones.
The Tesla Powerwall, a rechargeable lithium-ion battery, allows homes to run on renewable energy whether the sun is shining or not, and can even power homes during an outage. Powerwalls can also help homeowners slash electric bills by up to 92 percent; according to Tesla, the battery charges when electricity demand is low, and therefore rates are low, and discharges when electricity demand is higher and rates are more expensive.
According to Arden’s brochure, families could save around $2,500 every year on electric costs, and their five kilowatt (kW) Bradford Solar ChargePack allows a family of four to attain 90 percent self-sufficiency a day. Their six kW pack allows an Australian family to live with little dependency on the grid.
Arden Homes are also designed to allow plenty of natural light to brighten up their dwellings through sun courts and large picture windows.
15 percent of Australian households – or around 1.5 million homes – are utilizing solar energy, and information released late last year showed the electricity generated in Australian solar homes with a Tesla Powerwall 2 is cost-competitive with the grid.
Via Futurism
Images via Bradford Solar Facebook and Arden Homes Facebook