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Comment by dymk | Hacker News Reader

Very cool. But...

Tesla warranties the Powerwall for 10 years at 1 discharge cycle per day (according to the internet), or "37.8 MWh of aggregate throughput". At that point they claim 70% capacity after 10 years.

Would participating in this, and potentially discharging your battery more than once per day (let's say the event happens mid-day), void the warranty?

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If you only used your Powerwall for this program, and kept a 100% reserve otherwise, you would make $75,600 burning through the 37.8 MWh of throughput ($2 per kWh). That's a good deal more than the system cost, so to the extent that your system may wear out quicker, you are definitely being compensated more than enough to replace it when the time comes.

I recognize that doesn't address the situation where Tesla refuses to maintain the battery under warranty if you use more than 1 discharge cycle per day, but if the discharge is due to participation in a Tesla-involved program, that would be pretty poor optics for Tesla.

One almost certainly won't have the opportunity to get $2/kWh for a full 37.8 MWh though, and my question is more about the warranty being voided if the battery is used outside of Tesla's original designation. Let's say you do a full discharge 100 times over the course of the battery outside of normal day to day use - would they still cover you if your battery broke?

I agree it would be poor optics, but it's still a question to ask for those thinking of participating in the program.

The page says they're paying $2/kWh, the average electricity cost in (as an example) San Jose is $0.24/kWh. That means they're probably reserving this for emergencies, not for daily or weekly use.

If you get paid for discharge everyday for two hours you can buy a new power wall in under a year with how much you get paid. Not really a point for concern.

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