Tesla GigaFactory Launch & Visit

Tesla launched its 1st GigaFactory a month ago



Elon Musk & JB Straubel at the opening party



Some lucky few could visit the factory and this video shows their experience ... Pretty interesting !





18650 & 21700 (called 2170) cell formats will be made at a rate of 75 cells/minute, which is pretty fast, and feed the Model S, Model X, PowerWalls & PowerPacks, and of course the upcoming Model 3

Take the tour ...




Powerwall & Powerpack Assembly Lines

Battery cells tray Pod

My Energy Storage System - DIY ESS - has been running with Solar for 3 Years now and saved me 800 EUR

On July 7, 2016, my home made Energy Storage System, named DIY ESS, has been running fine for 3 full years :)



Link from July 7, 2013 : http://www.myelifenow.com/2013/07/uni-solar-pvl-sma-inverter-finished.html



After several months of building and testing it back in 2012 & 2013, I finally had my Solar panels connected to a working SMA inverter and I have been storing my Surplus Solar Enegry ever since ...
(Solar panels install had been done several before that http://www.myelifenow.com/2012/10/solar-panels-installation-13-uni-solar.html)

During these last 3 years I had no breakdown what so ever, and absolutely no LiFePO4 Battery pack problem using it 24/7 (8 CALB CA180FI prismatic cells)



Today, few days after, it shows that I saved 577 EUR but you have to add 220 EUR approx. that were not taken into account during the first months (Wattson Anywhere portal data gathering came later)
For more details on my last 500 EUR update in April : http://www.myelifenow.com/2016/04/diy-ess-update-500-eur-of-savings.html
So the total savings as of today is 577 + 220 = 797 EUR, almost 800 EUR :)



I also sold few kits online to people around the world during the same period and it is still available here : http://www.diyesskit.com

I will continue using it until I have a Tesla Energy Powerwall installed later .... and the beauty of it is that all the of the shelf components used in it will be sold and bring me a good part of my money back ;)


Links:
http://wattson.energyhive.com/dashboard/diyesskit
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/chris75sf

Two Years Riding my BMW C Evolution and 20,000 km

20/06/2014 - 20/06/2016 That's 2 years now
(Last year's post: http://www.myelifenow.com/2015/07/already-one-year-with-bmw-c-evolution.html)

This year I used only my C Evoultion to commute, no LEAF at all even in winter






During last fall, with my son's GoPro, we made some onboard videos, in Paris, on the freeway, and that was fun




More videos on my Youtube Channel : https://www.youtube.com/user/chris75sf/videos

I also got my grand father sitting on the scooter for a rare fun picture :)

Many colleagues are interested in buying one, and the price is still the problem for them, I usually answer that I did not have the money to buy it back then and got a loan and pay 252 EUR per month over 6 years; I do not regret it ...

I often tell them to get it used: You can now get one with 3,000 km for 2/3 of the retail price: It's a very good deal !
https://www.leboncoin.fr/annonces/offres/ile_de_france/occasions/?q=bmw%20c%20evolution&it=1&sp=1

Ready for summer now :)

DIY ESS Update : 500 EUR of SAVINGS logged but 720 EUR since the beginning

Goods News for my DIY ESS - Energy Storage Sytem : Another step reached with 500 EUR of Savings logged by the online portal as of this weekend :)

Since I started logging usage + generation data with the EnergyHive hub in June 2014, it says 502 EUR has been saved on Imported Electricity

But my DIY ESS has been running with Solar Panels since July 9, 2013, and the additional savings figure for the first period should be close to 11 x 20 EUR/month = 220 EUR

So the total amount of Energy Saved on my Utility bill is today around 720 EUR ! after 2 years and 9 mobths of service
And since the price per kWh of Electricity is always going up, the savings will continue to increase faster with time !

Even if I do not care about ROI really, I can now say that 1/4 of the money spent to build my DIY ESS (3,000 EUR) has been payed back in Energy Bill Savings (720 EUR) over the 2 years and 9 months : 720 / 3,000 = 24%


Using cheaper Electricity rates to Charge at night (TOU) during winter, and Solar Surplus during the day, my Energy Storage System automatically tries to match the Power Consumption at home, in conjonction with Solar Generation when available, to have a Net Usage (Home Usage - Generated Power) close to 0W : No Import & No Export = Self Consumption of Solar Production

EnergyHive Free Online Portal enables instructive and user friendly graphs for real time and historical data display

I often checks that my ESS is working fine during the day, using my iPhone, Mac, PC on http://wattson.energyhive.com/dashboard/diyesskit

Power Graph


Energy Graph


Energy Generation Chart : Imported vs Generated Energy


Another real time way of checking what's going on is through a Logitech Broadcaster Webcam displaying Live on Ustream 2 Wattson units : one with Generation (Solar + ESS), the other with Net Usage (Usage - Generation) : http://www.ustream.tv/channel/chris75sf

More info on my DIY Energy Storage System here : http://www.diyesskit.com or http://www.storeyourenergy.com

Tesla Unveils Model 3 - March 31, 2016

Here is the long awaited Tesla Model 3 !

I was up early to follow this Event Live



I ended up reserving open before the show started, and that was not expected :)



Elon was on time !

He announced there were already 115,000 Reservations before the event !!
















Here are the key features of the Model 3




A more in depth presentation is already scheduked for later as Elon Musk twitted yesterday



Find here my full album of the show :

https://goo.gl/photos/WuyHoLqKXhFGumhB8

EVTV Friday Show - December 18, 2015

- Visit from a Russian EV entrepreneur

- Our rebuilt OEM component development bench

- The end of the lithium battery business

- Ultimate Solar System using Tesla Battery Packs by Jason Hughes