Part 2, DIY powerwall from a wrecked Tesla Model S

Part II. A 5 week update on our off grid DIY powerwall using a salvaged battery from a wrecked Tesla Model S (85Kwhr). We've been running the snot out of this puppy and it hasn't laid down yet! Thank you UofL student Collie Crawford for coming over to hack on the pi with me this weekend. Also, thank you Jack Rickard @ EVTV.me for providing 90% of what it took to do this project. This video shows my solar panels and the raspberry pi GUI that I programmed in C to monitor the battery.

[Oldtimeytools]

Who’s here after the Tucker interview? What a legend

[tony_orto]

Why can't every congressman be as smart, frugal, self sufficient, and open to technology as you?

[DougKremer]

As a 42 year old voter living near LaGrange I am very pleased to know that my Federal Representative gets his hands dirty, asks questions, experiments, and expresses the knowledge you do in these videos. Keep it up Mr. Massie!

[Xyphren]

you're not my Congressmen as I don't live in your state. but you make me have some hope for humanity Knowing there are people out there in Congress getting themselves self sufficient and making the right move to be responsible about the power they use.

[KMOB]

Thank you sir for your service! I wish more people in government had a fraction of your technical skills!!

[cnotation]

Best Congressman ever... learned a lot, thanks

[sunxxpress]

Great video. I have been powering my home for almost 2 years with these same modules, and I can assure you that you will be very happy with them. The only downside will be that your system will become boring once you realize that you no longer need to check your battery voltages 10 times a day. I glad to see that there is now a system available to make the BMS boards work. I have been using my modules wihout a BMS system, but I can monitor and manually balance the individual cell packs. In 18 months I have never seen a delta of more than 15mv and have never had to balance any cells. These are awesome batteries. I will be looking into the system from evtv very soon, just to make my system a little bit more boring.😎 I'm glad I bumped into you video. Thank you.

[comminc]

The "odd" BMS behavior is the BMS balancing the cells, it uses a resister to bypass current around a high cell. While doing so it will cause the cells above and below it to absorb some of the current and cause a small voltage spike during the bypass event. Great set up by the way, and happy to see someone like you in D.C.

[Enigma]

I think you would have done this being a congressman or not. I hope you are writing all this down for us that will surely be coming soon to doing this on our own homes. I know you are happy about maintenance free battery. The Stone on the facade of the house looks really nice. Thanks for sharing what you have learned over the Generations of Battery Tech.

[HonoluluBen]

can you please post all the items purchased and used. I would love to do this same build thanks!!!

[dustman]

Cool congressman. The problem with a lot of people in government is they have no practical knowledge or experience, which, in my opinion, makes them poorly qualified to represent the interest of the common person. Nice work, and appreciate that you got your hands dirty.

[mraidymaddful]

There is a lady out there in the US somewhere who has a 2017 Model X with over 200, 000 miles on it, I saw the vid of it yesterday, April 3rd 2023. She showed that the cars batteries have only lost 30 miles of range in that time/mileage. In a drive of the car she showed it had lost none of its acceleration power and was more or less as good as it was when new so Mr Massie will indeed have his 20 years of power, I would think. What an absolute trooper the man is, and an example of what can be done off grid. I would like to know how much the entire set cost

[crazymohawk]

You sir are awesome. You know What you are talking about .

[mazdalorean]

This is one of the most interesting projects i've seen. I love the concept of your system. Imagine having 13, 000 watts (not sure if that's accurate) on the roof of your Tesla. Only you're not driving, just powering everything in the house. Thanks so much for sharing. The only thing that could top this would be having the battery still in the car, and being able to choose whether you want to drive, or power the house. Good stuff. Joe

[jamesndarlene]

So glad you are doing these videos! Thank you.

[kathleensmith]

This is amazing! I would love to have this set up. I wish I was that smart to figure all this out.

[offgridlivingstlucia]

Nice video and clean solar installation

[eyeorewolf]

Excellent videos both parts one and two. My current annual power consumption runs $2, 643 and I'm going to estimate on the low end that you have about $40.000 invested in your system so that would be a 15.13 year ROI assuming nothing goes wrong. I admire what you've done but reality for most people is they can't even afford to get in the same game you're playing so they would have to take out a loan and that would add additional cost to the whole equation. Legislators keep taking the side of the power companies when it comes to base meter charges and grid tie where in one example the power company can charge 12.5 cents per kWh but only allow 2.5 cents for power fed back to the grid on top of in some cases $40 just for having a meter hooked up as a base charge. This base charge has more than quadrupled since 2000 constituting at least a 21% annual increase for the past 19 years. The best the average person can afford to do is reduce consumption by insulating and buying LED bulbs, etc. and at that all they are really doing is offsetting a portion of the onslaught of increases never really getting ahead. I have applied solar to a one car garage using cheap panels, PWM charge controllers and sealed lead acid batteries and recently purchased 4 new 285 watt solar panels that I will utilize on my RV and shop to offset power usage but grid tie seems like a waste if the power company is going to pay me 2.5 cents for a Kw then later sell it back to me for 12.5 cents, it's an injustice on the citizens of my state and a crime that it's allowed. Lots of politicians talk a good green story but it's not for the average citizen is it? It seems they are intentionally left out of the game. I would love to see some legislator/s actually stand up for what they say they represent not just for themselves but for the entire population. What you have done is great, there are a lot of capable people who could do it as well if the incentives were there, grid tie is a great starting point but it has to be a fair and level playing field between the consumer and the power companies and it definitely isn't and it gets worse with every bill passed, why is that?

[robertvasi]

Would be great to have a list of all the components you use on this project. I am thinking of similar route to convert a blue water catamaran in the future.

[CharlieBehrens]

I sure wish our Rep's in Florida were as forward-thinking as you!