Did I mention we lost power for most of the day yesterday? I was in the closet ironing linens for the Thanksgiving dinner we'd be hosting in four hours when my husband came in and said, "did you notice that the power went off?" I looked at the iron, which was on, and said, "did it flicker?" He said, "no, it's still off." I looked at the iron again, and then I remembered the Power Walls.
My husband, through the referral program Tesla held on and off over the years, built up enough referrals to get a Tesla Power Wall for our house. We had solar already but didn't have the ability to keep a power bank at our home, so even with solar, we didn't have power during power outages because we were technically part of the grid.
Things are different with batteries in the mix, though. The solar system doesn't integrate directly with the grid, the batteries do the interfacing as well as smart management of where power is coming from and going to. So yesterday in the middle of prime turkey cooking time when the power went off for our entire neighborhood, we cooked on, had lights, and even internet connectivity.
A large tree had fallen across the road coming towards our neighborhood. It took hours to clear, and traffic had to be routed entirely around in the other direction, something that took people upwards of twenty minutes to do. Many of our neighbors weren't happy, given that they, too, had turkeys in the oven, only without power, the cooking mostly stopped.
Unlike a whole house generator that sits ready for situations in which the power is out but otherwise doesn't do much, the Tesla Power Walls manage our energy consumption all day, every day. On a standard day, we charge the batteries when we're overproducing as opposed to selling excess power back to the electric company at a low rate. When we're on on-peak hours, we pull from the batteries, using little to no grid power, and in the case of a power outage, the batteries take over and provide us with all the energy we need.
Only interestingly enough, we didn't need all that much power from the batteries yesterday. Because it was a sunny day, we were producing more electricity than we were using, even with the oven running, so we were both running the house as well as charging the batteries for a while until late afternoon when the sun grew low in the sky.
Fortunately, the power was back on before dinner time. Fortunate for us but also lucky for our neighbors who were hoping to have power in time for their family holiday meal.
What My Son Said: My son was playing with Mimi the other day. She likes to make sure she takes time with each child. My daughter will gladly suck up any, and all the time Mimi's willing to give, but my son has his own endeavors he wants to pursue. Hs summed it up the other day when he had had enough and said, "Mimi's tired, and I'm bored" as his reason for it to be time for her to go home.
What My Daughter Did A While Back: I discovered some hidden Halloween decorations recently. When my daughter and her friend, Madison, were helping to decorate our house, one of the things they did was make the little plastic ghosts you put a piece of tissue paper in and tie off with a twist tie. Then you hang them on the branches of a tree outside to have them dangling down. I knew they had made them, but I'd forgotten all about them. My daughter, not understanding how they would or wouldn't be seen from a distance, climbed up into the tree in the front yard and tied them in the branches. Now that fall has arrived, and the leaves have fallen off the tree, we can see the ghosts, which have remained unknown and hidden for over a month.
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