Very cool concept. Interested in learning a true price and power/storage comparison between this and the Tesla Powerwall - could probably figure it out myself with a little digging, but not being an energy person, wondering if someone has that info handy.
@orisonenergy Cool idea! Can you talk us through the numbers in terms of how long it would take to pay for itself (in a simple, no-solar off-peak-hours setup) in, let's say, California?
It appears our average rates are $0.17/kWh; how much higher would peak rates be?
@searchresults Thanks Danny. Current PG&E rates are $0.18/kWh off peak and $0.38/kWh on peak. Depending on your electrical usage the break-even point would be less than eight years at current rates. Rate structures are changing to incentivize reduced usage during peak hours, which will include greater difference between on and off-peak rates, demand response incentives and demand (peak) charges, all of which will make break-even happen sooner.
It plugs into a circuit in your house, which then feeds back power to the main bus bar and to all of the circuits in the panel. What I don't understand is how any significant load can be managed, even with their self-described load shifting technology, when typical household wiring is 12 and 14 gauge which is rated for 20 and 15 amps respectively. When you try to push more amps through the circuit the breaker will trip, and for good reason given the fire danger of overloading. There isn't a lot of information on their site about the limitations, but aside from just the capacity issue I would want to know how many amps can be delivered continuously.
@jeff_nolan I am 100% willing to be convinced otherwise, but in its current incarnation, and with the scant information provided, i just can't see how this could possibly work. It is impossible, given current code, to power an entire house through a single plug - we'd have fires left, right and centre. Emergency power, perhaps, but even there you'd run up against specs in no time at all, not to mention circuits, all with their own individual breakers. The Tesla wall works because it comes infrom behind the main panel, which is where power should be distributed.
@jeff_nolan Safety is at the core of our company We will not ship until we pass national and international compliance standards such as ICE, UL and NEC. Orison is designed to never exceed the rating of the circuit or its breaker - 15A for standard US circuit. This includes scenarios such as the grid and Orison providing load to a single circuit in tandem, and therefore possibly over supplying it. This is achieved through an intelligent discharge and sense cycle which allows the circuit breaker to act like normal and trip to shutdown supply in the event of over-demand.
@andreasduess@jeff_nolan@andreasduess Orison is a pretty amazing device but it’s not meant to run an entire house with a single unit. Consumers will put several Orison units in their homes or offices on several different circuits. During normal (grid-connected) use, Orison draws power from the grid when the price is low (or from your solar when it is producing more than needed) and then delivering it when prices are at peak or the sun's not shining. It’s only during a blackout that Orison becomes the sole provider of electricity to the individual circuit that it is plugged into. So if you have six Orison units plugged into six circuits, each would self-island that circuit during a blackout and continue to power that circuit. The Powerwall is a valid approach for large houses that can afford a lot of space in the garage. However we believe that everyone irrespective of whether they live in a home, apartments or condos, rent or own should have access to the ability to save money every day.
How does this work in output mode? If only plugging in with one plug does it not only provide power to one of two phases on a normal panel? Half the circuits would be ignored. Also if I'm outputting during peak to compensate, how to you sync up the phase and not really confuse appliances? These seem like big technical hurdles. I'm very curious how this works.
@ryanmarr Orison is truly plug-and-play and plugs into a wall outlet not the breaker panel. This means we are in general operating on single phase circuits and don't have the issue of only powering one phase. Orison is also continuously synchronized with the grid power so that we output in harmony with the power appliances will be seeing from the grid - this also mean we provide seamless power during a grid outage event.
@eric_d_clifton Thanks for the reply, however it's my understanding that most if not all households in North America are on 2 phase power, so when I plug in the Orison it will only provide parallel power on one of two phases of the home. Half of the circuits will use Orison, and the other half will not.
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