The last show of the year is behind Sonnenbatterie and we are definitely looking forward to 2016. But we still have a few exciting things up our sleeves that will be revealed before the holidays are upon us. ESNA was a very different show than the SPI and ISNA I attended this year with Sonnenbatterie. The attendees were definitely a more educated bunch who asked more thought provoking questions than the obligatory, “Will your battery system withstand an EMP blast?” (It won’t, by the way), but there was still the lingering and ever present question of, “How long will this…

I wish I had a dollar for every time someone asked me, “I have a *insert number* square foot house. How big of a battery do I need?” My reply is always the same: What color is your house? The answer to that question is about as important as the size of the house. Oh, and there is no such thing as a “standard house” when it comes to determining consumption. Sure, you can find data that will tell you that the ‘average US household’ consumes about 900 kWh a year, but that won’t help much when the customer adds…

The industry is buzzing with Elon Musk’s high hopes of putting a battery in every home and solar on every roof. The Tesla Powerwall is poised to reduce grid dependence and promote more self consumption- but in my very humble opinion it’s not there yet. After watching Elon’s unveiling video a few weeks ago and reading the pros and cons of this new venture, it only reemphasized the point that SMA already has products to handle his vision. Let’s take a look at some of the limitations of the Powerwall: The 7kWh model “doesn’t make financial sense” and SolarCity will not be…