Introduction

Home batteries allow you to store the excess energy produced by your solar panels for use at night, on cloudy days or during outages and PG&E’s Planned Power Shutoffs. Home batteries make it easier to store solar power for future use, reduce your reliance on the grid and provide backup electricity during outages. This will become even more valuable for California homeowners in 2023 when the utility export rates decrease substantially due to NEM-3. 

With its many innovations in the fields of renewable energy and sustainable living, Tesla has become a well-known player in today’s clean energy industry. As one of the most popular energy storage options on the market, the Tesla Powerwall is a battery system that stores energy from your solar panels for backup protection when the grid goes down.

Tesla Powerwall History and Warranty Details

The introduction of Tesla’s Powerwall has spurred a growth in the residential solar battery market. Like their successful rebranding of electric vehicles, the Powerwall made residential solar batteries popular with homeowners. While the Powerwall isn’t the only energy storage product on the market, it’s remained one of the most popular models since it was announced in 2015.

The Tesla Powerwall warranty is very competitive when compared to other home batteries in the industry. While the Powerwall warranty spans for 10 years, it also comes with an unlimited cycle warranty, which is unique and something other companies don’t provide.

They also provide 24/7 customer service for issues relating to their Powerwall. Since the majority of issues with the Powerwall are software-related, they can usually be addressed without a site visit. 

Tesla won’t honor the Powerwall warranty if it hasn’t had a reliable internet connection, as software updates are essential for its proper functioning. 

Powerwall’s Product and Performance Warranty

The product and performance warranty covers the battery’s condition and output. As a result, if the system has a defect or experiences unreasonable degradation, it should be covered under the product warranty.

If there’s a defect with your battery, your installer should be able to tell if something isn’t right and fix the issue before it ever gets installed. Either way, it’s always a good idea to consider products that come with longer warranties for peace of mind.

Most home battery warranties come with a clause that implies your term could be cut short based on how you use the battery. This is why cycles and throughput are important.

Powerwall Cycles

When you charge and drain a battery, this is known as a “cycle.” As with cell phone batteries, your solar home battery will gradually lose its ability to hold a full charge as it’s used over time. Because of this, some manufacturers include a guaranteed minimum number of cycles in their warranty agreement.

This is important: manufacturers will often guarantee a fixed term OR a minimum number of cycles with their product—whichever comes first. The same is true for cars that may be warrantied for either 10 years or 100,000 miles. This means if you cycle your battery beyond the number of times specified in its warranty, it could void your warranty.

The confusion comes from manufacturers sometimes having different definitions of “cycles” —for example, how much your battery needs to be drained and charged before you can consider it fully recharged again.

The Powerwall warranty doesn’t include a cycle clause, so you’re not limited to a certain number of cycles throughout the battery’s lifetime in order to protect your warranty coverage.

Throughput

Some manufacturers include a clause in their warranty that specifies the total energy they expect their battery to deliver over time. They express these guarantees in terms of megawatt-hours (MWh).

For example, if a battery comes with a throughput warranty of 30 MWh (megawatt-hours), then the warranty is valid until you’ve used up 30,000 kilowatt-hours of energy. Like cycle life warranties, throughput warranties typically only apply if the battery keeps a certain amount of energy available until its warranty period ends.

Throughput numbers will vary depending on your system’s overall storage capacity. Also, if your battery has multiple different battery cells or modules within it, your warranty may state a throughput by cell (which you can multiply by the number of cells in order to get your battery’s total throughput).

If you’re a homeowner using your Powerwall to store excess energy produced by your solar panels for time-based control and/or backup, a throughput warranty isn’t included. Commercial solar projects come with a throughput warranty of 37.8 MWh for the Powerwall batteries (this doesn’t apply to most homeowners).

Tesla Powerwall’s End of Warranty Capacity Rating

Most manufacturers also offer warranties that guarantee certain performance levels during the warranty period. This is most often referred to as the end of warranty capacity rating. 

When you compare the end of warranty capacity ratings across various batteries, those with high percentages are better than the lower percentage guarantees.

Powerwall home batteries have a 70% minimum capacity rating. As a result, your battery should still have 9.45 kWh of capacity (13.5 kWh * 0.7) by the end of your warranty.

Powerwall Workmanship Warranty

Home battery companies should cover the cost of a replacement battery or parts during their warranty period, but the labor costs to re-install the new equipment may not be covered. Unfortunately, many manufacturers don’t reimburse customers for the labor costs that come with diagnostics, replacements or repairs.

Installation companies are typically the only ones responsible for providing workmanship warranties on battery installations. However, some manufacturers offer added protection with their own warranty for limited certified installers in their network. All Tesla Powerwall installations are covered by their four-year workmanship warranty, regardless of who installs the battery.

Conclusion

As one of the most efficient and advanced home batteries on the market today, the Tesla Powerwall can provide peace of mind protection against outages, blackouts and more. Plus, you can reduce your reliance on the grid and protect yourself against future utility rate hikes. 

Tesla Powerwalls can be purchased directly from the company or from a Certified Powerwall Installer like Solar Technologies. If you’re ready to change the way you power your home and start saving more with solar, contact us today for a free customized quote.