KaiserJeep wrote:I have thought a lot about this. Electric heat in the form of a ground source heat pump plus a personal power plant and batteries will heat/cool an off-grid superinsulated home. No carbon fuels of any kind required, other than during the energy-intensive construction and fabrication of the heat pump and power plant components. Buy those from the solar-powered Tesla Gigafactory if you can. Buy them and build that superinsulated home NOW before the recent Peak Oil makes it unaffordable.
pstarr wrote:What happens in your high-tech castle when the lithium batteries pop, sizzle, and die? Somebody help me here: How long does the Powerwall last as the exclusive power supply for a modern home (heating, hot water, light, cooking). Where does the new battery pack come from?
You may believe in the end of technology and civilization, accompanied by zombie hoards, but I do not. The Tesla Powerwall monitors each individual cell out of the thousands in the battery, charges each cell optimally, and spares them out when needed. Tesla is gonna make it and lithium batteries are recyclable and do not need any rare materials. Solar PV does use rare earths, but failure rates are very low.