In this explainer

Thirteen and a half kilowatt-hours against five. That is the usable storage in one Tesla Powerwall three and in one Enphase IQ Battery five P, and the gap is there by design.

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Chapters

  1. 0:00 One Powerwall 3 stores 13.5 kWh. One Enphase IQ 5P stores 5.
  2. 0:14 I. One unit each
  3. 0:39 II. How each one scales
  4. 1:02 III. The warranty terms
  5. 1:22 IV. No federal credit
  6. 1:45 V. California's peak window
  7. 2:09 VI. Arizona's peak window

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The figures in this explainer come from our live dataset. Explore them for your own state or metro:

Full transcript

I. One unit each

Per unit, the comparison lists the Powerwall three at thirteen and a half kilowatt-hours and the IQ five P at five. On continuous power the Powerwall reaches eleven and a half kilowatts through its built-in hybrid inverter, and each five P reaches three point eight four. Both run on cobalt-free lithium iron phosphate cells.

II. How each one scales

The two scale in different ways. A Powerwall three stacks up to four units, while the five P adds five kilowatt-hours at a time. Three five P modules give fifteen kilowatt-hours and eleven and a half kilowatts, roughly one Powerwall, and the page reports a meaningfully higher installed cost for that match.

III. The warranty terms

Warranties run the other way. Enphase covers the five P for fifteen years, to sixty percent retention and up to six thousand cycles. Tesla covers the Powerwall three for ten years, to seventy percent. The page notes that households cycling a battery every day get the most from the longer term.

IV. No federal credit

Neither battery gets the federal residential credit now. Section twenty-five D ended for purchases in twenty twenty-six, so batteries are priced at full cost. The site's payback study finds a battery adds three to five years to a solar payback on its own economics, because it stores power but does not make it.

V. California's peak window

California is where stored power is worth the most. Under net metering three point oh, exported solar earns five to eight cents a kilowatt-hour. A battery discharged in the four to nine peak avoids buying power at the peak rate, and in San Diego the tracker finds a self-consumed kilowatt-hour worth several times an export credit.

VI. Arizona's peak window

In Arizona, the APS peak runs from three to eight p.m. A battery that shifts solar into it can help, but the study does not model time-of-use rates, so it puts no number on it. The full comparison is free at Dreamy Leads Research. What state are you in, and how many kilowatt-hours of battery storage do you have or plan to add? Tell us in the comments.

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