When Elon Musk released the second generation of Tesla’s home battery in October, one of the key upgrades was the inclusion of an inverter.
That piece of power electronics plays a vital role in switching the battery’s electricity from DC to AC so it can be used in the house or sold back to the grid. The first Powerwalls required a separate inverter, adding time and expense to an installation. Putting Tesla’s in-house inverter in the box amounted to a significant advance in the customer experience.
It turns out, the situation is a little more complicated.
The Powerwall 2 actually comes in two different versions: an AC-coupled model that includes the inverter and a DC-coupled one that does not. That’s a departure from the company’s product website, which says the new Powerwall is an “all-in-one” product that “uses an internal inverter to convert DC energy to the AC energy required for your home.”
Tesla didn’t advertise its decision to offer both types of battery, but doing so gives installers more options in designing the best system for a given house. And Tesla says it will charge the same price either way.
A choice of architectures
By quietly offering Powerwalls with or without an inverter, Tesla is providing installers options to customize the product for homeowners, without asking the customer to think through the details of power electronics.
“Tesla is trying to simplify the information that it’s providing to the end customers, whereas other companies will specifically say, ‘This is an AC-coupled system or a DC-coupled system,'” said Ravi Manghani, energy storage director at GTM Research. “It’s probably an information overload in some cases.”
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