In this article
Perth Solar Warehouse and Tesla Energy ran a Tech Talk at the Tesla showroom in Osborne Park on 16 November 2023. It filled in 48 hours. The discussion considered when to buy solar, storage and EV charging together, and when to add them in stages.
The Osborne Park event
- Invitation-only evening at the Osborne Park Tesla showroom, 16 November 2023, oversubscribed inside two days.
- Most people in the room already had solar or an EV and were working out what came next.
- The argument made on the night: an ecosystem bought together returns better than the same parts bought separately. That is true more often than not, and it is not always true.
- Derek McKercher covered sizing storage against Synergy’s tariffs specifically, which is the part that does not transfer from an east-coast presentation.
Combined and staged installation
Install together
The case made on the night was that designing solar, a battery and an EV charger together improves integration compared with buying the same three over five years. The charger can respond to the battery, with one installation and switchboard visit rather than three.
Add in stages
Buying everything together also means funding it together. Solar first, then a battery when the numbers or tariff justify it, can suit the household budget. Choose the inverter with that later addition in mind: the solar now, battery later pathway addresses that decision.
Sizing against Synergy tariffs
Storage sizing against Synergy’s tariff structure rather than a generic payback model. This is the piece that gets lost when a national presentation lands here: what an exported kilowatt-hour is worth under DEBS, when it is worth more, and how that changes whether you should be storing energy or sending it out.
A battery sized off a payback calculator built for another state will usually be too big. The right size follows the shape of your evening, and in Perth that shape is dominated by what the aircon does between four and nine on a hot day.
Products and support since the event
Nearly three years on, the products have moved. Powerwall 2 is legacy and Powerwall 3 replaced it, and the comparison between them is its own page. PSW Energy has now worked with Tesla Energy for seven years and holds Tesla Premium Certified Installer status for a fifth consecutive year.
The evening itself was a one-off in 2023 and we have not repeated it in the same format. If you want the same conversation without waiting for an event, the batteries we currently fit are in the battery range, or ask for a written price and we will size it against your own bill.