Home battery · Tesla Powerwall
Tesla Powerwall Home Battery Cost
Best-known home battery; 13.5 kWh integrated unit. Plan-level installed cost per kWh, model lineup, and where Tesla Powerwall sits among home batteries. The calculator below sizes the estimate to your backup goal.
Quick answer: a Tesla Powerwall home battery runs about $1,000-$1,500 per kWh installed. $11.5k-$16.5k installed for 13.5 kWh.
Optional — auto-detects state
25D Residential Clean Energy Credit terminated by OBBBA for property placed in service after 2025-12-31.
Estimated installed cost · 13.5 kWh · California
$25,589
range $20,051 – $32,377 gross
Net after incentives (mid)
$23,564
Range $18,633 – $29,947
Payback
21.1 yr
TOU + resilience savings
Incentive stack
- Federal 25D (0%, ≥3 kWh)−$0
- CA SGIP (Equity Resiliency tier)−$2,025
- Self-Generation Incentive Program — General Market tier; higher tiers for low-income, fire-prone areas, medical baseline.
Federal 25D credit (30% standalone battery ≥3 kWh) was terminated by OBBBA for property placed in service after 2025-12-31. State programs vary; verify income tier and capacity caps with the program administrator.
Benefits estimate
- Annual TOU savings
- $1,064
- Resilience value
- $50/yr
- Useful cycles
- ~6,000 (LFP) / ~3,500 (NMC)
- Warranty (typical)
- 10 yr / 70% capacity
Resilience value is a conservative annualized figure; actual avoided-outage cost can be much higher during sustained outages or for medical-baseline households.
Quote check — what to ask
- · Usable capacity (not nameplate) and end-of-warranty capacity retention (typically 70-80%).
- · Round-trip efficiency (modern systems 89-92%).
- · Cycle warranty (10,000 cycles for LFP, 6,000-7,000 for NMC).
- · Backup loads and transfer time (whole-home transfer: ms to seconds; partial: instant via dedicated subpanel).
- · Whether the inverter is integrated (Powerwall 3, Franklin) or separate (Enphase requires separate IQ8 microinverters or System Controller).
- · Monitoring, software updates, and grid-services enrollment (Tesla VPP, Sunrun Connected Solutions, etc.).
- · Permit and interconnection lead time — typical 4–10 weeks in 2026.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a Tesla Powerwall home battery cost installed?
A Tesla Powerwall home battery typically runs $1,000 to $1,500 per kWh installed, per NREL benchmark data and 2026 installer quotes. $11.5k-$16.5k installed for 13.5 kWh. The federal 25D credit that covered 30% of battery cost expired Dec 31 2025 under OBBBA, so 2026 installs pay the full price minus any state or utility incentive. Use the calculator below to size for your needs.
Which Tesla Powerwall battery model should I look at?
Tesla Powerwall's residential storage is: Powerwall 3. Best-known home battery; 13.5 kWh integrated unit. Match the usable capacity (kWh) and continuous power output (kW) to your goal — whole-home backup needs more power than simple bill-shifting. Per NREL, most homes that want meaningful backup land at 10 to 20 kWh.
Is Tesla Powerwall worth it vs. other battery brands?
Tesla Powerwall is a premium battery — you pay more for an integrated, well-supported system. The biggest cost variables are total capacity and whether you're pairing with new solar (cheaper per kWh) or retrofitting onto an existing system (more expensive). Brand differences in per-kWh price are smaller than the capacity decision itself.
What incentives apply to a Tesla Powerwall battery in 2026?
The federal 25D residential clean energy credit (30% of battery cost) expired Dec 31 2025 under OBBBA and does not apply to 2026 installs. State and utility storage programs still apply — California SGIP, plus several state and utility resilience and demand-response programs. The calculator below surfaces what's available; verify with the program administrator.