Recent content by lodar

FWIW… I live in California and my Enphase IQ7 and IQ8 system curtails gradually. I ran a bunch of experiments during an all-day PG&E utility pole replacement. I was as off-grid as I possibly could be with the power lines disconnected on the ground. Batteries filled up around Noon and Solar...

The solar panels should never be “turned off” by the Powerwalls. They will be allowed to power the house while the batteries are full. The Powerwalls will signal the solar panels to generate less power, so they make just enough or a bit less than the house needs. Only if the solar panels...

The Grid Isolation Relay is a mechanical device which was meant to toggle in the unlikely event of a power outage. Not sure how much Tesla has over or under engineered it for daily cycling to micromanage exports 🤔 I feel that there must be a smarter way to do this. Is your friend trying to...

LOL! I carefully used the term “simulates” to soften the claim 😉 “Go Off-Grid” also doesn’t generate the nasty power transients that reboot or fry unprotected electronics that folks often think the Powerwalls would protect from. 😜

“Off Grid” will simulate a utility power outage by opening the grid isolation relays. In this mode, your house will be powered by solar + batteries. When there is excess solar, it will charge your battery. If your batteries are full and there is excess solar power, they will be “curtailed” by...

Incorrectly setup CTs can be a really big problem! The Powerwalls do a very delicate balancing act and with the wrong CT data could put out the wrong power. You should show the weirdness to whoever installed your system. They need to send a technician out to diagnose and fix it. If you have a...

How much power does your home use? To be useful as a backup, you need enough Powerwalls to last through from peak power time until the next morning. Do you have any high current draw appliances like an Air Conditioner that you want to keep using during an outage?

I’ll be keeping a close eye on this thread. My UPS regularly reports over-voltage around 5:00a in the morning. It should be too early for solar, and I’m usually not up yet to investigate. The alert goes away after a few minutes. 🤷🏻

In fact, the most optimal algorithm for maximizing income is neither all TBC nor all Self Powered. The best algorithm is to use TBC during peak and Self Power off-peak. With this algorithm, fine-tuning utility rate settings is moot. During peak, you ideally want every Wh of solar to be going to...

Search these forums, there’s plenty of discussions on Powerwall battery wear. Factors like state-of-charge, temperature, charge rate, chemistry, etc… The same way a car’s odometer is an approximation on its relative wear, you can look at how much your Powerwall charges every day. It’s harder to...

Overall, PG&E are incentivized to downplay NBCs except where legally required to disclose. Search the following PG&E files for “bypass” to see how little is described. https://www.pge.com/content/dam/pge/docs/account/billing-and-assistance/vnem-brochure.pdf...

PG&E has “non-bypassable charges” that breaks the 1:1 nature of their so called “net metering”. It is better for your home to directly consume its own power, rather than “banking” it with the grid. Ideally, solar energy should go directly into powering the home. Excess goes to battery, and...

Yup. Been running “Self Powered” for this past week. Probably could have started earlier. Still sending excess power to the grid during peak. We just had a cloudy period and had only one day where the batteries didn’t fully charge.

The Powerwall is not computer UPS grade. Depending on how the grid goes out, you (and your electronics) may or may not notice the switch. If you have sensitive electronics, then you should still protect them with a UPS battery. I’ve had outages that knocked me off of a Zoom call. Other times...

This goes back to my “balancing a broomstick on your hand” analogy. While connected to the grid, the CTs monitor energy flow in / out from the grid. The TEG sends commands to adjust the PWs output voltage to push just hard enough against the grid to maintain a zero current. But it takes time to...