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2 solar panel systems a 1 powerwall (N. California)
- Thread starter Jky6
- Start date
If they install the system you described, you just need to ask Tesla for SolarEdge monitoring access. Then you can use the SolarEdge app to see the per-panel production. There is no special monitoring, but you will need to install the little black Zigbee Gateway box that they will provide, or plug an ethernet cable from your LAN directly into the SolarEdge inverter. Whether or not you will get an additional solar-only tab showing the new solar production in your Tesla app depends on how they provision the new solar on their back-end systems.
When they do the install, do make sure that they show you a test demonstrating that the Powerwalls register both the new and old solar production alone and charge properly from each solar system, in addition to both solar systems at the same time.
I don't recall if you said what your original solar system is and what monitoring is available for it. In any case, in normal operation, the Powerwall tab in the Tesla app should show the aggregate solar and Powerwall operation and the SolarEdge app would show just the new system.
heytae
Member
Got it, I know they asked for an ethernet connection to plug into the SolarEdge inverter. So as long as they have that, does that give the same features as the Zigbee Gateway or is there a difference for my situation?
My current/1st PV system is a 2012 4.5kw Sungevity system that doesn't have any app for realtime monitoring capability, other than downloading hourly or daily production data from a website the following day. Via the Tesla app though, I do see the realtime solar production via the Tesla-provided CTs as well as my Powerwalls activity.
The new 2nd system is scheduled to be installed in early February so I'm trying to get these wrinkles ironed out ahead of time. It currently looks like they'll be relating the inverter to inside of our garage so that it can be near the ethernet.
It's possible that they asked for the Ethernet to plug into the Zigbee Gateway, not direct to the SE inverter. The data would get to SE either way, but I think Tesla would want the Zigbee gateway to be there for their own monitoring, firmware updates, etc.
This is something I have looked into. My solaredge inverter has the zigbee card, which connects wifi to the zigbee gateway, which is hardwired to my internet. But, solaredge show how some models can be hardwired into the internet, but not which models have this. If I get a new inverter, one of many questions I will be looking into
heytae
Member
Thanks for the details. Sounds like the Zigbee gateway would give Tesla some additional capabilities. So maybe my ethernet will plug into a Zigbee also, even though wifi won't be necessary.
I got confirmation that the Tesla design team is going to relocate the inverter to inside of my garage, near where my existing inverter is, for the direct ethernet connection. That redesign is going to trigger a permit re-review with Cupertino but hopefully that won't cause my early Feb installation date to be pushed back.
During these low solar production months, I'm REALLY wishing I had the 2nd PV system already. My PV system isn't able to recharge the Powerwalls fast enough to keep up with our daily demand so they're usually sitting at my 20% Power Outage Reserve. No bueno.
Sorry to bump an old thread, but I had a question on this... Just got a powerwall and powerwall+ installed with 4kw panels. I have an existing tesla 7.5kw system in place already. I'm not 100% sure how it will all function together; my main concern is that all 11kw is being piped into charging the batteries during a grid outage. It has not been turned on yet (utility approval is slow as hell here), so I was anxious to make sure it's configured like this since on my tesla app, my old 7.5kw system is showing on a completely separate page on the mobile app, and the 4kw and powerwalls are showing on their own page of the mobile app.
The old system's 6kw inverter was left in place, it was not combined. They also installed an additional utility meter instead of piping it all through the same one (this is what hasme a bit concerned).
Are you seeing a similar thing with the app, and, if so, are both of your systems configured to charge the powerwalls?
Here are two screenshots of what I'm seeing:
I have a similar setup but my other system wasn’t Tesla so didn’t show up in the app at all. They added another meter so that the PW+ could see the solar production so in the app the solar production is combined. If the new system is Tesla too I would imagine they have a way of combining the production, but yeah you’ll probably have to push for it. I had to ask several times for them to add the meter to the other solar system.
I'm fine with having this discombobulated setup; my main concern was that both the 7.5kw and the 4kw system are both piped in to feed the PWs during an outage. The app thing is confusing, but that's a peripheral concern.
That shouldn't be a problem, both of mine are as well. When there is an outage and the batteries are full, it will start raising the frequency and the other solar system shuts down if its generating too much. That is why I pushed for the monitoring, because I wasn't sure if it would know to do that but I imagine once the batteries get full it probably just raises the frequency regardless.
The new meter is probably required because your utility requires production metering. If it didn't, I can't think of a good reason there would be an additional meter when adding 4kW solar plus Powerwalls to an existing solar installation. This seems like a well balanced and designed system. A 6kW inverter plus 4kW DC solar on a PW+ will never overpower two Powerwalls. You will probably have to wait until you have utility permission to turn on to see if all the power flows in the app are correct for the combined system.
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