4 kW Tesla solar install (with existing solar) and Powerwall addition and what I learned

[aesculus]

So has anyone who has existing solar and powerwalls and then added Tesla solar able to get Tesla to show them the PV production for the new solar separately?

NO. And in fact I am having an issue with Tesla on just this problem. My new Tesla Solar Roof is not performing adequately. Calling Tesla support and they can only see the aggregate and don't even acknowledge I have other solar systems tied into the gateway. So what they see looks better than what they think the system should produce. They don't want to here any of my story about other solar. They only see the PWs and Solar Roof SN so that is all I must have.

So at this point my only alternative is to turn off my other two solar systems for a day and then maybe they will see what is going on with the TSR and determine I might just have an issue.

 

[h2ofun]

NO. And in fact I am having an issue with Tesla on just this problem. My new Tesla Solar Roof is not performing adequately. Calling Tesla support and they can only see the aggregate and don't even acknowledge I have other solar systems tied into the gateway. So what they see looks better than what they think the system should produce. They don't want to here any of my story about other solar. They only see the PWs and Solar Roof SN so that is all I must have.

So at this point my only alternative is to turn off my other two solar systems for a day and then maybe they will see what is going on with the TSR and determine I might just have an issue.

Seems fair to need to turn off the other solar, to get data that is not in question. Even if the solar roof ends up not performing adequately, what are you options?

 

[aesculus]

Turns out Level 2+ can see the Solar Roof inverter by itself. So hopefully more monitoring can take place.

But for completeness I did turn off the other solar systems for the day so I can at least have a place for someone to go to at a lower level. (ie customer support).

 

[arnolddeleon]

Turns out Level 2+ can see the Solar Roof inverter by itself. So hopefully more monitoring can take place.

But for completeness I did turn off the other solar systems for the day so I can at least have a place for someone to go to at a lower level. (ie customer support).

Yes, they clearly have the data.

I tried again today to see if they configure things to show the data. I'm pretty confident it is technically possible but they don't have a procedure for it. Existence proof that I have another Tesla PV system at the same address that displays separately. The person did indicate that this a top gripe the former SolarCity support folks were bringing up on behalf of their customers. Apparently SolarCity had the ability show aggregated and separated PV systems. One small glimmer of hope is that a new app experience is coming.

 

[heytae]

So has anyone who has existing solar and powerwalls and then added Tesla solar able to get Tesla to show them the PV production for the new solar separately?

I'm right in the middle of a new Tesla solar panels system being added (they'll finish installation next week). House has a pre-existing non-Tesla solar system then we added powerwalls in 12/2019. Everything's been working great, but I'm now concerned about, after the 2nd PV system is running, how the Tesla app will a) show each of the two PV system's output individually, and b) show the combined output. Hopefully it'll be similar to how it's been showing the production charts with a single PV system. Nobody at Tesla has been able to tell me how the Tesla app will show these two things. Adding a 2nd PV system isn't that rare nowadays, is it???

Does anyone here know?

 

[miimura]

It is possible that the new Tesla solar will add a new page to the Tesla app that shows only the inverter reported solar production. The Powerwalls would continue to show the aggregate solar generation measured by the solar CTs. Of course, it would only be aggregate if the new solar inverter circuit is run through the existing solar CTs, or otherwise set up to add the new generation to the solar measurement.

 

[arnolddeleon]

It is possible that the new Tesla solar will add a new page to the Tesla app that shows only the inverter reported solar production. The Powerwalls would continue to show the aggregate solar generation measured by the solar CTs. Of course, it would only be aggregate if the new solar inverter circuit is run through the existing solar CTs, or otherwise set up to add the new generation to the solar measurement.

It is clearly technically possible. But that question is will Tesla do it? My old Tesla (nee Solar City) is setup that way, in fact it was technically my first Tesla product in the app. When I added Powerwalls they didn't remove access to the solar entry. What so frustrating is when I added more solar this year they didn't give me a separate solar entry for that one. They absolutely have production data for it because the Tesla inverter reports it. They have separate CTs for all the PVs systems but it is not clear they are on dedicated channels in the gateways or they are just physically summing all of it. I pushed on tech that was on site and they confirmed that they have production data for each PV system but I'm not sure if that is come from the PW gateway or the Tesla solar inverter or both.

Amusingly during my last round of pushing they discovered the CTs were slightly wrong. Sense had been reporting that the amount energy coming out of my Powerwalls was a few hundred watts short of my load. I had assumed that was just Sense being slightly off. After Tesla fixed "the issue" (didn't catch what they did), things have been tracking pretty close within Sense. The bad news is I still didn't get separate production data.

When I have some time I will be reviewing contract with Tesla to see if they are required to provide me production data. I also tempted to start trolling support. E.g. because there is no app entry for the new solar I can't find a support ticket via the app. Another issue is that I actually I can't tell via the Tesla app if the new PV system is producing. It just gives me sum of all of PV systems. Basically I can call them say my new PV system is not producing. They have no instrumentation for me to look at that says it producing. I'm holding my fire to see if they update the systems "soonish". I'm also hoping that the Tesla Solar inverter will have a local API that can queried (just like the Powerwall). Lucky for them I have other things keeping me busy right now.

 

[aesculus]

I'm right in the middle of a new Tesla solar panels system being added (they'll finish installation next week). House has a pre-existing non-Tesla solar system then we added powerwalls in 12/2019. Everything's been working great, but I'm now concerned about, after the 2nd PV system is running, how the Tesla app will a) show each of the two PV system's output individually, and b) show the combined output. Hopefully it'll be similar to how it's been showing the production charts with a single PV system. Nobody at Tesla has been able to tell me how the Tesla app will show these two things. Adding a 2nd PV system isn't that rare nowadays, is it???

Does anyone here know?

I have three independent solar systems, two non Tesla and one Tesla. My setup is a bit weird in that my Tesla solar is on a circuit that is being aggregated under my house load. Its a very occasionally used load circuit that is mostly a few hundred Watts of lighting for a few minutes.

My two non Tesla PV circuits are being measured by one of the solar CTs. The other circuit with the Tesla solar is being monitored by the other PV CT. There are two sets that plug into the same gateway CT tap. The reason they did this is because that circuit was in a different panel than the other two PV circuits since it was only a load when my PWs were installed.

So in my case I have one aggregated PV value in the app for all three solar systems. Tesla was initially uncertain if this would work but after extensive testing I confirmed it's within 1% of actual measurements when I accessed the data from all three inverters separately.

It will be interesting to see what happens next Christmas when I actually have some more significant extended lighting on the Tesla PV circuit but this is not a situation that you would encounter in a normal setup.

So I believe Tesla will probably just bundle all of your solar circuits into the GW and measure them with one CT and that is what will be shown on the app.

 

[K5TRX]

Minimum string length apparently 5.

This sounds like something unique to retrofitting these older 85W panels. Current Tesla 400W panels can be in string of 1.

 

[arnolddeleon]

This sounds like something unique to retrofitting these older 85W panels. Current Tesla 400W panels can be in string of 1.

Huh? Nothing was changed on the PV (DC) side of my existing systems.
I'm a little skeptical that they are doing strings of one but technically it's possible since that's what micro inverters operate with. It's basically how low an MPPT voltage they support.