Hello, I have a Model Y and a Powerwall 2. I've been using Charge on Solar and it seems to work properly in the app, but I'm still being billed by my electric company, as if it is not "excess solar" but just coming from the grid. What gives?
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If you were previously always conscientious to charge your EV during off-peak hours, then all Charge on Solar does is time-shift your charging from one off-peak period (probably late night) to another off-peak period (late morning). Since everyone in California is currently either on NEM1 or NEM2, at best what you save from your electric bill might be some non-bypassable charges, which are on the order of $0.02-0.03 per kwh typically.Hello, I have a Model Y and a Powerwall 2. I've been using Charge on Solar and it seems to work properly in the app, but I'm still being billed by my electric company, as if it is not "excess solar" but just coming from the grid. What gives?
I guess my understanding is that it used excess solar to charge the car, so re-routing solar that would have been sent to the grid to the car instead. Is that not correct?
The graph saysI guess my understanding is that it used excess solar to charge the car, so re-routing solar that would have been sent to the grid to the car instead. Is that not correct?
That's weird. The image shows blue on the chart that energy went to the house, but it shows 0%. On days that I didn't charge the car it displays properly.The graph says
Seems like you have a problem with how your system is measuring home usage.
- Home = 0% and 0kWh
- Vehicle = 41% and 7.8 kWh
- Powerwall = 38% and 7.4 kWh
- Grid = 21% and 3.8 kWh
For me, my wall connectors are not behind the gateway, no CT's, so I just do it manually each day.Is your Wall Connector backed up by your Tesla gateway? If not, is it monitored separately with an additional CT? Charge on Solar subtracts the vehicle usage from the home usage to make the accounting work; however if the car charger load is not monitored by Tesla, the numbers will be wrong in the app.
Maybe the more illustrative way to explain it is the converse example - that Charge on Solar will be extremely valuable to folks in California installing solar now, basically those who will be on NEM3 from the get-go. On NEM3, excess solar exported to the grid is essentially worth nothing to the end-user (there's some complex transitional periods and some wholesale credits, but in the long run the statement is pretty true), so it would be far better to consume it behind-the-meter by putting it into the car instead.@wwu123 explained this better than I could. Its not that your understanding is incorrect. Its just that its unlikely you would be saving any real money if you were charging your car at night during off peak time, and exporting your solar to the grid during the day.
If you can manage the bulk of your charging on CoS, the 3-4000kWh/yr might add up to $120 saved a year in avoided NBCs. It's a small optimization but if you have the hardware anyhow, why not? For the green motivated folks, it shifts more power consumption to the periods with excess solar meaning less during the evening when presumably clean sources are less abundant.If you were previously always conscientious to charge your EV during off-peak hours, then all Charge on Solar does is time-shift your charging from one off-peak period (probably late night) to another off-peak period (late morning). Since everyone in California is currently either on NEM1 or NEM2, at best what you save from your electric bill might be some non-bypassable charges, which are on the order of $0.02-0.03 per kwh typically.
Because before Charge on Solar, you were exporting your excess solar and getting close to full retail credit (which you were then using later to charge your Model Y). So there's not much savings, just a feel-good...
I totally hear ya! Every month I'm wasting time playing around with small efficiency things to see if I can shave a few $ of my PG&E consumption/bill, so $10/month is nontrivial IMO. But the savings on NBC's are <10% of the actual charging costs, and apparently not meaningful for the OP to notice.If you can manage the bulk of your charging on CoS, the 3-4000kWh/yr might add up to $120 saved a year in avoided NBCs. It's a small optimization but if you have the hardware anyhow, why not? For the green motivated folks, it shifts more power consumption to the periods with excess solar meaning less during the evening when presumably clean sources are less abundant.
I had the same situation. My wall connector is connected between the utility meter and the gateway. The gateway has current transformers which sense the power coming from or to the grid. Since my car was charging outside of what the gateway could see, car charging was not included in the Powerwall data. That was until Charge on Solar came out. Now the PW does know about car charging but it still does not see that draw from the grid, so it screws up it's own measurements.That's weird. The image shows blue on the chart that energy went to the house, but it shows 0%. On days that I didn't charge the car it displays properly.