Discussion: Powerwall 3 [Speculation / Discussion etc]

[Docfxit]

Has anyone been successful in installing three Powerwall 3's in the SCE area in Southern California?

 

[apacheguy]

89% round-trip efficiency is surprising (even lower than PW2), I was hoping it would be higher given all the talk about DC-coupling.

DC coupling only impacts solar to battery. Grid to battery to grid is unchanged.
89% could be due to slighly higher cell equivalent resistance or various other factors. 94.9% one way vs 94.3% (not that charge and discharge are necessarily equal).

the 89% round trip efficiency is indeed disappointing. Other DC coupled solar battery storage units have higher round trip efficiencies, closer to 95%.

 

[Iain]

Great information here for someone waiting on their solar plans… thanks

 

[dhanson865]

PW3 with the cover off

 

[Matt-FL]

Is it just me, or does it seem there is a lot of empty space inside?

 

[Iain]

I have a call today with Tesla because I suggested I delay my install until PW3’s were available. He’s told me when they offer them to everyone it will only be to people that have 1 PW on order. This seems a bit strange so I’m not sure if he’s blowing smoke or telling the truth.

 

[dhanson865]

Is it just me, or does it seem there is a lot of empty space inside?

That's a function of the ratio between batteries and non batteries in the unit.

If you made the unit very long/tall or very wide instead of thick you could put the electronics and heat sinks in line with the width or height axis and not have as much empty space

Putting them in line with the depth axis makes the bottom 20% or so look empty with the cover off. Behind all that are a sheet of batteries hidden in a layer behind what you are seeing.

Presumably this is the LWD optimization that makes the most sense.

In the given configuration they could fill empty space with more heat sinks or sound deadening material but that would just increase the cost/weight for not much gain.

 

[yblaser]

Interesting... Is it vented from the back? If so, does the plastic scoop on the top have fans to pull the air over the fins?

 

[Matt-FL]

It definitely appears to make cabling the PW3 a lot easier than the PW2. Having the entire front cover come off for accessing connector points is far simpler than the narrow side access on the PW2. Nicely designed, as you would expect from Tesla.

 

[jesaf00]

So, just had 3x Powerwall 3 installed yesterday with backup switch and solor, and I think one might not be working correctly.

Installers said I was one of the first to get the pw3. I am not an employee, just placed an order for solar and Powerwall 2 months ago and this is what they gave me in Austin.

2 of them are showing on my WiFi and the third one stopped after about 1-2 hours. None of the info online about connecting directly to a pw directly to get info works. When opening 192.168.9.1, I bypass the cert error then just get error 404.

I had a very short burst of generation after they turned them on and the batteries charged from 19-32% before the sun went down. Most of that was done shortly after turn on then the generation dropped drastically with complete sun and temp of high 70s.

Apparently these are on right away and all the PTO is done remotely (although there is a button in the app to turn on). This means that for everything but exporting I should be good to go.

Testing off grid mode last night with 32% I set my reserve to 22% and using 1-1.5kw of power said my estimated time was 2-3 hours which seems low.

The middle power wall seems to make a click sound like a relay turning on or off now and then and sometimes flashes red.

You can see a green light on 1 and 3 at night and something very faint on 2 but looks like a different led that just happens to be shining through partly.

I could tell the installers kept going back to pw2 but I am. It sure why. With the low run time estimate I am wondering if pw2 just is not actually charging or booting correctly.

There is no reboot or reset switch, there is no documentation and nothing on the interwebs about pw3. And of course today is cloudy but I am only generating .7-1kw of energy with a 13.5kw system, which seems low. Each pw has 11 panels with number 3 having a string of 9 and a string of 2.

If I push the off switch for 2 and 3 the generation and Powerwall percentage does not change.

So besides possible issue with number 2, when I go to off grid mode lights flicker or flash constantly running on the batteries. Does not seem to happen if on grid and using batteries.

I did charge the pw to 50% last night using the grid and tried off grid this morning with same result and lower than expected remaining time.

Will let you know more and I will be reaching out to support but just thought I would share. New heart here.

Jerry

 

[jesaf00]

So, just had 3x Powerwall 3 installed yesterday with backup switch and solor, and I think one might not be working correctly.

Installers said I was one of the first to get the pw3. I am not an employee, just placed an order for solar and Powerwall 2 months ago and this is what they gave me in Austin.

2 of them are showing on my WiFi and the third one stopped after about 1-2 hours. None of the info online about connecting directly to a pw directly to get info works. When opening 192.168.9.1, I bypass the cert error then just get error 404.

I had a very short burst of generation after they turned them on and the batteries charged from 19-32% before the sun went down. Most of that was done shortly after turn on then the generation dropped drastically with complete sun and temp of high 70s.

Apparently these are on right away and all the PTO is done remotely (although there is a button in the app to turn on). This means that for everything but exporting I should be good to go.

Testing off grid mode last night with 32% I set my reserve to 22% and using 1-1.5kw of power said my estimated time was 2-3 hours which seems low.

The middle power wall seems to make a click sound like a relay turning on or off now and then and sometimes flashes red.

You can see a green light on 1 and 3 at night and something very faint on 2 but looks like a different led that just happens to be shining through partly.

I could tell the installers kept going back to pw2 but I am. It sure why. With the low run time estimate I am wondering if pw2 just is not actually charging or booting correctly.

There is no reboot or reset switch, there is no documentation and nothing on the interwebs about pw3. And of course today is cloudy but I am only generating .7-1kw of energy with a 13.5kw system, which seems low. Each pw has 11 panels with number 3 having a string of 9 and a string of 2.

If I push the off switch for 2 and 3 the generation and Powerwall percentage does not change.

So besides possible issue with number 2, when I go to off grid mode lights flicker or flash constantly running on the batteries. Does not seem to happen if on grid and using batteries.

I did charge the pw to 50% last night using the grid and tried off grid this morning with same result and lower than expected remaining time.

Will let you know more and I will be reaching out to support but just thought I would share. New heart here.

Jerry

dhanson865's photo shows these lights and on my middle pw the bluer led in the middle does not light up.

 

[Matt-FL]

I'd suggest setting up Powerwall Dashboard, where you can get individual stats on each powerwall.

GitHub - jasonacox/Powerwall-Dashboard: Grafana Monitoring Dashboard for Tesla Solar and Powerwall Systems

Grafana Monitoring Dashboard for Tesla Solar and Powerwall Systems - jasonacox/Powerwall-Dashboard

github.com

You will see good details on each unit, along with charge and errors (depending on how much your 2nd PW might be failing).

 

[jesaf00]

I'd suggest setting up Powerwall Dashboard, where you can get individual stats on each powerwall.

GitHub - jasonacox/Powerwall-Dashboard: Grafana Monitoring Dashboard for Tesla Solar and Powerwall Systems

Grafana Monitoring Dashboard for Tesla Solar and Powerwall Systems - jasonacox/Powerwall-Dashboard

github.com

You will see good details on each unit, along with charge and errors (depending on how much your 2nd PW might be failing).

View attachment 991853

Thanks. i went through the setup but am not able to get in. My main PW is 192.168.200.51 however, it does not look like one according to pyPowerwall. None of the instructions for any previous powerwall work for me to browse to it in a web browser either.

I have 3x powerwall 3 and a tesla backup switch.

 

[offandonagain]

Thanks. i went through the setup but am not able to get in. My main PW is 192.168.200.51 however, it does not look like one according to pyPowerwall. None of the instructions for any previous powerwall work for me to browse to it in a web browser either.

I'd suggest trying the TEG wifi network as well if it's available. I think the password should be written on the sticker inside the enclosure. You'd connect to https://192.168.91.1 (assuming they haven't changed that).

I'm also curious, how do you know the PW3 is on 192.168.200.51 if it's not accessible? And what happens if you try to load https://192.168.200.51 in your browser?

 

[vthreee]

So, just had 3x Powerwall 3 installed yesterday with backup switch and solor, and I think one might not be working correctly.

Installers said I was one of the first to get the pw3. I am not an employee, just placed an order for solar and Powerwall 2 months ago and this is what they gave me in Austin.

2 of them are showing on my WiFi and the third one stopped after about 1-2 hours. None of the info online about connecting directly to a pw directly to get info works. When opening 192.168.9.1, I bypass the cert error then just get error 404.

I had a very short burst of generation after they turned them on and the batteries charged from 19-32% before the sun went down. Most of that was done shortly after turn on then the generation dropped drastically with complete sun and temp of high 70s.

Apparently these are on right away and all the PTO is done remotely (although there is a button in the app to turn on). This means that for everything but exporting I should be good to go.

Testing off grid mode last night with 32% I set my reserve to 22% and using 1-1.5kw of power said my estimated time was 2-3 hours which seems low.

The middle power wall seems to make a click sound like a relay turning on or off now and then and sometimes flashes red.

You can see a green light on 1 and 3 at night and something very faint on 2 but looks like a different led that just happens to be shining through partly.

I could tell the installers kept going back to pw2 but I am. It sure why. With the low run time estimate I am wondering if pw2 just is not actually charging or booting correctly.

There is no reboot or reset switch, there is no documentation and nothing on the interwebs about pw3. And of course today is cloudy but I am only generating .7-1kw of energy with a 13.5kw system, which seems low. Each pw has 11 panels with number 3 having a string of 9 and a string of 2.

If I push the off switch for 2 and 3 the generation and Powerwall percentage does not change.

So besides possible issue with number 2, when I go to off grid mode lights flicker or flash constantly running on the batteries. Does not seem to happen if on grid and using batteries.

I did charge the pw to 50% last night using the grid and tried off grid this morning with same result and lower than expected remaining time.

Will let you know more and I will be reaching out to support but just thought I would share. New heart here.

Jerry

You didn’t have to wait for an inspection before PTO? I’m near Austin, and install date is in Dec 4!

 

[n.one.one]

You didn’t have to wait for an inspection before PTO? I’m near Austin, and install date is in Dec 4!

PTO is typically done after inspection by the utility. Even though PTO stands for 'permission to operate' in my installation Tesla made the system operational before PTO. PTO was required before exporting energy to the grid (think of PTO as PTE, permission to export).

 

[jesaf00]

I'd suggest trying the TEG wifi network as well if it's available. I think the password should be written on the sticker inside the enclosure. You'd connect to https://192.168.91.1 (assuming they haven't changed that).

I'm also curious, how do you know the PW3 is on 192.168.200.51 if it's not accessible? And what happens if you try to load https://192.168.200.51 in your browser?

In the app I have told it to connect to my wifi and that is the IP assigned to it. With multiple PW3, one is the primary and the others listen to it, apparently, although initially all three were connected to my wifi but the middle one stopped connecting soon after. I then used the app to change from my g=uest network to my regular network and only the primary changed over, the third one is still on my guest network.

When browing to the IP I get the unsigned cert error and after bypassing I get a 404 page.

These PWs are showing at TeslaPW_xxxxx network and when I conected I ahve the same issue of bypassing the cert then just a 404 page.

 

[jesaf00]

PTO is typically done after inspection by the utility. Even though PTO stands for 'permission to operate' in my installation Tesla made the system operational before PTO. PTO was required before exporting energy to the grid (think of PTO as PTE, permission to export).

Yep, same with me, I am unable to export to grid but have "full service". Although i honestly think only 1 of the 3 is working based on charge and discharge amounts on the PW and solar production. Was just installed on Friday so hopefully I can get support tomorrow.

 

[jesaf00]

For info, here is the side panel information on PW3.

 

[jesaf00]

Other issues in the App is that nothing is reporting correctly and there is no support information anywhere for PW3. I probably would have been fine with PW+/2 since I got 3 of them and wouldnt be worried about limitations.