Does Powerwall Alert You When The Grid Goes Down?

[Instaurare]

The seamless transfer from grid to Powerwall could result in a quickly discharged battery, unless the owner was alerted and took steps to reduce unnecessary loads. Does anyone know if Powerwall gives a grid outage alert?

And also, if internet connection is lost, is there any backup method to monitor battery state of charge? Could a physical battery stregnth meter be installed attached in line with the Powerwall?

Any insights on this would be appreciated.

 

[zanary]

The seamless transfer from grid to Powerwall could result in a quickly discharged battery, unless the owner was alerted and took steps to reduce unnecessary loads.

(1)Does anyone know if Powerwall gives a grid outage alert?

(2) If internet connection is lost, is there any backup method to monitor battery state of charge?

(3) Could a physical battery stregnth meter be installed attached in line with the Powerwall?

Answers:

(1) Yes. If you are running the latest PowerwallOS (1.11.2) then yes you do get an APNS alert when you go off grid and back on grid
(2) There's no Tesla provided method.
(4) You can design something at home. The Powerwall does have an API Service Interface that you can consume. If you consume this URL often enough, you can get the data you want. You can then build some sort of solution that will display the data you want

Check out this link for more details on #4 above.
Rest Interface for Powerwall 2 Energy Gateway | Tesla

 

[eml2]

(1) Yes. If you are running the latest PowerwallOS (1.11.2) then yes you do get an APNS alert when you go off grid and back on grid
(2) There's no Tesla provided method.

For #1, it only works for iOS. Nothing for Android at the moment.
For #2, you can still monitor PW SoC on your home LAN. Just connect to the Backup Gateway using a browser and it will show you SoC and more.

 

[dlieu]

Fwiw I was getting grid on and off on Android since 1.9.1. Provided Tesla app is installed and logged in. I noticed one has to re-log once a month or so, so alerts may stop if app decides one has outstayed his auto login welcome. The latter is a guess, not a verified condition.

 

[SoundDaTrumpet]

For #1, it only works for iOS. Nothing for Android at the moment.
For #2, you can still monitor PW SoC on your home LAN. Just connect to the Backup Gateway using a browser and it will show you SoC and more.

Regarding the home LAN, are we talking about an Ethernet connection to the Backup Gateway? I understand that a cellular connection is the norm. Does Tesla Energy expect an Ethernet Category 5/6 from customers?

 

[MorrisonHiker]

Regarding the home LAN, are we talking about an Ethernet connection to the Backup Gateway? I understand that a cellular connection is the norm. Does Tesla Energy expect an Ethernet Category 5/6 from customers?

During the site survery, they will ask to see your router and take pictures of it. I think in order of preference, they would prefer an ethernet connection first, followed by wifi and then possibly a cellular connection.

 

[SoundDaTrumpet]

During the site survery, they will ask to see your router and take pictures of it. I think in order of preference, they would prefer an ethernet connection first, followed by wifi and then possibly a cellular connection.

Thanks! I am assuming the cellular connection to be of no cost to the customer, correct? The cellular approach sounds "revenue grade" (precise, reliable, but not timely) since that's the technology used for the utility's smart meters.

 

[MorrisonHiker]

Thanks! I am assuming the cellular connection to be of no cost to the customer, correct? The cellular approach sounds "revenue grade" (precise, reliable, but not timely) since that's the technology used for the utility's smart meters.

I haven't gotten mine installed yet so I can't answer that.

BTW, the manual does state that if it isn't connected to the internet, the battery warranty is only 4 years instead of 10 years. It's definitely in your interest to make sure it has a reliable internet connection.

 

[Instaurare]

Thank you to everyone for your replies, the help is much appreciated!

 

[zanary]

Thanks! I am assuming the cellular connection to be of no cost to the customer, correct? The cellular approach sounds "revenue grade" (precise, reliable, but not timely) since that's the technology used for the utility's smart meters.

(1) The Cellular connection on the Gateway is completely covered by Tesla. There's no monthly cost to you.
(2) Yes, the preferred way is Ethernet, but they do Wifi. I told them no on Ethernet, only Wifi
(3) Regadless of Wifi or Ethernet, your Powerwall are accessible from your home network using the IP address of the Powerwall. Since it is granted an IP from your home subnet, it's not accessible when outside of your home directly unless you do something special like NAT forwarding, but that's outside of the Powerwall setup. That's your own home networking setup.

I chose to do Wifi. I can access my gateway from anywhere in the house to get my data. I consume it once every 10 seconds. I store the last 30 days of the data for now.

 

[Frankman60]

To clarify, are you saying that when outside of the home network a web browser cannot directly communicate with the PW Gateway, or are you saying that the Tesla mobile app does show the PW status from outside of the home network?

(1) The Cellular connection on the Gateway is completely covered by Tesla. There's no monthly cost to you.
(2) Yes, the preferred way is Ethernet, but they do Wifi. I told them no on Ethernet, only Wifi
(3) Regadless of Wifi or Ethernet, your Powerwall are accessible from your home network using the IP address of the Powerwall. Since it is granted an IP from your home subnet, it's not accessible when outside of your home directly unless you do something special like NAT forwarding, but that's outside of the Powerwall setup. That's your own home networking setup.

I chose to do Wifi. I can access my gateway from anywhere in the house to get my data. I consume it once every 10 seconds. I store the last 30 days of the data for now.

 

[zanary]

To clarify, are you saying that when outside of the home network a web browser cannot directly communicate with the PW Gateway, or are you saying that the Tesla mobile app does show the PW status from outside of the home network?

Your Tesla app will also show you:
(1) The status of the Powerwall
(2) Where applicable, how much your PV is generating and where it is going (to the Powerwall, running the house, or sending to the grid)
(3) When you're actually using the grid, how much your taking off the grid for either running your household or charging the Powerwall

The Powerwall is always the one connecting to the Tesla Network via your ethernet or wifi connect that you setup. There's no way that you can connect to the Powerwall when you're out of the house without modifying your network to support that functionality (ie, some sort of port forwarding).

 

[Frankman60]

Thanks for that information. Is there a reason that anyone would want or need to access the Powerwall through it’s IP address when out of the house?

Your Tesla app will also show you:
(1) The status of the Powerwall
(2) Where applicable, how much your PV is generating and where it is going (to the Powerwall, running the house, or sending to the grid)
(3) When you're actually using the grid, how much your taking off the grid for either running your household or charging the Powerwall

The Powerwall is always the one connecting to the Tesla Network via your ethernet or wifi connect that you setup. There's no way that you can connect to the Powerwall when you're out of the house without modifying your network to support that functionality (ie, some sort of port forwarding).

 

[zanary]

Thanks for that information. Is there a reason that anyone would want or need to access the Powerwall through it’s IP address when out of the house?

Tech savy homeowners would like to be able to access real-time fine grain raw data (ie, numbers), and not a nice pretty animated screen like the Tesla App shows. In that case direct access to the Powerwall Gateway is perfect for that, but the data can be complicated to read for the average person.

http://"Gateway address"/api/meters/aggregates

 

[cwied]

Thanks for that information. Is there a reason that anyone would want or need to access the Powerwall through it’s IP address when out of the house?

One reason I can think of is that it's the quickest way to change the backup reserve and operation mode, given that doing it through the server involves delays.

 

[nswfugitive]

Tech savy homeowners would like to be able to access real-time fine grain raw data (ie, numbers),

And one way to do this is to use the pvoutput.org service capabilities to collect your information every 5 minutes and display. Here is my info... Bywong - Enphase/Powerwall2 9.240kW | Live Output

Click on the last box on the right under the "Prev Day" - Date - "Next Day area under the graph to see it graphically.

 

[shrike]

And one way to do this is to use the pvoutput.org service capabilities to collect your information every 5 minutes and display.

Check out the guide, Monitoring Tesla’s Powerwall2 on PVOutput.org, for setting up PW2 integration services to upload to pvoutput.org. I use a raspberry pi3 to run the pvoutput integration service instead of a Windows host.

Here's my info: Dogwood_CP_PW2 5.559kW | Live Output

 

[Frankman60]

OK, if you use the Tesla mobile app to change the reserve percentage or change the operation mode there is a delay. How long long of a delay is it on average?

One reason I can think of is that it's the quickest way to change the backup reserve and operation mode, given that doing it through the server involves delays.

 

[nswfugitive]

long long of a delay is it on average?

I've seen it take up to an hour. I've seen a pattern of behaviour that it updates between 5 to 10 minutes after the hour - so it depends when you make the request.

 

[Frankman60]

I've seen it take up to an hour. I've seen a pattern of behaviour that it updates between 5 to 10 minutes after the hour - so it depends when you make the request.

Thanks. Does the app alert you when the changes have taken effect? I’m trying to imagine what happens within the mobile app after one selects a different backup reserve percentage for example. Does is show somthing to indicate that the change is pending and later shows the new setting?