Firmware 1.34.3 issues

[JES2]

JES2, Tesla PW2 Support has said the following to me: Reserve changes take about an hour to honor. Any other changes take a day to do so. For example, if you change the specs on an Advanced setting, such as changing Cost Savings to Balanced or edit the Weekday / Weekend settings, they will not be honored until the following day. Same with changing to Backup or Self powered mode.

Which means be VERY careful when you go into the CUSTOMIZE section. If you accidentally change a parameter when scrolling down through the options (has happened to me a number of times), you won't know the change has occurred until the NEXT day - at which point, if you change it back the following day THAT doesn't happen till the day after. Which means you are stuck with a goof for a full day if you accidentally change Cost Savings to Balanced (for an example).

Because of this delay and no feedback as to the change you might have accidentally made, I've suggested that Tesla make Backup, Self-powered and Advanced (Balanced and Cost Savings) options in a separate page that requires obvious checkmarks and perhaps an 'Are you sure you want to change this?' message.

Just something to be aware of.

I was on the phone with L2 for almost two hours. First of all, the Tesla Powerwall folks are nice people, but honestly, I rarely trust a word they say. I called in today because I noticed that when the Powerwalls are dormant during my peak period, that it takes about 5 minutes for them to "wake up." In the meantime, if my solar is not able to provide enough energy to my house, then the grid fills in the difference. That happens even when my Powerwalls are at 100%. Eventually they wake up and take over for the grid, but three days in a row I have noticed the same occurrence. L2 has acknowledged that they are seeing this on my system and agree there is a problem. (I believe it is with their latest code.)

Here is what really threw me for a loop. L2 told me that the Powerwalls should not be charging during peak. They explained that they should charge during off-peak. I explained that when my house has sufficient solar, then the Powerwalls take in the excess solar energy and charge up. Level 2 support understands that this is what I want, but they are saying it is NOT the way it is supposed to work. I asked them how are my Powerwalls supposed to charge in off-peak, when the sun is not shining (it is nighttime) and we (in the US) are prohibited from charging our Powerwalls from the grid. Of course, they (Elvie was the L2 rep with her supervisor concurring) couldn't answer that, but repeated that Powerwalls are not supposed to charge during a peak period.

To your point, I really do agree their customize section is a mess. I constantly touch a button that changes my settings, just trying to scroll down. Seriously, who designs an app like that, so carelessly? I know beginning programmers in IBM that would shudder at that app.

Whoever told you that it takes a day for settings to be changed is simply mistaken. I have had more than one L2 rep tell me it is closer to 30 minutes to an hour. I have also seen the changes occur in less than an hour multiple times making various changes.

Now, in 1.34.3, I have noticed that the customize function for "reserve" seems to now happen in only a couple of minutes for me. It used to be an hour before I would notice the change. Over the last few days, I can implement the change (such as brute-forcing grid power to come on, by upping the "reserve" total to be within 10% of the current PW2), and grid power switches over in only a few minutes.

That seems to be the sweet spot for me. Once off-peak begins, the grid power always starts up, but halfway through off-peak, the Powerwalls want to take over and start discharging. I up the reserve within 10% of the existing capacity and the Powerwalls stay off until the peak period begins.

 

[miimura]

Yes, it is true, in Time Based Control the Powerwalls will not charge during the Peak period. They are trying to earn you maximum net metering credits during the Peak hours. If you only have generation during what is defined as Peak hours, you're better off telling the Powerwalls that a large portion of it is Part-Peak. I believe that I suggested to you in another thread that you should just have Off-Peak and Part-Peak with your "Free Nights" rate plan. If that's not you, I apologize for remembering it wrong.

I also had a Powerwall support rep tell me that they don't expect Cost Saving mode to work correctly if you don't have any generation during Off-Peak. That is one reason I don't use it. All my Mon-Fri generation is during Part-Peak or Peak.

Last year when I was first learning about my system I discovered that mode changes like TBC to Self Powered would always take effect at the same time after the hour. In my case it was always 35 minutes after the hour. If I knew I might want to make a change, I would check on the system about 25-30 minutes past the top of the hour and then decide if I wanted to make a change. That way it would always take effect soon after I made the decision. I discovered this because on the intra-day chart of Powerwall activity you can hold your finger on the chart and it will display the specific values on the chart on 5 minute intervals.

 

[JES2]

Yes, it is true, in Time Based Control the Powerwalls will not charge during the Peak period. They are trying to earn you maximum net metering credits during the Peak hours. If you only have generation during what is defined as Peak hours, you're better off telling the Powerwalls that a large portion of it is Part-Peak. I believe that I suggested to you in another thread that you should just have Off-Peak and Part-Peak with your "Free Nights" rate plan. If that's not you, I apologize for remembering it wrong.

I also had a Powerwall support rep tell me that they don't expect Cost Saving mode to work correctly if you don't have any generation during Off-Peak. That is one reason I don't use it. All my Mon-Fri generation is during Part-Peak or Peak.

Last year when I was first learning about my system I discovered that mode changes like TBC to Self Powered would always take effect at the same time after the hour. In my case it was always 35 minutes after the hour. If I knew I might want to make a change, I would check on the system about 25-30 minutes past the top of the hour and then decide if I wanted to make a change. That way it would always take effect soon after I made the decision. I discovered this because on the intra-day chart of Powerwall activity you can hold your finger on the chart and it will display the specific values on the chart on 5 minute intervals.

Yes, that was me. I set the system up the way you suggested, but it still discharged during off-peak. I scrapped that plan after a few days.

Right now, the system works for me in cost-savings mode. When I know there will be some cloudy days, then I make sure I raise the reserve to within 10% of what the current Powerwall capacity is at the end of peak. When I get up, then I reduce the reserve. Basically, I do this exercise every day. It only takes a few seconds and I know that my Powerwalls won't be drained during the night.

 

[miimura]

Yes, that was me. I set the system up the way you suggested, but it still discharged during off-peak. I scrapped that plan after a few days.

Right now, the system works for me in cost-savings mode. When I know there will be some cloudy days, then I make sure I raise the reserve to within 10% of what the current Powerwall capacity is at the end of peak. When I get up, then I reduce the reserve. Basically, I do this exercise every day. It only takes a few seconds and I know that my Powerwalls won't be drained during the night.

I find it ridiculous that you have to do that. Avoiding discharge during Off-Peak seems to me to be one of the basic things that most people want with their Powerwall system. Since I have a small solar system, my Powerwalls never discharge during Off-Peak except small little blips. I have to wonder if the blips that I see are related to your discharge events. Perhaps both our systems are starting to discharge in the same conditions, but there is something in your system that is allowing it to continue while mine is stopping it quickly.

Example: small discharge blip at 3:25am

This chart shows another small annoyance of mine that started this calendar year - the transition from charging with All Solar to Surplus Solar is very rough. It goes into a period of low power charging (~0.4kW) for about 15 minutes before it picks up and zeroes out the grid. In the past, it would taper down the charging over a period of 15-30 minutes so the grid draw would taper down to zero.

 

[zanary]

I have always left my system (3.2kw system with 2 Powerwalls), on Time Based Control - Cost Savings and so far it's following what the online documentation says.

Powerwall Modes with Solar | Tesla Support

Charging: Any solar (Off-peak) and Any solar (Shoulder)

Discharging: Any usage (Peak) and Any usage (Shoulder)

I used the grid during Non-Peak hours, which is when I also charge my Model S and Model X.

I'm on the EV-A plan from PG&E.

 

[NinjaVece]

I was on the phone with L2 for almost two hours. First of all, the Tesla Powerwall folks are nice people, but honestly, I rarely trust a word they say. I called in today because I noticed that when the Powerwalls are dormant during my peak period, that it takes about 5 minutes for them to "wake up." In the meantime, if my solar is not able to provide enough energy to my house, then the grid fills in the difference. That happens even when my Powerwalls are at 100%. Eventually they wake up and take over for the grid, but three days in a row I have noticed the same occurrence. L2 has acknowledged that they are seeing this on my system and agree there is a problem. (I believe it is with their latest code.)

Here is what really threw me for a loop. L2 told me that the Powerwalls should not be charging during peak. They explained that they should charge during off-peak. I explained that when my house has sufficient solar, then the Powerwalls take in the excess solar energy and charge up. Level 2 support understands that this is what I want, but they are saying it is NOT the way it is supposed to work. I asked them how are my Powerwalls supposed to charge in off-peak, when the sun is not shining (it is nighttime) and we (in the US) are prohibited from charging our Powerwalls from the grid. Of course, they (Elvie was the L2 rep with her supervisor concurring) couldn't answer that, but repeated that Powerwalls are not supposed to charge during a peak period.

To your point, I really do agree their customize section is a mess. I constantly touch a button that changes my settings, just trying to scroll down. Seriously, who designs an app like that, so carelessly? I know beginning programmers in IBM that would shudder at that app.

Whoever told you that it takes a day for settings to be changed is simply mistaken. I have had more than one L2 rep tell me it is closer to 30 minutes to an hour. I have also seen the changes occur in less than an hour multiple times making various changes.

Now, in 1.34.3, I have noticed that the customize function for "reserve" seems to now happen in only a couple of minutes for me. It used to be an hour before I would notice the change. Over the last few days, I can implement the change (such as brute-forcing grid power to come on, by upping the "reserve" total to be within 10% of the current PW2), and grid power switches over in only a few minutes.

That seems to be the sweet spot for me. Once off-peak begins, the grid power always starts up, but halfway through off-peak, the Powerwalls want to take over and start discharging. I up the reserve within 10% of the existing capacity and the Powerwalls stay off until the peak period begins.

JES2, the PW2 is trying to cover TWO issues during Peak: One, to run the house off the battery to avoid Peak charges and, Two, to feed the grid during Peak periods to limit grid operator usage of peaker plants. The second issue also fulfills any commitments made by people in CA that are part of the SGIP program where they are supposed to commit at least 52 days worth of net metering into the grid at Peak periods per year. If you run out of battery before the Peak period is over, that net-metered power is simply fed back to you either at a net zero rate (if you own your panels) or the rate that you pay under your PPA with the solar company.

Next, yes, the app needs a bit of work...

Next, yes, changing from any of the four major system types: Backup-only, Self-powered or Advanced (Balanced or Cost Savings) takes a day for the PW2 to recognize. That is because it is already in its daily cycle with a specific type of system from the start of that day. It takes a midnight cycle-over (at least in my experience) for it to manifest the change. As example, I have accidentally changed the system from Cost Savings to Balanced and the Balanced setting does not manifest till the next day. If I notice the change early the next day, it will still go through the motions as Balanced even if I change it back to Cost Savings - which then takes another day to manifest. This is also how it works with editing Weekday or Weekend settings. They don't adjust that day but do work the next.

Interesting about Reserve levels being adjusted so fast. That's a good thing if it works quickly. I haven't tried it in 1.34.3 but it may be interesting to try at this point. I'll have to try some of your 'brute force' methods to see if they work for me.

 

[NinjaVece]

Yes, it is true, in Time Based Control the Powerwalls will not charge during the Peak period. They are trying to earn you maximum net metering credits during the Peak hours. If you only have generation during what is defined as Peak hours, you're better off telling the Powerwalls that a large portion of it is Part-Peak. I believe that I suggested to you in another thread that you should just have Off-Peak and Part-Peak with your "Free Nights" rate plan. If that's not you, I apologize for remembering it wrong.

I also had a Powerwall support rep tell me that they don't expect Cost Saving mode to work correctly if you don't have any generation during Off-Peak. That is one reason I don't use it. All my Mon-Fri generation is during Part-Peak or Peak.

Last year when I was first learning about my system I discovered that mode changes like TBC to Self Powered would always take effect at the same time after the hour. In my case it was always 35 minutes after the hour. If I knew I might want to make a change, I would check on the system about 25-30 minutes past the top of the hour and then decide if I wanted to make a change. That way it would always take effect soon after I made the decision. I discovered this because on the intra-day chart of Powerwall activity you can hold your finger on the chart and it will display the specific values on the chart on 5 minute intervals.

miimura, in my experience both Balanced and Cost Savings do not charge the battery during Peak. The system is trying to feed the grid to minimize usage of Peaker plants. Also fulfills an obligation make by SGIP folks in CA to feed the grid during Peak.

However, I've been using Cost Savings since last July and never had an issue due to the fact that almost all charging is during the Shoulder Peak and Peak periods (now described as Off Peak and Peak). I charge during Off Peak (now known as Super Off Peak) very rarely - in fact when looking at my grid operator bills, the Super Off Peak charging is about 1-2 kWh a MONTH. So whatever the tech person told you was very wrong. Cost Savings has worked very well for me even as I don't charge during that period.

My experience as to changes to Advanced mode always take a day to happen. Have you ever tested this out? Changes made to Backup-only are logical to happen right away but I've not seen a change from Balanced to Cost-Savings happen intra-day nor have I seen Weekday edit adjustments happen intra-day. Have you?

 

[miimura]

miimura, in my experience both Balanced and Cost Savings do not charge the battery during Peak. The system is trying to feed the grid to minimize usage of Peaker plants. Also fulfills an obligation make by SGIP folks in CA to feed the grid during Peak.

However, I've been using Cost Savings since last July and never had an issue due to the fact that almost all charging is during the Shoulder Peak and Peak periods (now described as Off Peak and Peak). I charge during Off Peak (now known as Super Off Peak) very rarely - in fact when looking at my grid operator bills, the Super Off Peak charging is about 1-2 kWh a MONTH. So whatever the tech person told you was very wrong. Cost Savings has worked very well for me even as I don't charge during that period.

My experience as to changes to Advanced mode always take a day to happen. Have you ever tested this out? Changes made to Backup-only are logical to happen right away but I've not seen a change from Balanced to Cost-Savings happen intra-day nor have I seen Weekday edit adjustments happen intra-day. Have you?

I stopped playing with different modes last September. I have been on TBC-Balanced continuously since then, only adjusting reserve levels and schedule times due to PG&E's lame DST offsets. So, I honestly don't know how the mode changes behave today. I used to be able to switch from TBC to Self-Powered at the predetermined time each hour. I specifically remember doing that before my 16 hour solar and Powerwall autonomy test, which was June 24, 2018.

 

[NinjaVece]

I stopped playing with different modes last September. I have been on TBC-Balanced continuously since then, only adjusting reserve levels and schedule times due to PG&E's lame DST offsets. So, I honestly don't know how the mode changes behave today. I used to be able to switch from TBC to Self-Powered at the predetermined time each hour. I specifically remember doing that before my 16 hour solar and Powerwall autonomy test, which was June 24, 2018.

miimura, I think changing from Advanced to Backup-only or Self-powered can happen in the one hour timeframes that Reserve changes are honored under the Tesla system. What I don't think will happen intra-day is the reverse - or changes from Advanced Cost-Saving to Balanced (or vice-versa). Advanced settings, I think, are whole day affairs where the PW2 takes into account the Weekday (or Weekend) settings you have previously set and, thus, trying to change into one of those states after the sequence has started any time after midnight each day probably is internally not recognized that day.

From my understanding, any changes between midnight and midnight in a particular day into an Advanced setting (Balanced or Cost-Saving) as well as any edits done to the Weekday or Weekend Super Off-Peak, Off-Peak and Peak timeframes are simply shunted into the next day for actualization. This is why when I accidentally touched Balanced when scrolling through the Customize area I didn't actually go into the Balanced mode until the next day. Then when I realized the goof and set it back, the Cost-Savings mode didn't actually go into effect until one day further....

Please tell me why you don't simply use Cost-Savings mode and set your Weekday and Weekend rates accordingly...

 

[miimura]

Please tell me why you don't simply use Cost-Savings mode and set your Weekday and Weekend rates accordingly...

Until recently, Balanced mode did exactly what I wanted. My situation may be unusual because my solar to battery ratio is very low. Therefore, in most of the winter, I'm just bouncing off the 50% to 75% Reserve and never have enough energy to make it through the Peak period usage and never fill the batteries. Now that Spring is here, I am frustrated with the algorithm that is both charging and discharging within the same rate period without filling the battery. For example, today it stopped charging at something like 72% SOC at 12:15pm. Peak doesn't start until 2pm. At that point it started acting as if it was the Peak period and started discharging to satisfy my household usage. To my thinking, it's pointless round-trip charging and discharging for no value. I would be better off if it just decided it was full enough and just stopped charging and went into Standby until the Peak period actually started. At least that way I would earn full NEM credit on my solar without round trip AC/DC conversion losses. At least I have enough energy to make it through the Peak period. If I ever fell short because of this algorithm not charging enough and had to pay Peak rate for usage that should have come from the battery, I would be truly upset. As it is, I'm just a little annoyed.

Perhaps I should just try Cost Saving again. However, I am unwilling to falsely set the schedules to trick the system into doing what I want. It is asking me for my rate schedule and it should do something logical with that information. Last year, the results were not logical, Powerwall support said that it wasn't designed to work with my rate schedule, so I quickly abandoned it.

 

[power.saver]

However, I am unwilling to falsely set the schedules to trick the system into doing what I want. It is asking me for my rate schedule and it should do something logical with that information. Last year, the results were not logical, Powerwall support said that it wasn't designed to work with my rate schedule, so I quickly abandoned it.

There is nothing logical about the PW software. The only way to make it work the way you want is to force it to do so. Just make all your non-peak time as "off-peak" and you will get the results you want. It's sad we have to do this, but I don't think they have the capacity to make it work the way you want. Just look at the 66Hz problem they can't solve, and that's even easier to fix.

 

[NinjaVece]

There is nothing logical about the PW software. The only way to make it work the way you want is to force it to do so. Just make all your non-peak time as "off-peak" and you will get the results you want. It's sad we have to do this, but I don't think they have the capacity to make it work the way you want. Just look at the 66Hz problem they can't solve, and that's even easier to fix.

Hear Hear.

Tricking the PW2 into doing what we want it to do means we won...

And yes, the 66 Hertz issue is a good example of them not dedicating programmer time to a solution that can have a fix - they just need read yours and mine posts...

 

[NinjaVece]

Until recently, Balanced mode did exactly what I wanted. My situation may be unusual because my solar to battery ratio is very low. Therefore, in most of the winter, I'm just bouncing off the 50% to 75% Reserve and never have enough energy to make it through the Peak period usage and never fill the batteries. Now that Spring is here, I am frustrated with the algorithm that is both charging and discharging within the same rate period without filling the battery. For example, today it stopped charging at something like 72% SOC at 12:15pm. Peak doesn't start until 2pm. At that point it started acting as if it was the Peak period and started discharging to satisfy my household usage. To my thinking, it's pointless round-trip charging and discharging for no value. I would be better off if it just decided it was full enough and just stopped charging and went into Standby until the Peak period actually started. At least that way I would earn full NEM credit on my solar without round trip AC/DC conversion losses. At least I have enough energy to make it through the Peak period. If I ever fell short because of this algorithm not charging enough and had to pay Peak rate for usage that should have come from the battery, I would be truly upset. As it is, I'm just a little annoyed.

Perhaps I should just try Cost Saving again. However, I am unwilling to falsely set the schedules to trick the system into doing what I want. It is asking me for my rate schedule and it should do something logical with that information. Last year, the results were not logical, Powerwall support said that it wasn't designed to work with my rate schedule, so I quickly abandoned it.

miimura, tricking the PW2 into doing what you want it to do means you won. What do you think these forums are for? For us to share tricks to overcome stodgy programming on the PW2. They'll likely fix their errors one day, but in the meantime we're happy to help you jimmy your system to make it do what you want - its what my threads are all about...

 

[abasile]

Now that Spring is here, I am frustrated with the algorithm that is both charging and discharging within the same rate period without filling the battery. For example, today it stopped charging at something like 72% SOC at 12:15pm. Peak doesn't start until 2pm. At that point it started acting as if it was the Peak period and started discharging to satisfy my household usage.

I agree that the charge/discharge behavior within the Part-Peak rate period has been odd. We're using Balanced mode and our Powerwalls have been at relatively high states of charge (80-100%) the last couple of days.

Yesterday morning until 9:40 AM, our Powerwalls charged from all solar, and energy was pulled from the grid to match our home consumption. The Powerwalls reached 100% charge at about 10:35. Then, from 11:30 onward, all of our solar was exported and the Powerwalls discharged to match our home consumption. Peak started at 2 PM.

To my thinking, it's pointless round-trip charging and discharging for no value.

Agreed. Not only was this of no value to us, this behavior was exactly the opposite of what would have been best for the grid. Particularly on cool, windy, sunny April days like yesterday when there's likely to be commercial solar curtailment, it's best if the Powerwalls do their charging (not discharging!) closer to midday. If we had the proposed Expert Mode, we could program our Powerwalls to only charge from excess solar, and only after, say, 11 AM.

 

[JES2]

JES2, the PW2 is trying to cover TWO issues during Peak: One, to run the house off the battery to avoid Peak charges and, Two, to feed the grid during Peak periods to limit grid operator usage of peaker plants. The second issue also fulfills any commitments made by people in CA that are part of the SGIP program where they are supposed to commit at least 52 days worth of net metering into the grid at Peak periods per year. If you run out of battery before the Peak period is over, that net-metered power is simply fed back to you either at a net zero rate (if you own your panels) or the rate that you pay under your PPA with the solar company.

Next, yes, the app needs a bit of work...

Next, yes, changing from any of the four major system types: Backup-only, Self-powered or Advanced (Balanced or Cost Savings) takes a day for the PW2 to recognize. That is because it is already in its daily cycle with a specific type of system from the start of that day. It takes a midnight cycle-over (at least in my experience) for it to manifest the change. As example, I have accidentally changed the system from Cost Savings to Balanced and the Balanced setting does not manifest till the next day. If I notice the change early the next day, it will still go through the motions as Balanced even if I change it back to Cost Savings - which then takes another day to manifest. This is also how it works with editing Weekday or Weekend settings. They don't adjust that day but do work the next.

Interesting about Reserve levels being adjusted so fast. That's a good thing if it works quickly. I haven't tried it in 1.34.3 but it may be interesting to try at this point. I'll have to try some of your 'brute force' methods to see if they work for me.

It's funny talking to the Tesla support team. I keep trying to explain that I live in Texas and our utilities are all deregulated. It seems they always assume that every state operates like California.

I agree that the charge/discharge behavior within the Part-Peak rate period has been odd. We're using Balanced mode and our Powerwalls have been at relatively high states of charge (80-100%) the last couple of days.

Yesterday morning until 9:40 AM, our Powerwalls charged from all solar, and energy was pulled from the grid to match our home consumption. The Powerwalls reached 100% charge at about 10:35. Then, from 11:30 onward, all of our solar was exported and the Powerwalls discharged to match our home consumption. Peak started at 2 PM.


Agreed. Not only was this of no value to us, this behavior was exactly the opposite of what would have been best for the grid. Particularly on cool, windy, sunny April days like yesterday when there's likely to be commercial solar curtailment, it's best if the Powerwalls do their charging (not discharging!) closer to midday. If we had the proposed Expert Mode, we could program our Powerwalls to only charge from excess solar, and only after, say, 11 AM.

Your last point is what is so frustrating. In my setup, they want to start discharging power from the Powerwalls at approximately midnight here in Texas. That is the worst time for the Powerwalls to provide power to the grid. We have an abundance of wind power in this state (30 GW), which is why they give customers free energy at night. Wind blows best during the night. However, the best time to discharge would be during the late afternoon or early evening.

 

[NinjaVece]

It's funny talking to the Tesla support team. I keep trying to explain that I live in Texas and our utilities are all deregulated. It seems they always assume that every state operates like California.



Your last point is what is so frustrating. In my setup, they want to start discharging power from the Powerwalls at approximately midnight here in Texas. That is the worst time for the Powerwalls to provide power to the grid. We have an abundance of wind power in this state (30 GW), which is why they give customers free energy at night. Wind blows best during the night. However, the best time to discharge would be during the late afternoon or early evening.

JES2, as long as the feed-in tariff when you export power during Peak periods is at the same rate as you use grid power at that time, it shouldn't matter what Tesla is doing to satisfy the CA SGIP mandate. Say you hit Peak and you start exporting solar power while running off the battery. At some point you will likely hit the Reserve level and the battery will peter out during Peak and you will start using grid power. But a lot of that grid power will be simply a turn-around of what you had just fed into it during Peak, which means your net cost is zero compared to if the solar were to be, instead, helping you feed the house along with the battery. So, no harm done.

Where it gets messed up is if your feed-in tariff is at a discount compared to what you pay from the grid operator at that time. If you pay, for example $0.35 a kWh during Peak yet they accept your input at $0.30 a kWh, then you're getting the short end of the stick here.

Explain your set-up to me. When does your grid operator describe Peak periods? Shouldn't you be using Advanced Cost Savings?

 

[woferry]

Mine came with v1.30.0 and hasn't updated itself yet, though it's still in standby waiting for PTO so maybe that has something to do with it. I figure I'll see how 1.30 behaves first, and whether it updates itself or if I need to kick it

Heh. Well, after sitting idle running v1.30.0 for a few weeks and still in standby, my PW2 updated itself to v1.34.3. Good news is it was only offline for ~3 minutes. So much for giving v1.30.0 a shot first. When I started looking around the update time in my logs, I got my hopes up that the fluctuating SOE (SOC) readings stopped with v1.34.3, but it's actually still fluctuating now, so I guess shortly after reboot the PW must have frozen the value for a bit (maybe re-calculating the charge level or something). Given that mine is just sitting there with the breaker off, I certainly didn't expect it to be reporting gains in charge level, even if only tiny amounts.

meterdata_time	sitemaster_running	connected_to_tesla	gateway_version	gateway_is_new	gateway_uptime	powerwall_soc
2019-04-08T11:11:20-07:00	True	True	1.30.0	False	15h20m59s	11.4159725625
2019-04-08T11:11:24-07:00	True	True	1.30.0	False	15h21m3s	11.4549314174
2019-04-08T11:11:28-07:00	True	True	1.30.0	False	15h21m7s	11.4159725625
2019-04-08T11:11:32-07:00	True	True	1.30.0	False	15h21m10s	11.4467668191
2019-04-08T11:11:36-07:00	True	True	1.30.0	False	15h21m15s	11.4467668191
2019-04-08T11:14:32-07:00	True	True	1.34.3	False	2m24s	11.4150404181
2019-04-08T11:14:36-07:00	True	True	1.34.3	False	2m28s	11.4150404181
2019-04-08T11:14:40-07:00	True	True	1.34.3	False	2m32s	11.4150404181
2019-04-08T11:14:44-07:00	True	True	1.34.3	False	2m36s	11.4150404181
2019-04-08T11:14:48-07:00	True	True	1.34.3	False	2m40s	11.4150404181

[TR] [/TR]

[TR]
BTW, anybody know what the "is_new" property from /api/status actually means? Haven't seen it come back as anything other than false so far, thinking about dropping it from the logs. I thought maybe it would toggle around FW updates or something.[/tr]

 

[power.saver]

Those "gains" are not really there. They report SOE as a floating point number with more precision than the input used to calculate it. All of the digits past the first decimal point are garbage. Once yours is running you'll see this more, but even in this limited data set it's obvious the digits past the first decimal point are an irrational fraction. So you're holding at 11.4% for now.

 

[miimura]

"is_new" probably indicates whether the installation has the original Backup Gateway or the Gen2 Backup Gateway. I have not yet seen any pictures of installations with the Gen2 Backup Gateway. It has only appeared in literature as far as I know.

 

[NinjaVece]

"is_new" probably indicates whether the installation has the original Backup Gateway or the Gen2 Backup Gateway. I have not yet seen any pictures of installations with the Gen2 Backup Gateway. It has only appeared in literature as far as I know.

miimura, this is as close as I've seen to what the new gateway looks like...

https://electrek.co/2019/02/22/tesla-powerwall-backup-power-europe/