Yesterday we had our first power outage for just over an hour. The Powerwalls kicked in, the UPS on my internet routers kept things happy during the switchover. The Powerwalls were at 100% and so the solar shutdown just fine. It was a non event which is how it should be!
-
Want to remove ads? Register an account and login to see fewer ads, and become a Supporting Member to remove almost all ads.
First power outage...Powerwalls did great!
- Thread starter Cstreet
- Start date
Usually the only time I know there’s been an outage is when I look back at notifications it’s so smooth. Note that if you are one of those people that have a large UPS for your PC/router setup (like me, lol) you don’t need one any more since the PWs take care of that now!
When my large APC UPC wore out, I got a smaller one, just enough to buffer for a few minutes. I don’t even know if I needed it, since appliances like the stove and microwave don’t even reset clocks and the like but the surge protection insurance is still good to have.
When my large APC UPC wore out, I got a smaller one, just enough to buffer for a few minutes. I don’t even know if I needed it, since appliances like the stove and microwave don’t even reset clocks and the like but the surge protection insurance is still good to have.
I think a small UPS is still necessary both for the surge protection you mentioned and because some more sensitive electronics will turn off/reboot even with a very brief outage. But it definitely doesn't need to have a large runtime - just be rated large enough to handle all the equipment on it without tripping its own breaker.
Exactly. PWs don’t run the load off the battery but do switch over. I was surprised to see that the microwave didn’t react; which in the past was my test since it doesn’t seem to have the smallest capacitor to survive the shortest outage.
Definitely excellent that we don’t need to replace batteries in large UPSes any longer!
Yeah I just have a few little UPS setups for my internet routers and computer to bridge the second or so switchover
Don’t know what you’re seeing but we seen nothing like a second. No light flicker, etc. lights are LED which should really show it, so, pretty quick!
My experience has been good but not consistent. I've had 6 or 7 outages ranging from 15 seconds to 58 seconds over the past 3 months. Only once was everything "unnoticeable". On the other occasions I had no problem with my solar, one problem with some appliance clocks, and the one consistent problem was having one of my three Hue lights come on after power was restored (all three had been off). On the first two occasions my computer/internet equipment UPS kicked in, but since then the Powerwall kicked in in time.
I'm very happy with the Powerwall but I'll continue to keep my computer stuff connected to a UPS.
I'm very happy with the Powerwall but I'll continue to keep my computer stuff connected to a UPS.
It depends on what is delivering power to your home at that time, home load, etc. Sometimes its unnoticeable, sometimes, there is a few milliseconds lag, which is enough for some computers, routers etc to reboot.
For example, if you have solar + powerwalls providing all of your power for your home load, you wont see any change. If you have all of your home load covered with just your solar and your powerwalls are on standby because they are full, you might see a blip in an outage as the solar turns off and the powerwalls turn "on" to power your home.
Basically, if your home is already being powered with some powerwall power, then you wont notice a change at all. If it ISNT (powerwalls being charged by solar, or in standby, etc) there are times when you will notice a blip.
Whether you want to cover for that "sometimes" depends on you, but there definitely is "sometimes" you will notice it without any UPS on computers / routers, etc.
in this context, UPS = Uninterruptible Power Supply, or, Backup battery you attach to a device to provide power in case of an outage. There are several consumer home models of varying degrees of power. Most use Lead Acid batteries, and provide XXX watts of power in an outage. General use is to allow someone to either continue to work for "some time" in an outage, or, alternatively, provide enough power to allow someone to gracefully shut down their equipment and save their files.
seangoggin
Member
Uninterruptible Power Supply
is a traditional device to take over providing AC for computers when there is power failures. It has some monitoring electronics and control computer and lead acid batteries. They also typically handle “brown outs” low voltage or power spikes. The power grid also changes AC frequency which can cause issues if extreme.
Available from small $50 consumer units to massive house sized devices with gas turbines and diesel engines with reserve tanks and oil delivery on standby. When I worked at Blackberry the data telecommunication centres never stopped at all in the great North America outage and could have continued indefinitely.
ArizonaJon
Member
I just checked my backup history and found we had an outage on June 30. We did not know it had happened as all clocks, etc. showed no evidence of a power interruption. Based on a neighbor's report, I believe it was during the day when the solar array was producing power. Our system has only been in since early June, so need more time to determine characteristics.
woferry
Member
Definitely noticeable on my system, both on simulated grid outage testing and real outages. A few random electronic devices reboot, my living room TV shuts off, and my dining room ceiling fan lights flash (they're controlled by an Insteon FanLinc, so I guess it resets, if the PW is shifting the grid frequency it gets even more unhappy along with everything else Insteon in the house). Sadly of two Mac Minis that are typically running, the older one survives the event just fine, but the newer one (current model) reboots. All of the alarm clocks and simple appliances with clocks survive, though again if the PW is shifting the grid frequency for a while they drift enough that they need to be reset anyway. 
Congratulations! Power independence is amazing.
Imagine in another 10 years when a grid tied battery is required on all new construction. The problem of the PV generation vs duck curve is gone!
Imagine in another 10 years when a grid tied battery is required on all new construction. The problem of the PV generation vs duck curve is gone!
Similar threads
