I came home yesterday to my house on fire. The fire originated in a corner of our home in between the two Tesla powerwalls and inverter, and the other Tesla boxes. The entire downstairs house is trashed. The investigator for the fire department was asking me a lot of specific questions about our solar system. He wanted the names and info of our Tesla rep, and they shut down our system as soon as they arrived. The fire was a couple of inches from the powerwalls.
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House Fire Very near to my installed Powerwalls
- Thread starter Wahiawahi
- Start date
Unless you are saying the powerwalls were the cause of the fire (which it doesnt sound like thats what you are saying), this probably belongs in a new thread where you can talk about what the final determination ends up being. "fire 2 inches from powerwalls" does not sound like "fire originated from powerwalls", but perhaps I am mis reading what you saiid.
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That hole on the right side of the picture taken from inside our house is opposite the powerwalls, inverter, and meter. The fire literally occurred within inches of the powerwalls.
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HankLloydRight
No Roads
Wow, that looks super scary! I wonder what the thermal readings in that powerwall were like? Did it recognize the abnormally hot environment and shutdown itself?
Where did it start? It looks like it wasn't part of the PV or PW installation but I cant really tell from those pictures. It might have been near the other side of that meter perhaps.
The investigator said he will finish his report today. As of right now we still don’t know for sure, so I don’t want to speculate, but we know the source of the fire was from that area in the pictures. I’m not sure the exact time it happened, but we left the house just after 9am, and when we got home at 1:20pm we saw smoke and it smelled toxic. The fire department arrived about 10 minutes later.
The system didn’t shut itself down. When my 13 year old son realized the fire was next to the powerwalls he yelled and said the solar panels are on fire. He thought about pushing the red button to shut it off, but he was afraid he would get in trouble because we had warned all of the kids never to push that button. I was focused on getting our six youngest kids as far away from the house as I could.
When the fire department arrived our system was still on because I was monitoring things on my Tesla app. It was an extremely sunny day and our 9.6kw system was doing what it always does when it’s sunny with the 7.6kw inverter… it was getting 7.7kw. Our powerwalls were at 92%, and our house was only using 0.5kw because no one was home.
Background… we have a 9.6kw system with 24 panels, and two powerwalls. We have a 7.6kw inverter, but we get 7.7kw from it every day I guess because our panels produce the full 9.6kw.
Our system was installed by Tesla October 5, 2022. We’ve been using it in self consumption mode until June 26, 2023 when we received permission from HECO to push power to the grid.
Our system was installed by Tesla October 5, 2022. We’ve been using it in self consumption mode until June 26, 2023 when we received permission from HECO to push power to the grid.
zoomer0056
Active Member
Matt-FL
Member
I agree it doesn't appear to be PW/PV electrical circuit related, but it could still be electrical related and Tesla related. E.g. one of the fasteners holding the Tesla equipment to the wall hitting a different electrical circuit. The timing and location are somewhat suggestive.
Or the timing and location could just be coincidence.
Cheers, Wayne
Yeah, I had that thought also, but couldn't see any cables on the interior shot, timing since installation seemed off, and I'd expect apparent thermal damage visible above or behind the offending mounted equipmemt.
There is some Rolex visible in a couple of the photos, but it looks melted from heat, not as a point source, but I'm NOT an expert.
I would point out that this is Hawaii and corrosion is always an issue.
Allthe best,
BG
Ah, good point. I see one lower strand coming from above which looks intact. There is another coming in from the lower left, but it's unclear to me if it runs across or connects to the first. Teal may be damaged NM-B, I'd thought it was threads of the blue stuff. Would make sense for a heat source.
It's a double stack Powerwall which I think means it's ground supported and needs fewer fasteners. The 2.5 inch minimum length is longer than normal code wire depth.
CrazyRabbit
Active Member
Appears to have started in wall. Tesla hit one of my AC systems wiring with a powerwall mounting plate screw and piped the breaker. they repaired the damage.
