How Good is Solar Power?

[Vostok]

This sort of thing is probably nothing new for many readers here, but I’m still sooo excited over giving the big “middle finger” to the fossil fuel economy. “Freedom” and “liberation” come to mind - take that and shove it, IPA.

Yesterday my modest 5.8kW solar array was simultaneously charging our LEAF and our Model 3. With draw down from PW2, nothing was used from the grid:



Admittedly, I did dial down the charge rate on the Tesla to 8 Amps, but when one is in no particular hurry to charge, I prefer to not use the grid and use the free sunshine instead.

Forgive my childhood excitement... this is a dream come true.

 

[Hungry Mile]

This sort of thing is probably nothing new for many readers here, but I’m still sooo excited over giving the big “middle finger” to the fossil fuel economy. “Freedom” and “liberation” come to mind - take that and shove it, IPA.

Yesterday my modest 5.8kW solar array was simultaneously charging our LEAF and our Model 3. With draw down from PW2, nothing was used from the grid:

View attachment 492818

Admittedly, I did dial down the charge rate on the Tesla to 8 Amps, but when one is in no particular hurry to charge, I prefer to not use the grid and use the free sunshine instead.

Forgive my childhood excitement... this is a dream come true.

Good on you! I share your excitement. For the last week I've charged between midnight and 4 am at my special rate of less than 8 c/kW and felt a bit guilty as I have excess generation during the day (export paid at 10 c/kWh). So last night, I prevented charging and manually began charging as soon as the house had excess energy. Now charging for free at 2kW, oh, except for just now when the kettle went on for morning tea. Damn!

I've not yet had the Tesla wall charger installed, and I'm not convinced that I want to. You've said elsewhere that you have installed it.
I'm thinking I don't want the hassle of doing that switching myself long term. Other threads discuss what others have done to create smart charging. I may just stump up for a Zappi or alternative smart charger.

 

[EcoCloudIT]

Our 11.38kw system went live 12 days ago and we’ve produced a 48kw day, a 50kw day and the rest as been 75-78kw days (and we’re Melbourne based).

As a matter of fact, when our PW2 is installed we would have been off-grid for all but 1 of the last 12 days.

Yesterday, as an example, we had our air-con running, the roast in the oven and the dish washer was run all during sunshine hours and ended not registering a watt drawn from the grid.

We’ve been charging the cars from the panels also, can’t wait to get the PW2 installed (would love to add more panels and storage over the next year or two).

 

[ICUDoc]

Our 11.38kw system

*sugar*, what a monster!
Mine is about 5.5kW, makes us energy-independent on average, apart from hot water. Yours must support a whole other household.
OP- yes how good is it!!!
We had a little mini-cyclone locally a few weeks back - the solar + PW2 made us NOT EVEN NOTICE.
52 hours of perfect local power. It was fun having the neighbours come 'round to charge their devices

 

[Anubis]

I agree. I don’t have a PW (and won’t be getting one until the “next gen” is available), have a 7.2kW solar system and use OpenHAB to turn on/off aircons and Model 3 charging (8 amps) as there is excess solar. On top of that, my feed in is $0.20 which covers 70% of my home gas use.

 

[ICUDoc]

the “next gen”

Any details about what that will entail?

 

[Vostok]

I've not yet had the Tesla wall charger installed, and I'm not convinced that I want to. You've said elsewhere that you have installed it. I'm thinking I don't want the hassle of doing that switching myself long term. Other threads discuss what others have done to create smart charging. I may just stump up for a Zappi or alternative smart charger.

Yes, the HWPC was installed on Monday. Sparky rang me up out of the blue (I had left a few messages in recent weeks trying to plan ahead for Slartibartfast’s arrival) and he said he could install it that day. He charged me $460 which included a new 3-phase RCBO which seemed a bargain. With this, the max rate Model 3 can accept on AC is 16A on all 3 phases or 11.5 kW total (nearly 5x what the LEAF can do on AC ).

My only complaint, such as it is, is that you have to sit in the car to dial down the charge rate, you can’t do it from the app as far as I can tell. Apparently it will now remember 8A is the limit for that location, but that is not ideal either because there will be times I’ll want to charge at full rate (e.g. offpeak grid overnight if planning a road trip, and I’m not getting up at midnight to sit in the car and change the charge rate!).

I plan to send Tesla these suggestions:

1. Update the app to allow users to remotely change the charge rate.
2. For PW2 owners, add the ability to set the car to charge at any time there is excess solar, up to a % battery level that can be set separately to the normal % level. This would be possible purely by s/w, because the PW2 knows when there is excess solar and how much, and Tesla can communicate with both your car and PW2 to tell your car to start charging at the required rate to absorb the excess. This would replicate the functionality of the Zappi.
3. Set an offpeak grid charging rate that can be different to the maximum charging rate at all other times. Offpeak is always overnight when there is no solar, so any charging during that time should be settable to occur at a higher rate than at other times, if desired.

 

[EcoCloudIT]

Yes, the HWPC was installed on Monday. Sparky rang me up out of the blue (I had left a few messages in recent weeks trying to plan ahead for Slartibartfast’s arrival) and he said he could install it that day. He charged me $460 which included a new 3-phase RCBO which seemed a bargain. With this, the max rate Model 3 can accept on AC is 16A on all 3 phases or 11.5 kW total (nearly 5x what the LEAF can do on AC ).

My only complaint, such as it is, is that you have to sit in the car to dial down the charge rate, you can’t do it from the app as far as I can tell. Apparently it will now remember 8A is the limit for that location, but that is not ideal either because there will be times I’ll want to charge at full rate (e.g. offpeak grid overnight if planning a road trip, and I’m not getting up at midnight to sit in the car and change the charge rate!).

I plan to send Tesla these suggestions:

1. Update the app to allow users to remotely change the charge rate.
2. For PW2 owners, add the ability to set the car to charge at any time there is excess solar, up to a % battery level that can be set separately to the normal % level. This would be possible purely by s/w, because the PW2 knows when there is excess solar and how much, and Tesla can communicate with both your car and PW2 to tell your car to start charging at the required rate to absorb the excess. This would replicate the functionality of the Zappi.
3. Set an offpeak grid charging rate that can be different to the maximum charging rate at all other times. Offpeak is always overnight when there is no solar, so any charging during that time should be settable to occur at a higher rate than at other times, if desired.

Great idea, hopefully the ideas get picked up?

Which email address are you using? I’ll copy and paste to the same address....

 

[ICUDoc]

For PW2 owners, add the ability to set the car to charge at any time there is excess solar, up to a % battery level that can be set separately to the normal % level. This would be possible purely by s/w, because the PW2 knows when there is excess solar and how much, and Tesla can communicate with both your car and PW2 to tell your car to start charging at the required rate to absorb the excess. This would replicate the functionality of the Zappi.

Smart. smart smart smart
Then the car gets ALL the excess and interactions with the grid are minimised.
Thanks, V

 

[Didaho]

My only complaint, such as it is, is that you have to sit in the car to dial down the charge rate, you can’t do it from the app as far as I can tell.

The HWPC accepts hardwired commands to adjust the amperage. I plan to add a raspberry pi to mine as per:

 

[Hungry Mile]

I may just stump up for a Zappi or alternative smart charger.

I plan to add a raspberry pi to mine as per:

Or the Raspberry Pi.

 

[EcoCloudIT]

Or the Raspberry Pi.

I would too, but I really want integrated with the one Tesla App interface etc. etc. like @Vostok list requests....

Watched the video and did a bit of reading and not sure how I would implement given I am using a Master/Slave setup with 2x HWPC units already...I know the system should support a Master/Slave/Slave/Slave (3x slaves) but not sure if the Pi/software would work as intended (i.e. changing AMPs on all units including Master/Slave).

 

[Didaho]

On the face of it maybe, but it to me makes far better sense to tie the functionality to your actual production with whatever hardware is in the solar setup (and not wait for Tesla to provide software, however obvious).

 

[EcoCloudIT]

On the face of it maybe, but it to me makes far better sense to tie the functionality to your actual production with whatever hardware is in the solar setup (and not wait for Tesla to provide software, however obvious).

Are you aware if it will work with more than one HWPCs for people with more than 1x Tesla cars at home?

 

[Didaho]

It should work fine with both HWPC's set up as slaves.

 

[Stratman]

Yeh Vostok, its pretty cool energy straight from the roof to the car. kind of how it should be eh..

 

[paulp]

Are you aware if it will work with more than one HWPCs for people with more than 1x Tesla cars at home?

Yes I can confirm it does. I have two tesla s each on its own connector, and can charge both at the same time on my 30kw solar array. I’ve set the amperage so that only around half my array is used if both are charging at once, just to avoid that meter going the other way if a bit of cloud arrives.

 

[paulp]

*sugar*, what a monster!
Mine is about 5.5kW, makes us energy-independent on average, apart from hot water. Yours must support a whole other household.
OP- yes how good is it!!!
We had a little mini-cyclone locally a few weeks back - the solar + PW2 made us NOT EVEN NOTICE.
52 hours of perfect local power. It was fun having the neighbours come 'round to charge their devices

This is like that crocodile dundee knife scene. My 30kw system has recieved enough FIT to have now paid itself off, and is rapidly approaching a lifetime production of 100MWh. About to celebrate the systems 2nd birthday. Fantastic investment!

 

[Vostok]

Great idea, hopefully the ideas get picked up? Which email address are you using? I’ll copy and paste to the same address....

It’s someone that I know who holds a senior position in Tesla in the US. So unfortunately it is not an email address I can share, sorry. But I can ask them what the best public address would be for people to send in suggestions!

 

[Clemi]

This sort of thing is probably nothing new for many readers here, but I’m still sooo excited over giving the big “middle finger” to the fossil fuel economy. “Freedom” and “liberation” come to mind - take that and shove it, IPA.

Yesterday my modest 5.8kW solar array was simultaneously charging our LEAF and our Model 3. With draw down from PW2, nothing was used from the grid:

View attachment 492818

Admittedly, I did dial down the charge rate on the Tesla to 8 Amps, but when one is in no particular hurry to charge, I prefer to not use the grid and use the free sunshine instead.

Forgive my childhood excitement... this is a dream come true.

Has Reality not hit you yet? since 5/2017 my solar panel is connected to the grid. I do not get a cent for feeding in the last 7,000 kwh. connecting my 60kwh Battery on wheels (Tessi) is not an option, is not allowed, or cannot be done. In winter I get about 300 Watt from the panel. Finding a company that buys solar elecrtricity in summer ans sells wind energy in winter, all for a reasonable exchange rate, or at all is out of question. I am very frustrated about what is talked about and what is actually available. Enjoy your hype ))