Hello all. I've had my system up and running for almost 2 months now with no issues. Today in the north east, its snowing and my panels are covered in 3 inches of snow and aren't producing at all. My 4 powerwalls are at 4% and we are supposed to get high winds with the inevitable power loss. I'd like to be able to charge my 4 powewalls to 100%. Since solar isn't being produced I have to charge my powerwalls from the grid. I've been customizing my settings in the Tesla app but cannot figure out how to charge the PWs from the grid. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks
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How to charge powerwalls from grid with solar
- Thread starter coney27
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Did you get that low due to a prior outage, or are you set in a mode (self-powered or advanced) where your batteries regularly discharge? Similar to what I've seen CA folks do during fire season, it may make sense to either use backup only for the winter, or increase the reserve for other modes.
This is generally correct for the US. I would only add that in principle Tesla can change that behavior, but you need to request that directly from Tesla, and it won't be changed immediately, even if you can convince them. If you tell Tesla you are claiming the federal credit or if your utility has rules disallowing it, they likely won't change the behavior, even if you request it.
Nosken
Active Member
Is this true in the PG&E territory?
I have a referral Powerwall sitting in my garage and would like to add it to my solar system to do a little peak shaving, and to make sure I continue to overproduce. Is there a way to set the Powerwalls to charge during Off-Peak times, to Sell back during Peak Times?
I currently overproduce, but my current rate plan will go away in 1 year, and the new rate plan will be likely just break even.
yes, true in PG&E land.
The cost saving approach is to charge PW during Partial Peak, power house from PW during peak and sell solar back during peak. The tesla app wwill automatically do that if you set it on "Csot Saving" mode. You can set a PW reserve amount to only use up battery to that reserve amount.
Is there a winter storm warning in effect for your ZIP code? If so and Storm Watch isn't activated, you could try contacting Tesla to see if they have things configured correctly on your account. In the past, I've heard some people weren't set up properly and Storm Watch wasn't activated for them. Last year, we were in a blizzard warning (wind + snow) and Powerwalls were only programmed to activate Storm Watch for high winds. We tweeted Elon and within hours, he had his employees activate Storm Watch for everyone in the metro area. He said settings were too strict so they started adding a lot more situations when Storm Watch would activate in a subsequent software update. It was too late for us in that storm (since the power was already out) but some of our friends in the metro area reported that their Storm Watch was activated shortly after Elon's reply and their Powerwalls started charging from the grid.
In California, the PUC has said that with generation (solar) and storage (Powerwall), you can either (a) only charge from solar, but discharge whenever you like (including in excess of consumption, back to the grid) or (b) charge from solar or the grid, but can never discharge back to the grid (so Powerwall should never discharge more than your consumption).
Unfortunately, right now in the US, barring some special dispensation, Tesla only offers you the worst of both options: (c) charge only from solar, and never discharge back to the grid. The only way to get behavior (a) or (b) would be to hack the Powerwall software, or spoof the CTs.
Cheers, Wayne
Maybe they want to power their house and send solar+Powerwall back to the grid during peak? If that was possible, then it would be like printing money, as Elon would say.
It would certainly shorten the Powerwall payback period.No ..err. no you will not be able to charge overnight from the grid in PGE territory if you have solar.
Maybe they want to power their house and send solar+Powerwall back to the grid during peak? If that was possible, then it would be like printing money, as Elon would say.
The primary goal in cost saving is to power the house from PW for the duration of Peak power and send as much solar back to grid during Peak while sun is still up.
If you have excess PW after powering thru Peak, your just sending power to the grid at the same price you charged the PW (solar is charging PW, but you are drawing from the grid at that rate). So, you are losing money to send back to grid at same rate because of the 10% loss in PW
Maybe they want to power their house and send solar+Powerwall back to the grid during peak? If that was possible, then it would be like printing money, as Elon would say.
Here in CT we have that option. Its called Connected Solutions. Battery Storage Demand Response
As for my storm watch I am in area under a Winter Weather Advisory and storm watch is not initiated. I should be able to charge my powerwalls on demand anyway I please. This is very frustrating and disappointing. Why can I not have the option to just charge the powerwalls from the grid?
If you are really desperate and feel that there is an impending outage and you have no solar generation, and know what you're doing, move the solar CTs to a known reasonable load so that it looks like solar generation. It should trigger PW charging if the CTs are facing the correct direction. This is not recommended except in desperate situations.
For future reference, you should change to Backup mode or raise your Reserve way up when you see a storm coming.
For future reference, you should change to Backup mode or raise your Reserve way up when you see a storm coming.
I suggest taking yourself out of self powered mode when you hear there is supposed to be weather you are concerned about, and putting yourself into backup only mode during those times.
To answer your original question, there is no "setting" in the powerwall software that will let you charge from the grid, if you have solar, in the US.
It is not a "powerwalls cant do this from a technical perspective" reason, because outside the US its allowed. In the US, its basically not, from teslas end. You will not be able to call them and get them to turn on grid charging for you (although you might be able to get them to turn on stormwatch for your area if they dont have it categorized properly).
Every wind storm does not trigger stormwatch. In general, check your favorite weather app, and if you have a national weather service Alert for your area, stormwatch will likely trigger. If there are no formal NWS alerts for your area, it (stormwatch) likely will not be triggered. You having it on only lets the powerwalls charge from the grid when tesla triggers stormwatch mode, which you can not trigger yourself.
When you get to "Winter storm warning" stormwatch will likely trigger. In the meantime, put yourself in backup only. Complaining here about not being able to turn on grid charging is not going to change anything, nor make tesla change anything for you regarding this
Akikiki
A'-Lo-HA ! y'all
I am not questioning or challenging what you are saying. But how do they/ one or the other know if you took the tax credit?
They do not knoww, but there is no way in the App to set it to charge from the grid. You would have to have someone hardwire the option in the TEG and try to get utility approval
From talking to my installers, does not matter. If one has solar, they MUST configure so CANNOT charge from grid, ever. Whether you take the tax credit is not there concern.
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