My Powerwall2 keeps turning off my Air conditioning every few hours

[buenoshun]

My Solar installation with the Powerwall2 and Gateway2 has a feature to turn off the power to the Air conditioner when the grid is down.
I have noticed that the AC input power turns off several times a day and comes back, while my app does not report any outage.
When I power off the Powerwall and back on, then within a minute it lets my AC to power up again, that proves it is a Tesla issue.
Another possible issue is the app has been reporting "Standby" the last few months every time I opened the app.
Is it a software or hardware bug, or is it the environmentalists at Tesla purposely turning my AC off to save the planet without my consent? Some electric companies do that and they even advertise this as a feature.

 

[Electrph]

trying to clarify are you saying your AC is not included as one of your backed up loads?
if that is the case AC should start / run normal when grid is up when grid is down ac would not work at all .. restarting pw would have no bearing on that fact
that is the most common way tesla excludes loads PW cannot handle or customer does not want backed up .. unless you have some unique or new feature I have not read of here
standby in app just means powerwalls are not charging or discharging (are full / have reached your set reserve etc)

 

[jjrandorin]

My Solar installation with the Powerwall2 and Gateway2 has a feature to turn off the power to the Air conditioner when the grid is down.
I have noticed that the AC input power turns off several times a day and comes back, while my app does not report any outage.
When I power off the Powerwall and back on, then within a minute it lets my AC to power up again, that proves it is a Tesla issue.
Another possible issue is the app has been reporting "Standby" the last few months every time I opened the app.
Is it a software or hardware bug, or is it the environmentalists at Tesla purposely turning my AC off to save the planet without my consent? Some electric companies do that and they even advertise this as a feature.

None of us are aware of any feature of a powerwall to "turn off the ac when the grid is down" that does not include just having the AC on the non backed up loads side of your setup.

There is no way for tesla to trigger your AC to turn off remotely, environmentalists there or no.

 

[power.saver]

The Powerwall Gateway (both 1 and 2) has a load shedding option to turn off loads during a power failure. It uses a relay in the Gateway to interrupt a low voltage circuit. Typically used to disable a condenser by opening the contactor circuit. It's used when the A/C must be put on a backup circuit (e.g. in a sub-panel). This option must be properly configured during the install, as the default function of the relay is not load shedding. This is from the PW2-GW2 installation manual:

 

[buenoshun]

The AC is not backed up, which is how i wanted it. The only load in the house that is not backed up is the AC/heater. The way the local Tesla installer implemented the non-backed up feature is I think non-standard, instead of making a separate switch panel, they installed a wire from teh Gateway to the AC unit to disable it when the grid is down. I don't know whether the Gateway has a GPIO output controlled by software, or they installed a voltage sensor or something... The condenser is where the wire goes, as power.saver described it.
Your screenshot says the circuit is opened during firmware updates and abnormal conditions (like what?). The only thing changed the last 2 weeks is the temperature: in my garage it goes up to 93F now, while previous months it was always below 90F. I'm in Florida, the stuff is in the garage.

"This option must be properly configured during the install, as the default function of the relay is not load shedding."
- How? Is it possible that a firmware update wiped out the manual configuration? It worked since they installed in December, now misbehaves since 1-2 weeks ago.

The problem is it turns off the power to the AC even when the grid is up.
This started happening maybe 2 weeks ago.

Some electric companies started doing this, so I wonder maybe Tesla rolled out their own system for load cycling, of course without the consent of the customer. In 2021 it would be typical Silicon Valley behavior. Facebook, Google have the model that they think they own the customer, maybe Tesla jumped on the same bandwagon?
Here is an article on load cycling by some electric companies:

Discover Why Utility Companies May Be Cycling Your AC Off

Discover why the utility company may be turning your AC off during peak usage. Take control of your air conditioner today!

bplusw.com

 

[jjrandorin]

The AC is not backed up, which is how i wanted it. The only load in the house that is not backed up is the AC/heater. The way the local Tesla installer implemented the non-backed up feature is I think non-standard, instead of making a separate switch panel, they installed a wire from teh Gateway to the AC unit to disable it when the grid is down. I don't know whether the Gateway has a GPIO output controlled by software, or they installed a voltage sensor or something... The condenser is where the wire goes, as power.saver described it.
Your screenshot says the circuit is opened during firmware updates and abnormal conditions (like what?). The only thing changed the last 2 weeks is the temperature: in my garage it goes up to 93F now, while previous months it was always below 90F. I'm in Florida, the stuff is in the garage.

"This option must be properly configured during the install, as the default function of the relay is not load shedding."
- How? Is it possible that a firmware update wiped out the manual configuration? It worked since they installed in December, now misbehaves since 1-2 weeks ago.

The problem is it turns off the power to the AC even when the grid is up.
This started happening maybe 2 weeks ago.

Some electric companies started doing this, so I wonder maybe Tesla rolled out their own system for load cycling, of course without the consent of the customer. In 2021 it would be typical Silicon Valley behavior. Facebook, Google have the model that they think they own the customer, maybe Tesla jumped on the same bandwagon?
Here is an article on load cycling by some electric companies:

Discover Why Utility Companies May Be Cycling Your AC Off

Discover why the utility company may be turning your AC off during peak usage. Take control of your air conditioner today!

bplusw.com

Directly from your article:

===================

“Have you signed up for an air conditioning energy saving program with your utility company? Keep this in mind.
==================

Neither tesla, nor any utility in the US we have heard of, has the ability to cycle off your AC without your consent. You give your consent to such a thing when you agree to enroll in one of their efficiency programs, and then they come and install physical hardware, mounted on your home and connected in line to your AC to enable them to control it.

Tesla does not directly send any signals to cycle off your AC, that simply is not a thing.

 

[Electrph]

The set up you describe as having is unusual, on these boards at least .. as stated most have whole house back up or a back up panel w/ backed up loads.
Your problem could be gateway not playing nice with thermostat or some other wiring issue, more likely it is issue with gateway not sending proper signal at proper time since it works when you reboot pw (whether this is GW not physically sending the low voltage signal or some part of GW somehow thinking grid down when it is not is unknown)
Unfortunately we have no way of knowing if this feature of PW is quirky or problematic since we read of few on here using this feature.

 

[buenoshun]

Exactly, the Gateway2 is not sending proper signal. According to the manual, the load shedding relay has to provide power to the AUX output constantly, unless the grid is down, or there is "abnormal fault condition" or firmware update. Someone mentioned above that it has to be configured for load shedding.
So, either:
- there is an abnormal fault condition (what can that be?)
- keeps updating firmware 10 times every day
- someone or a new firmware overrode the load shedding configuration
- It thinks the grid is down, like freq/voltage off by few %.
- Gateway hardware or software fault
The Tesla support guy on the phone had no idea about any of the 4 possibilities, didnt know about the load shedding feature..

 

[Zabe]

Of those scenarios a voltage fluctuation is the most likely.

 

[wwhitney]

But if it's due to grid behavior, why would the trigger for the load shed be more sensitive than the trigger for going off grid into backup mode?

If you log in to the Gateway as the installer, you can page through all the installation pages to see what the configuration is (don't change anything on the first time through) and check if the proper settings for the load shedding are enabled.

Cheers, Wayne

 

[RKCRLR]

I'm currently in a battle with Tesla about my AC not working during a power outage on my whole house backup (it's a long story).
One of the things they proposed is load shedding. My understanding is the Gateway doesn't supply any power to the load shedding terminal. It is just a switch. It remains closed when the grid is up and is opened when the grid goes down. You may want to try a volt/ohm meter to check if that is how it is operating when the AC stops working.

 

[BGbreeder]

I wouldn't rule out the possibility of a loose wire on the control circuit, as it seems so intermittent...

 

[Vines]

The AC is not backed up, which is how i wanted it. The only load in the house that is not backed up is the AC/heater. The way the local Tesla installer implemented the non-backed up feature is I think non-standard, instead of making a separate switch panel, they installed a wire from teh Gateway to the AC unit to disable it when the grid is down. I don't know whether the Gateway has a GPIO output controlled by software, or they installed a voltage sensor or something... The condenser is where the wire goes, as power.saver described it.
Your screenshot says the circuit is opened during firmware updates and abnormal conditions (like what?). The only thing changed the last 2 weeks is the temperature: in my garage it goes up to 93F now, while previous months it was always below 90F. I'm in Florida, the stuff is in the garage.

"This option must be properly configured during the install, as the default function of the relay is not load shedding."
- How? Is it possible that a firmware update wiped out the manual configuration? It worked since they installed in December, now misbehaves since 1-2 weeks ago.

The problem is it turns off the power to the AC even when the grid is up.
This started happening maybe 2 weeks ago.

Some electric companies started doing this, so I wonder maybe Tesla rolled out their own system for load cycling, of course without the consent of the customer. In 2021 it would be typical Silicon Valley behavior. Facebook, Google have the model that they think they own the customer, maybe Tesla jumped on the same bandwagon?
Here is an article on load cycling by some electric companies:

Discover Why Utility Companies May Be Cycling Your AC Off

Discover why the utility company may be turning your AC off during peak usage. Take control of your air conditioner today!

bplusw.com

Something is not right here.
If I understand correctly, the AC is wired to the Non-backup lugs inside the gateway. A picture of the main panel and the gateway (without the deadfronts on) would be helpful.

If your AC is not backed up, there's no reason to put the DC control wire of your AC unit through the load shedding terminal. I believe you have either an improperly wired load shedding feature, or are seeing some loose connections somewhere.

Look inside the GW2 if you are comfortable, and make sure there is nothing connected to the load shedding terminal.

 

[wwhitney]

If I understand correctly, the AC is wired to the Non-backup lugs inside the gateway.

I infer that the AC is the only thing that is not to be backed up, and so in lieu of the above, it is supposed to be set up for load shedding.

Cheers, Wayne

 

[Vines]

I infer that the AC is the only thing that is not to be backed up, and so in lieu of the above, it is supposed to be set up for load shedding.

Cheers, Wayne

Agreed, the designer could have intended the AC be fed from the backup side and simply load shed it to keep it off during an outage. IMO this is not an excellent design.

I usually use a QO200TR and connect it to the non-backup lugs, and feed the AC from that.

 

[buenoshun]

So there is only one switch panel for all loads, the old one that came with the house. There is no separate panel for backedup and nonbackedup loads. That is why the load shedding terminal is used to turn off the AC.

So, how do I access the "log in to the Gateway as the installer" ?