Netzero App

[BreatheSafe]

I have had a few odd issues the last 3 mornings and I believe it might be Tesla changed something in the backend.
The automations show they have all run successfully but the PW2 has ignored them completely.
1. The switch from grid charging enabled/disabled was ignored and resulted in some costly charging from the grid.
2. The set of a battery top up percentage using a minimum backup reserve % was also ignored with an almost full grid charge.
This has only happened in the early morning....was all working well without any changes by me so assuming it is Tesla. Could it be the switch from TBC and self powered a few times a day messing with Tesla algo?

 

[offandonagain]

A few times now I have noticed the automations running two times for a single event. Same examples below. Is there anything I should be doing differently? Could this be due to me accessing the app on multiple devices (iPhone and iPad)?

Thanks for the report, this was caused by some backend congestion issues. I made some improvements and will keep an eye on this.

 

[offandonagain]

I have had a few odd issues the last 3 mornings and I believe it might be Tesla changed something in the backend.
The automations show they have all run successfully but the PW2 has ignored them completely.

Thanks, I have not gotten any similar reports. This sounds like it could be an issue with your gateway connectivity. Are you able to make manual configuration changes with the Tesla app? I can look into it in more detail if you contact via the feedback email in the app.

 

[BreatheSafe]

Thanks, I have not gotten any similar reports. This sounds like it could be an issue with your gateway connectivity. Are you able to make manual configuration changes with the Tesla app? I can look into it in more detail if you contact via the feedback email in the app.

Thanks for the response. Yes I can make changes. I have reset the gateway just in case. I will contact you via the app email.

 

[OCJeff]

Had an issue today where the automation ran at 5:50 but didn’t take effect until 60 minutes later. Could it really take 60 minutes for the powerwall to update its config?

Edit to add that it looks like my PW 2 isn’t getting updates from the Tesla Cloud. 2nd time this week that happened. . I’m not sure how to address this. Last time I “reset” the powerwall using the pen to push reset on the gateway. All of this started it seems after my PW2 completely reset itself and had to be recommissioned.

Edit 2: It just looks like the automation didn’t apply any settings. Changing the Tesla App to Self Powered took effect and is shown on the Tesla One app as updated:

 

[squarepeg77]

Hi @offandonagain, many thanks for the app and Octopus Agile support. It seems to be working great.

We have negative buy prices on the Octopus Agile tariff this afterrnoon. (Surplus of wind and solar power predicted.)

Does NetZero handle this okay? And does the Tesla app support it?

In the Tesla app I see the Buy price is set to zero.

This is what the tariff is:

 

[offandonagain]

Edit 2: It just looks like the automation didn’t apply any settings. Changing the Tesla App to Self Powered took effect and is shown on the Tesla One app as updated:

Not sure what the issue is here, Netzero will make sure the API call is successful and then additionally retrieve settings to make sure the API changes were applied on the backend. But Tesla is then still responsible for getting these settings to your gateway, and there's no automated way of confirming that. I would still suggest looking at your gateway's network quality -- consider hardwiring or improving wifi proximity if possible. I'll also notify Tesla of this issue.

 

[offandonagain]

We have negative buy prices on the Octopus Agile tariff this afterrnoon. (Surplus of wind and solar power predicted.)
Does NetZero handle this okay? And does the Tesla app support it?
In the Tesla app I see the Buy price is set to zero.

Tesla doesn't currently support negative prices, that's why they're rounded up to 0 (documented here). You should still see similar Powerwall behavior based on the off-peak / on-peak spread, just the spread will be smaller.

Good luck finding creative (and environmentally responsible!) ways of using more energy during negative pricing

 

[squarepeg77]

It’s happens from time to time that we get negative pricing on Octopus Agile so I think most people just load-shift rather than doing things that are too crazy.

Nice to get paid to charge my car though

 

[OCJeff]

Not sure what the issue is here, Netzero will make sure the API call is successful and then additionally retrieve settings to make sure the API changes were applied on the backend. But Tesla is then still responsible for getting these settings to your gateway, and there's no automated way of confirming that. I would still suggest looking at your gateway's network quality -- consider hardwiring or improving wifi proximity if possible. I'll also notify Tesla of this issue.

Thanks for the feedback. My issues may have been self inflicted since I noticed most of these issues started after I started modifying the “Charge on Grid” option and then disabling it in a number of later automations to ensure it was disabled.

I recall you saying that you should minimize the number of changes (or settings) for each automation. I think I was stacking too many changes per automation.

I’ve reduced the changes to one per automation, except one that is only functional with two and so far so good.

Thanks for the reply. I think just the PW doesn’t like too many changes pushed in a single command.

 

[robmw]

Hi,
I've been using the automation feature successfully to force export to grid from the battery for a limited period during my peak price hours, so as not to deplete the battery too much. The Tesla TOU op mode doesn't do such a great job of this for me, perhaps because of variable weather here in the UK and/or poor weather forecasting.

I do have to check the current SOC and local weather for the next day or two to decide when to enable the automations I have defined. It occurs to me that at least the battery SOC is available through the app so in theory that could be used to decide if the automation should be run. So if, say the battery is at greater than 90% charged, run the automation, otherwise do not.

I see that there is a 'Powerwall' section when setting up an automation (in addition to 'Time') which has a conditional test section for aspects of SOC, but what I would like is to be able to decide whether to run my time-based automation depending on SOC being above some level.

Is there a way for me to to do this with the existing automation features that I've not figured out or, if not, would it be possible to add this conditional test to 'Time' to decide if a time based automation should be run.

Aplogies if this has alreday been addressed in this discussion but there are a lot of items in the thread now!

Thanks

 

[offandonagain]

Is there a way for me to to do this with the existing automation features that I've not figured out or, if not, would it be possible to add this conditional test to 'Time' to decide if a time based automation should be run.

The app doesn't have a way to define advanced conditions like this. You'd have to write a script using the Developer Access option.

I think TBC generally does a good job at estimating solar generation, but it's important to properly set the utility rate plan (and sometimes tweak the rate plan to get the behavior you want). Are you on the Agile Octopus plan?

 

[robmw]

Thanks for getting back. I have been using TBC, particularly over the winter where it worked quite well with grid charging and limited solar production. I've found that I can actually make greater savings with self-powered overall when there is more solar available and setting a brief period to switch to TBC to export stored solar during my peak period. I'm on Octopus Flux which is a sort of averaged out Agile with reasonable fixed rates for low and peak periods - I have considered Flux though it seems to need a bit more ongoing effort on my part than I'm prepared for.

I've also played around with using both accurate utility rates and also some of the suggestions I've found here to tweak them in an attempt to force TBC behaviour.

To be honest, what I really need are accurate scripted weather forecasts for the next 2 days! That being the case the manual intervention of pausing and resuming my automations based on weather and SOC is probably the best way for me to keep going.

I'll take a look at the Developer Access stuff though. I'm not familiar with the scripting needed but I was a programmer for many years and still dabble from time to time so should be able to figure it out

 

[offandonagain]

I'm on Octopus Flux which is a sort of averaged out Agile with reasonable fixed rates for low and peak periods - I have considered Flux though it seems to need a bit more ongoing effort on my part than I'm prepared for.

Makes sense, I mentioned Agile just to make sure you're aware of Netzero's rate plan integration, which will keep the dynamic tariffs up to date.

To be honest, what I really need are accurate scripted weather forecasts for the next 2 days! That being the case the manual intervention of pausing and resuming my automations based on weather and SOC is probably the best way for me to keep going.

For weather API, look at OpenWeatherMap. That's what Netzero uses, and it's free for low-volume use.

 

[OCJeff]

It occurs to me that at least the battery SOC is available through the app so in theory that could be used to decide if the automation should be run. So if, say the battery is at greater than 90% charged, run the automation, otherwise do not

I sort of do this using the existing automations. I have an automation run when the charge level has hit 75% (while it’s charging during the day) that sets exports to “everything” for that day. At peak start I set mode to time based control (this will export everything - solar+PW at the start of peak). While the PW is depleting into the grid I have another automation that sets export to “Solar Only” once I hit 55% which saves me enough PW charged energy for the evening and well into the next morning. At the end of peak I have an automation to set mode back to self powered for the evening and repeat the process the next day.

If I don’t get to 75% then I’ll have more juice to carry over to the next day.

 

[OCJeff]

@offandonagain - Small UI bug I’ve noticed recently…

I’m on version 1.85 on iOS. This used to say History or something…

 

[offandonagain]

I’m on version 1.85 on iOS. This used to say History or something…

Thanks for the report, this crept in as part of translating the app and will be fixed in the next release.

 

[robmw]

I sort of do this using the existing automations. I have an automation run when the charge level has hit 75% (while it’s charging during the day) that sets exports to “everything” for that day. At peak start I set mode to time based control (this will export everything - solar+PW at the start of peak). While the PW is depleting into the grid I have another automation that sets export to “Solar Only” once I hit 55% which saves me enough PW charged energy for the evening and well into the next morning. At the end of peak I have an automation to set mode back to self powered for the evening and repeat the process the next day.

If I don’t get to 75% then I’ll have more juice to carry over to the next day.

Thanks for the suggestion, I can see that would achieve my goal. I hadn't thought about combining different automations like this.

 

[Planky]

Just got to say that I have been using the Netzero app on my iPad for a couple of weeks now and it is very useful!
I have set up a couple of automations to turn grid charging on and off depending on the Powerwall charge level and they are working perfectly.

I have left a positive review on the App Store.
Thanks for writing this app!

 

[miimura]

I tried to use the web app for the first time today and repeatedly got "error=missing_scope" after being directed to the Tesla login page and completing my login and permissions.

Edit: then I tried the iOS app and got a page that said "Error: missing required Profile or Energy Product permissions" I then hit the Retry link on that screen. I initially did not allow the Profile information, but the second time around, I did, but it still redirected me back to the Sign In page. One more login, then it worked. Quite a hassle.