New Tesla 15.12kW Solar / 4 Powerwall order in Orlando

[BrettS]

That’s interesting. I definitely didn’t see any frequency changes until I got to over 98% full. (I say over 98% because it didn’t happen as soon as it went to 98%, but rather after it switched to 98% and then continued charging for another 5 or 10 minutes.

I suppose it’s also possible that there has been a firmware change since the last time you tested a year ago. If you decide to test again let us know what you see.

 

[BrettS]

Well, it’s dark now, so I can post the graph of my first day’s solar generation.

Overall I’m pretty happy with more than 73kWh generated. The morning was mostly sunny with a few clouds here and there (you can see a few dips in the graph in the morning, but in the afternoon there were definitely a lot more clouds. Additionally, the powerwalls hit 100% a little after four and since I’m off grid the gateway started cycling the inverters off since there was nowhere to send the excess power. So without the clouds and if the inverters were able to stay on all the time I think I probably could hit 80kWh on a good day.

I had unplugged my car during this off grid test because I don’t think I’ll really have enough power to sustain my house and charge the car, but now that I think about it I should have plugged the car in once the powerwalls reached 100% so I could have sent that extra power to the car instead of just letting it shut off the inverters and waste it. I guess if I wind up in the same situation tomorrow I can plug the car in for a bit.

 

[mongo]

Well, it’s dark now, so I can post the graph of my first day’s solar generation.

View attachment 556018

Overall I’m pretty happy with more than 73kWh generated. The morning was mostly sunny with a few clouds here and there (you can see a few dips in the graph in the morning, but in the afternoon there were definitely a lot more clouds. Additionally, the powerwalls hit 100% a little after four and since I’m off grid the gateway started cycling the inverters off since there was nowhere to send the excess power. So without the clouds and if the inverters were able to stay on all the time I think I probably could hit 80kWh on a good day.

I had unplugged my car during this off grid test because I don’t think I’ll really have enough power to sustain my house and charge the car, but now that I think about it I should have plugged the car in once the powerwalls reached 100% so I could have sent that extra power to the car instead of just letting it shut off the inverters and waste it. I guess if I wind up in the same situation tomorrow I can plug the car in for a bit.

Plus, you can set the car to a low charge rate to make it a lighter load.

 

[Dare]

I have the same 15.12kw system, installed April 7 in Winter Garden, FL. Still waiting on PTO from Duke. I haven’t heard anything from Tesla regarding Powerwall installation (2 ordered) yet. But I haven’t gotten a bill yet for anything so I’m not worried about it.

I had the same experience, everything was very professional, great crew etc. Initially it failed inspection because an incorrect breaker size was installed between the inverters and the main box but it was corrected the next day and passed inspection a few days later.

The million dollar insurance policy is essentially a tax to dissuade people from solar. It’s annoying and I hope people will complain to their state legislators to have the requirement removed.

 

[SRZRAD]

I have the same 15.12kw system, installed April 7 in Winter Garden, FL. Still waiting on PTO from Duke. I haven’t heard anything from Tesla regarding Powerwall installation (2 ordered) yet. But I haven’t gotten a bill yet for anything so I’m not worried about it.

I had the same experience, everything was very professional, great crew etc. Initially it failed inspection because an incorrect breaker size was installed between the inverters and the main box but it was corrected the next day and passed inspection a few days later.

The million dollar insurance policy is essentially a tax to dissuade people from solar. It’s annoying and I hope people will complain to their state legislators to have the requirement removed.

I doubt trying to convince Florida state legislators to have utility companies drop the insurance policy requirement will end up being successful - most elected officials are happy recipients of donations to their election/re-election campaigns from those very utility companies and utility interest groups...

 

[BrettS]

The million dollar insurance policy is essentially a tax to dissuade people from solar. It’s annoying and I hope people will complain to their state legislators to have the requirement removed.

I’m not really sure that’s the case. I think the problem is that the tier sizes are kind of out of line with reality right now.

A tier one system is less than 10kW, has no application fee and no insurance requirement. This is really what is meant for homeowners.

A tier two system is a system from 10kW to 100kW which is a huge range. It has a $200 application fee and a million dollar insurance requirement. I think this is meant for companies like walmart that might have a large solar array on their roof and that type of company would probably have a huge insurance policy anyway, and I can see them wanting more insurance for someone generating 100kW of electricity... that’s a lot of power.

A tier three system is a system between 100kW and 2000kW. It has a $750 application fee and a two million dollar insurance requirement. I’m sure that’s meant for someone setting up a big solar farm.

I think the problem is that when this system was introduced there were very few people, if anyone putting more than 10kW of solar on their house. But now it’s pretty common. They really need to just raise the tier one limits to maybe 15 or 20kW.

 

[mongo]

A tier two system is a system from 10kW to 100kW which is a huge range. It has a $200 application fee and a million dollar insurance requirement. I think this is meant for companies like walmart that might have a large solar array on their roof and that type of company would probably have a huge insurance policy anyway, and I can see them wanting more insurance for someone generating 100kW of electricity... that’s a lot of power.

I ran some numbers for grins.
Wall-Mart stores are 30,000 - 206,000 square feet
A 310 Watt panel is 21 sqft
A 100kW requires 323 panels at a total area of ~6,800 sqft
So 20% coverage on the smallest store is the limit for tier 2.

Tesla's commercial offerings Design your Solar system come in 40, 120 and 240 kW sizes.

Residential power feeds are 200 Amp (160A continuous) which is 38.4kW.
So it seems like the tier breaks should be more like 40kW and 500 kW.

(Does Tesla have a large transfer switch? If so, the 40kW with a Powerpack would be sort of interesting)

 

[cccheel34]

I have the same 15.12kw system, installed April 7 in Winter Garden, FL. Still waiting on PTO from Duke. I haven’t heard anything from Tesla regarding Powerwall installation (2 ordered) yet. But I haven’t gotten a bill yet for anything so I’m not worried about it.

I had the same experience, everything was very professional, great crew etc. Initially it failed inspection because an incorrect breaker size was installed between the inverters and the main box but it was corrected the next day and passed inspection a few days later.

The million dollar insurance policy is essentially a tax to dissuade people from solar. It’s annoying and I hope people will complain to their state legislators to have the requirement removed.

How much extra did it add to your homeowner's policy?

 

[SMAlset]

I’m not really sure that’s the case. I think the problem is that the tier sizes are kind of out of line with reality right now.

A tier one system is less than 10kW, has no application fee and no insurance requirement. This is really what is meant for homeowners.

A tier two system is a system from 10kW to 100kW which is a huge range. It has a $200 application fee and a million dollar insurance requirement. I think this is meant for companies like walmart that might have a large solar array on their roof and that type of company would probably have a huge insurance policy anyway, and I can see them wanting more insurance for someone generating 100kW of electricity... that’s a lot of power.

A tier three system is a system between 100kW and 2000kW. It has a $750 application fee and a two million dollar insurance requirement. I’m sure that’s meant for someone setting up a big solar farm.

I think the problem is that when this system was introduced there were very few people, if anyone putting more than 10kW of solar on their house. But now it’s pretty common. They really need to just raise the tier one limits to maybe 15 or 20kW.

Interesting read as this is not something PG&E requires out here on the other coast. Sounds like with so many big homes in Florida, your hot and humid temps (when you might want AC most of the year) and more EVs being driven, the insurance requirements and fees should be changed for residential use on systems larger than 10kW.

 

[Dare]

How much extra did it add to your homeowner's policy?

I added an umbrella policy which was $450.

 

[mstgkillr]

To increase my homeowners liability coverage from $300,000 to $1,000,000 was only an extra $40 annually.

 

[mattnis]

I placed an “order” with Tesla for a 15.12kW solar system with 4 powerwalls and paid my $100 on 4/23. I have been kind of dragging my feet with them as far as approving and signing documents because I wanted to get a few additional quotes before I totally committed to Tesla. Today I finally decided that I’m ready to commit and I officially signed all the documents and got the process started.

In the end I decided that the solar portion was very competitive with the other quotes I got and Tesla was offering the powerwalls for close to half the price that I could get them anywhere else, overall the cost of the whole system was thousands of dollars less than any other quote.

This is the timeline they gave me. I’m not sure how accurate this will be...

1-2 weeks for permitting
1-2 weeks to for the install
6-7 weeks for inspection and PTO

If anyone is interested I’ll keep this thread updated with the process.

umm. Congratulations?

 

[mstgkillr]

Well, it’s dark now, so I can post the graph of my first day’s solar generation.

View attachment 556018

Overall I’m pretty happy with more than 73kWh generated. The morning was mostly sunny with a few clouds here and there (you can see a few dips in the graph in the morning, but in the afternoon there were definitely a lot more clouds. Additionally, the powerwalls hit 100% a little after four and since I’m off grid the gateway started cycling the inverters off since there was nowhere to send the excess power. So without the clouds and if the inverters were able to stay on all the time I think I probably could hit 80kWh on a good day.

I had unplugged my car during this off grid test because I don’t think I’ll really have enough power to sustain my house and charge the car, but now that I think about it I should have plugged the car in once the powerwalls reached 100% so I could have sent that extra power to the car instead of just letting it shut off the inverters and waste it. I guess if I wind up in the same situation tomorrow I can plug the car in for a bit.

How much did you produce yesterday... and today?

 

[BrettS]

Yesterday was almost the same as Wednesday:

Today isn’t quite over yet, but so far I’m at 66.5kWh. I suspect it’s going to be a little lower today than the past two days at least partially because of the Sahara desert dust that’s starting to hit Florida. The sky has been quite hazy all day today and I suspect that’s affecting production to some extent.

 

[mattnis]

They really should have offered a 9.9KW system to stay under the 10KW federal incentive requirement.

I’m not really sure that’s the case. I think the problem is that the tier sizes are kind of out of line with reality right now.

A tier one system is less than 10kW, has no application fee and no insurance requirement. This is really what is meant for homeowners.

A tier two system is a system from 10kW to 100kW which is a huge range. It has a $200 application fee and a million dollar insurance requirement. I think this is meant for companies like walmart that might have a large solar array on their roof and that type of company would probably have a huge insurance policy anyway, and I can see them wanting more insurance for someone generating 100kW of electricity... that’s a lot of power.

A tier three system is a system between 100kW and 2000kW. It has a $750 application fee and a two million dollar insurance requirement. I’m sure that’s meant for someone setting up a big solar farm.

I think the problem is that when this system was introduced there were very few people, if anyone putting more than 10kW of solar on their house. But now it’s pretty common. They really need to just raise the tier one limits to maybe 15 or 20kW.

 

[willow_hiller]

They really should have offered a 9.9KW system to stay under the 10KW federal incentive requirement.

Do you mean state incentive requirement? I don't know of any Federal incentive that requires a system under 10 kW.

 

[mstgkillr]

Do you mind posting your energy use for the entire day and how much you use from the Powerwalls? You mentioned that you are going from 100% to 40% with the Powerwalls. I assume without EV charging that we are probably close to the same use.

 

[BrettS]

Do you mind posting your energy use for the entire day and how much you use from the Powerwalls? You mentioned that you are going from 100% to 40% with the Powerwalls. I assume without EV charging that we are probably close to the same use.

Sure, here’s the graph for Wednesday. This was the day I went off grid, so my house was powered by the grid until about 8AM, then I turned off the breaker. My home usage was 75.5kWh, Solar Energy was 73.3kWh, and it took 19.3kWh from the powerwalls.

Here is yesterday where I was off grid all day. My home usage here was 67.2kWh, the solar generated 72.3kWh and it took 31.7kWh from the powerwalls.

And here’s so far today. My house has used 55.1kWh, the solar has generated 71.8kWh (it did better than I thought it was going to when I posted the graph above), and I’ve taken 20.4kWh from the powerwalls.

If you want me to post the home usage/solar generation/powerwall usage graphs individually, instead of all three things on top of each other, let me know and I can do that.

 

[mstgkillr]

Thanks for the info! Well, that just about confirms my choice (16.32 kW with 4 Powerwalls). Yesterday, I used 90 kWH of energy and we are close enough where the energy production should be similar. Although my average use is less than yours, you didn't charge your EV, so it appears that without the EV, I actually might use more energy than you.

It's probably because I keep my house at 74* all day, even with the 4-ton 21 SEER variable drive A/C, which was at 100% yesterday to keep up. It was miserably hot!

 

[mongo]

Thanks for the info! Well, that just about confirms my choice (16.32 kW with 4 Powerwalls). Yesterday, I used 90 kWH of energy and we are close enough where the energy production should be similar. Although my average use is less than yours, you didn't charge your EV, so it appears that without the EV, I actually might use more energy than you.

It's probably because I keep my house at 74* all day, even with the 4-ton 21 SEER variable drive A/C, which was at 100% yesterday to keep up. It was miserably hot!

You might get more cooling if you add a water mister on the outdoor condenser.