Northern California PW installs BUMPED to 2020!!

[charlesj]

t.... the permit should be good for 180 days so it looks like i've got till june to get it done.

Or, I bet work started with a progress inspection. I built my house like that.
Building have been started on Cannery Row in town and went on for many years with hardly any visible progress.
Code didn't define how much progress is needed between the 6 mo. inspections.

 

[wwhitney]

I managed to excerpt Section 102.5 of the 2019 CFC:

102.5 Application of residential code. Where structures are designed and constructed in accordance with the California Residential Code, the provisions of this code shall apply as follows:
1. Construction and design provisions of this code pertaining to the exterior of the structure shall apply including, but not limited to, premises identification, fire apparatus access and water supplies. Where interior or exterior systems or devices are installed, construction permits required by Section 105.7 shall apply.
2. Administrative, operational and maintenance provisions of this code shall apply.

Section 105.7 does require a construction permit for a battery storage system, but I take the language above to mean only that the CFC requires the permit, not that the CFC Chapter 12 requirements apply to that battery storage system.

Cheers, Wayne

 

[Amit519]

I had my 2 PW install scheduled for next week.
I worked my butt off pushing my project along through the crappy tesla communication and customer service.
I worked with my city building department to expedite my permit so that I could get installed by the end of the year.

Tesla called me 2 days ago and told me they have to reschedule me for a date in January. After a bunch of back and forth they are saying its because of the a death in the family of the ONLY electrician in the Livermore warehouse that does PW installs and that they are rescheduling ALL of the Northern California PW installs until after the new year, which sounds like BS from the "executive resolution" person that it got escalated to. They only offered me $500 off which doesn't cover the difference in tax rebate not to mention I wouldn't be able to claim in for another year.

I'm about the just cancel the project because it doesn't make financial sense to pay MORE because of an internal Tesla issue. PLUS Tesla is not taking any responsibility to try remedy the situation

I love the Tesla product but their customer service people and management is horrible.

Has anyone else in Northern California heard the same thing or also got bumped? Did Tesla offer you anything?
I seem to remember reading a post saying that someone got Tesla to discount the price to compensate for the reduced tax credit amount if they didn't install by the end of the year?

August 27th Solar and 4 powerwall order, permits in file as of dec 7th, now scheduled for jan 9th installation. will miss tax credit by 9 days (barring inspection delay). Really upset as the 4% tax credit difference in my project is worth over $3,500. Who should I escalate this to? I too, diligently signed e ery form they asked on time, only to be delayed at the last minute. I'm thinking it wouldnt he a bad idea to cancel entirely amd revisit in june/july 2020, who knows, maybe the system will cost less upfront by then and the tax credit will be the same 26% anyway.

 

[JayClark]

August 27th Solar and 4 powerwall order, permits in file as of dec 7th, now scheduled for jan 9th installation. will miss tax credit by 9 days (barring inspection delay). Really upset as the 4% tax credit difference in my project is worth over $3,500. Who should I escalate this to? I too, diligently signed e ery form they asked on time, only to be delayed at the last minute. I'm thinking it wouldnt he a bad idea to cancel entirely amd revisit in june/july 2020, who knows, maybe the system will cost less upfront by then and the tax credit will be the same 26% anyway.

My experience with Tesla is that in terms of timing, or rushing the timing of this stuff, there truly is no where to escalate for this unless your install coordinator contact and/or local installation team leads are (for what ever reason) willing to bump you up by bumping somebody else out - not cool either, and a no-win situation for somebody no matter what. I'm guessing thousands of people are in the same boat as you in terms of being pushed into next year for one reason or another and missing the full rebate for 2019 as everybody tried to squeeze in an install for the 2nd half of the year, even if signed up earlier in the year. I signed up for a system in May and it wasn't installed and commissioned until basically October 1st, and I would imagine the "crunch" of install requests just increased progressively through the year increasing the wait time correspondingly.

 

[JPP]

My experience with Tesla is that in terms of timing, or rushing the timing of this stuff, there truly is no where to escalate for this unless your install coordinator contact and/or local installation team leads are (for what ever reason) willing to bump you up by bumping somebody else out - not cool either, and a no-win situation for somebody no matter what. I'm guessing thousands of people are in the same boat as you in terms of being pushed into next year for one reason or another and missing the full rebate for 2019 as everybody tried to squeeze in an install for the 2nd half of the year, even if signed up earlier in the year. I signed up for a system in May and it wasn't installed and commissioned until basically October 1st, and I would imagine the "crunch" of install requests just increased progressively through the year increasing the wait time correspondingly.

...and if you think that the NoCA queue is bad now, wait a bit. The pipeline is chock full of PG&E PSPS victims now making the move. I would bet that there will be a 6+ month backlog into 2020.

 

[TheTalkingMule]

Used mostly for large utility scale projects, but I believe you can claim the tax credit in 2019 if 5% or more of the effort(expense) is expended in 2019. Not that you'd have any luck trying to do this with Tesla customer service, but.....you could tell them you want to drop a deposit of 5% to hold your 2019 "project start" date.

 

[ElectricRed]

Another data point for the Bay Area. Permit issued on 12/9 to add two Powerwalls. The next available installation date is Feb 13, 2020.

 

[astrorob]

Another data point for the Bay Area. Permit issued on 12/9 to add two Powerwalls. The next available installation date is Feb 13, 2020.

sheesh, that's the same date they supposedly gave me (via text) last saturday morning. at any rate i called them to confirm (for some reason my account page is asking me to schedule the install) and they say it's on for the 13th.

 

[jboy210]

My experience with Tesla is that in terms of timing, or rushing the timing of this stuff, there truly is no where to escalate for this unless your install coordinator contact and/or local installation team leads are (for what ever reason) willing to bump you up by bumping somebody else out - not cool either, and a no-win situation for somebody no matter what. I'm guessing thousands of people are in the same boat as you in terms of being pushed into next year for one reason or another and missing the full rebate for 2019 as everybody tried to squeeze in an install for the 2nd half of the year, even if signed up earlier in the year. I signed up for a system in May and it wasn't installed and commissioned until basically October 1st, and I would imagine the "crunch" of install requests just increased progressively through the year increasing the wait time correspondingly.

It is not just Tesla. Another company I talked to said after August 2019 you were looking at second quarter 2020 for an install.

 

[charlesj]

.... I'm thinking it wouldnt he a bad idea to cancel entirely amd revisit in june/july 2020, who knows, maybe the system will cost less upfront by then and the tax credit will be the same 26% anyway.

The tax credit is guaranteed to stay at 26% for 2020.
The rest is a gamble.

If you wait to Jun/Jul hopefully it will be installed before the end of year 2020.

 

[Braxus]

Used mostly for large utility scale projects, but I believe you can claim the tax credit in 2019 if 5% or more of the effort(expense) is expended in 2019. Not that you'd have any luck trying to do this with Tesla customer service, but.....you could tell them you want to drop a deposit of 5% to hold your 2019 "project start" date.

Unfortunately, as you kind of eluded to, this is only for commercial installations. For residential, it has to be operation by year end.

 

[roblab]

I had my 2 PW install scheduled for next week.
I worked my butt off pushing my project along through the crappy tesla communication and customer service.
I worked with my city building department to expedite my permit so that I could get installed by the end of the year.

Yes, my install got put off, and no, Tesla did not offer to recompense me, nor did the thought ever enter my mind. Having been a Tesla owner since 2012, I understand a lot about where they are coming from, and I decided years ago that I was here to support them. So, seven years later, I have two GREAT cars and three GREAT power storage units that effectively got me through a three-day and a five-day power outage with no hardship, recharging each day from my solar panels.

Your problem seems to me is that you feel your are entitled to something. Sure, you worked your butt off. But sometimes things just don't line up. I seem to have that happen to me quite often, like today I wanted to eat a Subway, but my wifey insisted we didn't need to go to town until Thursday. After YEARS of happy marriage, I just let it go. She says she'll make my favorite dessert next week, and I, being a pig, will eat 80% of it. There are good things and bad things, but after 75 years I've learned that's just life.

 

[jboy210]

Yes, my install got put off, and no, Tesla did not offer to recompense me, nor did the thought ever enter my mind. Having been a Tesla owner since 2012, I understand a lot about where they are coming from, and I decided years ago that I was here to support them. So, seven years later, I have two GREAT cars and three GREAT power storage units that effectively got me through a three-day and a five-day power outage with no hardship, recharging each day from my solar panels.

Your problem seems to me is that you feel your are entitled to something. Sure, you worked your butt off. But sometimes things just don't line up. I seem to have that happen to me quite often, like today I wanted to eat a Subway, but my wifey insisted we didn't need to go to town until Thursday. After YEARS of happy marriage, I just let it go. She says she'll make my favorite dessert next week, and I, being a pig, will eat 80% of it. There are good things and bad things, but after 75 years I've learned that's just life.

I be in Angwin these fires have really affected your power.

 

[Ulmo]

I just investigated battery storage to have some blackout resilience, and if you want to have backup power when the grid is down, the only two options right now seem to be the PowerWall and Sonnen. From what I could tell, the LG batteries could discharge during a blackout, but they could not charge from solar while the grid was down - though not 100% sure on that, could never get a concrete answer one way or another.

I don't see why LG wouldn't let that happen as long as they have the proper high speed transfer switch installed. Do they not have inverters that do that? Check the specs on the StorEdge; I thought StorEdge did that, but I could be wrong.

 

[Ulmo]

I had my 2 PW install scheduled for next week.
I worked my butt off pushing my project along through the crappy tesla communication and customer service.
I worked with my city building department to expedite my permit so that I could get installed by the end of the year.

Tesla called me 2 days ago and told me they have to reschedule me for a date in January. After a bunch of back and forth they are saying its because of the a death in the family of the ONLY electrician in the Livermore warehouse that does PW installs and that they are rescheduling ALL of the Northern California PW installs until after the new year, which sounds like BS from the "executive resolution" person that it got escalated to. They only offered me $500 off which doesn't cover the difference in tax rebate not to mention I wouldn't be able to claim in for another year.

I'm about the just cancel the project because it doesn't make financial sense to pay MORE because of an internal Tesla issue. PLUS Tesla is not taking any responsibility to try remedy the situation

I love the Tesla product but their customer service people and management is horrible.

Has anyone else in Northern California heard the same thing or also got bumped? Did Tesla offer you anything?
I seem to remember reading a post saying that someone got Tesla to discount the price to compensate for the reduced tax credit amount if they didn't install by the end of the year?

I wanted to be an installer for them, but between the arcane licensing rules of California and the arcane hiring practices of Tesla (which I applied to 3 times), no, NOPE, I can't help you.

 

[Ulmo]

Yes, my install got put off, and no, Tesla did not offer to recompense me, nor did the thought ever enter my mind. Having been a Tesla owner since 2012, I understand a lot about where they are coming from, and I decided years ago that I was here to support them. So, seven years later, I have two GREAT cars and three GREAT power storage units that effectively got me through a three-day and a five-day power outage with no hardship, recharging each day from my solar panels.

Your problem seems to me is that you feel your are entitled to something. Sure, you worked your butt off. But sometimes things just don't line up. I seem to have that happen to me quite often, like today I wanted to eat a Subway, but my wifey insisted we didn't need to go to town until Thursday. After YEARS of happy marriage, I just let it go. She says she'll make my favorite dessert next week, and I, being a pig, will eat 80% of it. There are good things and bad things, but after 75 years I've learned that's just life.

Some of us are used to living in a First World country and want to live with First World problems and solutions, and don't ever remember a time when PG&E was so unreliable, so we do what we can to fix that on our own. It's not "an excessive feeling of entitlement": it is us putting in the work and expecting the results. If we can't do that, then we live in a monarchy that has to be overthrown.

 

[charlesj]

August 27th Solar and 4 powerwall order, permits in file as of dec 7th, now scheduled for jan 9th installation. will miss tax credit by 9 days (barring inspection delay). Really upset as the 4% tax credit difference in my project is worth over $3,500. Who should I escalate this to? I too, diligently signed e ery form they asked on time, only to be delayed at the last minute. I'm thinking it wouldnt he a bad idea to cancel entirely amd revisit in june/july 2020, who knows, maybe the system will cost less upfront by then and the tax credit will be the same 26% anyway.

Also another consideration to do it earlier in 2020. That is if it takes some time, you may be missing the best months to fully charge the batteries and your needs may be lower than later in the year.

 

[Amit519]

Also another consideration to do it earlier in 2020. That is if it takes some time, you may be missing the best months to fully charge the batteries and your needs may be lower than later in the year.

Agreed.

 

[aesculus]

Also another consideration to do it earlier in 2020. That is if it takes some time, you may be missing the best months to fully charge the batteries and your needs may be lower than later in the year.

Wouldn't one storm watch event that powered the batteries to 100% take care of this or am I missing the point?

 

[charlesj]

Wouldn't one storm watch event that powered the batteries to 100% take care of this or am I missing the point?

Probably not. He has 4 PW to charge. Don't know his solar size nor his consumption, nor how much power the house needs no matter what or his intentions on setup. But, weather later in the year may prolong the charge time, no?
And, if no storm watch, just lousy weather, 54kW of storage takes a while.