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Oct 2019 electric utility power shutdowns in various parts of California

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BTW, a "true-sine" backup battery will keep your home network up. I have unit from CyberPower that works well. $120 or so.

I have had no issues in 4 power outages with our network remaining up.
The PowerWalls have worked quite well for us.

I appreciate the advice, but it's (probably) a more complicated issue than you think it is, and this has been a well-traveled and well-understood, yet frustrating, path for a number of Powerwall owners. It has to do with the AC line frequency and interactions between the Powerwalls, solar inverter, and commonly-available UPSs. Rather than try to explain it (which I probably would do poorly), I'm just going to point to the thread in the Tesla Energy forum where this has been discussed at length.

Powerwall 2 + UPS Connundrum - and solution

I owe that thread an update on some things I learned over the past few days.

Thanks,

Bruce.
 
I was a victim of PG&E PSPS. My house was listed as would be affected. Power went at 11:58 pm Wednesday (outage time was a moving target). It came back around 3 pm Thursday. I expected to be w/o power until at least sometime Friday.

No on the latter. But, I did buy a 1000 pure sine wave inverter a few months back and had tested out my setup. I used it all night (on my Bolt, I have no Tesla) from the time I got set up after the outage until I went to work the next morning.
 
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PG&E has said to expect this to happen again when we get strong winds although they are working to put in some type of device that will allow them to reduce the size of the outage area. Just heard this on a news story on KCBS radio today while in the car. Given the size of the outage this time, have to wonder how many of these devices will be needed. A lot of unnecessary homes/businesses were caught up in this. No one wants to see their area on fire but when it's not even near you and you lose power and all that goes with no electricity, something's very wrong with their infrastructure planning for emergencies like this.
 
I appreciate the advice, but it's (probably) a more complicated issue than you think it is,
Apologies for any misunderstanding. This all goes way over my head. All I was indicating is that this doesn't appear to be a universal issue, as I haven't been impacted. I certainly wasn't implying that this isn't affected anyone.
Thanks for the link :)
 
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New icons going up down the highways .. lol

power-generator-icon-16.png
 
Our "backup generator" has:
  • 327W solar
  • 232Ah 12V DC deep cycle "golf cart" batteries
  • 3.2kW Onan QuietDiesel generator with 25 gallon fuel tank (.3 gallons / hour @ ½ load and .4 gallons / hour @ full load)
  • dual thermostatically controlled ceiling vent fans
  • 15,000 BTU AC
  • 13,500 BTU LP heater
  • 32" 12V DC HDTV
  • 8+ USB outlets
  • USB-C laptop power supply that runs off 12V DC
  • shaded patio with wind sensor to auto retract
  • sleeping for 6
  • LP refrigerator / freezer that will run for weeks off large LP tank
  • LP range
  • microwave
  • bathroom
  • shower
  • kitchen sink
  • ability to relocate in < 5 minutes
Best "lifeboat" / temporary residence that doubles as an RV. :cool:

View attachment 465336

I'll call your 327 watts and 3.2K diesel and raise to 800 watts solar and 7.5 KW quiet diesel generator. Plus, its pulling an electric smart car. :)

Quite literally I think everybody in our town house community is counting on this thing to keep their fridges going if the power goes down for any length of time. There will probably be a lot of extension cords and power sharing involved. :)

25608885467_4005256274_c.jpg
 
I was a victim of PG&E PSPS. My house was listed as would be affected. Power went at 11:58 pm Wednesday (outage time was a moving target). It came back around 3 pm Thursday. I expected to be w/o power until at least sometime Friday.

No on the latter. But, I did buy a 1000 pure sine wave inverter a few months back and had tested out my setup. I used it all night (on my Bolt, I have no Tesla) from the time I got set up after the outage until I went to work the next morning.

I did the same thing for my critical power loads with a 750W inverter connected to the 12V power terminals under the nose cone.

The main Tesla Lithium 400V traction battery can keep the 12V charged for days if required due to an extended power outage. :cool:
 

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I did the same thing for my critical power loads with a 750W inverter connected to the 12V power terminals under the nose cone.

The main Tesla Lithium 400V traction battery can keep the 12V charged for days if required due to an extended power outage. :cool:
I've thought about doing this. Wasn't sure how much power you could draw from the 12v continuously. I think the 12v inverter can deliver 1000 or 2000 Watts.

Good to see this worked for you.
 
I've thought about doing this. Wasn't sure how much power you could draw from the 12v continuously. I think the 12v inverter can deliver 1000 or 2000 Watts.

Good to see this worked for you.
The Model S nosecone terminals have a separate fuse. I'm not sure of the value, but I seem to recall something like 50A. That's only about 600W. You would have to connect to the fatter terminals on the fuse box in a Model S to get more power than that. Refresh Model S has the 12V battery in a more accessible location, so connecting there would make sense.
 
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The Model S nosecone terminals have a separate fuse. I'm not sure of the value, but I seem to recall something like 50A. That's only about 600W. You would have to connect to the fatter terminals on the fuse box in a Model S to get more power than that. Refresh Model S has the 12V battery in a more accessible location, so connecting there would make sense.
I've never dug very far into my nosecone Model S to find the battery but that would be the best place to connect.
 
I'll call your 327 watts and 3.2K diesel and raise to 800 watts solar and 7.5 KW quiet diesel generator. Plus, its pulling an electric smart car. :)

Quite literally I think everybody in our town house community is counting on this thing to keep their fridges going if the power goes down for any length of time. There will probably be a lot of extension cords and power sharing involved. :)

25608885467_4005256274_c.jpg

My next door neighbor has an RV like this. I guess I should mention to him to pre-position it in his driveway, with the power outlet unlocked!
 
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The Model S nosecone terminals have a separate fuse. I'm not sure of the value, but I seem to recall something like 50A. That's only about 600W. You would have to connect to the fatter terminals on the fuse box in a Model S to get more power than that. Refresh Model S has the 12V battery in a more accessible location, so connecting there would make sense.

Correct, the nosecone terminals have a 50A fuse with 600 Watts maximum.

If you want more, connect directly to the battery with 2500W maximum. :cool:
 

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My Feb 2015 nosecone has a different fusebox.
Battery is presumably buried deep behind these.
(BTW, I still have the original 12v battery. They must have fixed the problems with the early ones. Fingers crossed to see how long it lasts.)

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