Parallel Systems

[SaloonGoon]

Afternoon:

I bought a new home in 2019, and it came with a ten panel system (not sure of the kWh output), currently managed by Sunnova. I want to expand, but would prefer to buy Tesla products. Can the two systems run in parallel? Can Tesla integrate the Sunnova hardware into their circuitry?

Thanks!

 

[jjrandorin]

You can buy another system and put it on your roof. They dont "integrate together" but they both can provide electricity to your home (and charge a battery system).

I think @arnolddeleon might have a home with 3 separate systems on it, but I could be mis remembering that. Several people here have 2 separate systems on their homes though. Any PV company can do it.

Actually, thats all they WILL do, if you want to get more solar on that home. No one is going to add anything to the existing installation, they are going to do all new. It still provides electricity to your home, though.

 

[SaloonGoon]

Tremendous. Thanks for the feedback.

 

[arnolddeleon]

You can buy another system and put it on your roof. They dont "integrate together" but they both can provide electricity to your home (and charge a battery system).

I think @arnolddeleon might have a home with 3 separate systems on it, but I could be mis remembering that. Several people here have 2 separate systems on their homes though. Any PV company can do it.

Actually, thats all they WILL do, if you want to get more solar on that home. No one is going to add anything to the existing installation, they are going to do all new. It still provides electricity to your home, though.

Yep, three different systems. Two are Tesla/Solar City and the original one was local company.

10 kW solar, 2.5 kW Solar City. When Tesla acquired SolarCity the 2.5 kW solar was the first product in my app. Then we added two Powerwalls. From the Powerwall section in the app I could see the Powerwalls and the total production of the two PV systems combined plus I still had access to the just the PV production of the 2.5 kW Solar City system. The last addition was most interesting, it added another Powerwall and another PV system, this time with Tesla solar inverters. The Tesla solar inverters send production data back to the mothership. Interestingly even though it was a new order I still haven't been able to get Tesla to show me the PV production of the new system separately. The Powerwall setup in my app now shows 3 Powerwalls and the total PV production of the three systems added together. I can still see the production of the 2.5 kW system separately if I want but not the new 4 kW one. I do have separate monitoring on all of them outside of the Tesla app so I can monitor/troubleshoot each system separately.

 

[SaloonGoon]

Yep, three different systems. Two are Tesla/Solar City and the original one was local company.

10 kW solar, 2.5 kW Solar City. When Tesla acquired SolarCity the 2.5 kW solar was the first product in my app. Then we added two Powerwalls. From the Powerwall section in the app I could see the Powerwalls and the total production of the two PV systems combined plus I still had access to the just the PV production of the 2.5 kW Solar City system. The last addition was most interesting, it added another Powerwall and another PV system, this time with Tesla solar inverters. The Tesla solar inverters send production data back to the mothership. Interestingly even though it was a new order I still haven't been able to get Tesla to show me the PV production of the new system separately. The Powerwall setup in my app now shows 3 Powerwalls and the total PV production of the three systems added together. I can still see the production of the 2.5 kW system separately if I want but not the new 4 kW one. I do have separate monitoring on all of them outside of the Tesla app so I can monitor/troubleshoot each system separately.

Awesome info!! Thank you for the extended response.

 

[tfan2018]

Yep, three different systems. Two are Tesla/Solar City and the original one was local company.

10 kW solar, 2.5 kW Solar City. When Tesla acquired SolarCity the 2.5 kW solar was the first product in my app. Then we added two Powerwalls. From the Powerwall section in the app I could see the Powerwalls and the total production of the two PV systems combined plus I still had access to the just the PV production of the 2.5 kW Solar City system. The last addition was most interesting, it added another Powerwall and another PV system, this time with Tesla solar inverters. The Tesla solar inverters send production data back to the mothership. Interestingly even though it was a new order I still haven't been able to get Tesla to show me the PV production of the new system separately. The Powerwall setup in my app now shows 3 Powerwalls and the total PV production of the three systems added together. I can still see the production of the 2.5 kW system separately if I want but not the new 4 kW one. I do have separate monitoring on all of them outside of the Tesla app so I can monitor/troubleshoot each system separately.

Do all the systems charge the powerwalls together or independently by the solar system that was installed with the powerwall?

 

[arnolddeleon]

Do all the systems charge the powerwalls together or independently by the solar system that was installed with the powerwall?

The Powerwalls behaves as it if was I have a single PV system. I'm pretty the newest system responds to the frequency shift to reduce power production during off grid operational whereas the two older systems are binary, they are either on or off.

 

[SilverSp33d3r]

The Powerwalls behaves as it if was I have a single PV system. I'm pretty the newest system responds to the frequency shift to reduce power production during off grid operational whereas the two older systems are binary, they are either on or off.

Is this all interconnected in a gateway2 unit? I currently have two powerwall plus units connected to 12.24 kW and a gateway2 for whole home backup. There is an additional slot open in the gateway where my Powerwall+s are connected. I”m looking to add an inherited 2.5kW system to my existing system and want to see if I can have the gateway view this production as well.

 

[arnolddeleon]

Is this all interconnected in a gateway2 unit? I currently have two powerwall plus units connected to 12.24 kW and a gateway2 for whole home backup. There is an additional slot open in the gateway where my Powerwall+s are connected. I”m looking to add an inherited 2.5kW system to my existing system and want to see if I can have the gateway view this production as well.

I have a gateway 1 but yes they are all behind it and the display in the powerwall app displays the *sum* of all my three PV systems.