I would get someone from fiverr.com to run your configuration through Aurora or Helioscope. Having so many panels on your North roof might not be as useful and you could probably go with a smaller installation and upgrade your south facing panels a few years from now.
-
Want to remove ads? Register an account and login to see fewer ads, and become a Supporting Member to remove almost all ads.
Post Your Tesla Solar Layout
- Thread starter pdx_m3s
- Start date
Yes I noticed it but wanted to get project rolling so I approved the plan. I guess when they come for survey I can still ask them to move the panels, right? would that add a lot of delay?
SoCal Dave
Member
My survey guy who came out said he is just there to take photos and report back to the engineers. He agreed my layout didn't make a lot of sense, but he couldn't change it.
okay thanks. How long did it take for survey guy to come out after you placed the order?
SoCal Dave
Member
I placed my order on 6/29. The survey guy came out about a week later.
I did, but my home may be different. Natural gas water heating and furnace. My big power draws are the EV charging, oven and AC. Not much else but a dryer that I will eventually upgrade to natural gas. I am also not in a outage prone area, so my main focus is reducing or eliminating my peak hours usage from the power company.
can the backup be switched back and forth from whole to partial and back using the app? That way we can test which one works best.
Not as far as I know. Whole house versus partial loads is a wiring and box change. They have to segregate the backed up loads from the rest of the house in partial/critical loads.
Or by app are you talking about the ordering web site?
ok...no I meant the mobile app. Also I don't have a well pump not sure why its on my backup list ..LOL
From the Tesla mobil app the answer is no since it is wired on way.
And maybe you do have a well and did not know it.
But, you might check your panel and see if there is something label well pump. It's probably just be a generic thing they put under the essential backup up items since you always want water.
Last edited:
Tesla wants simple installs with big groups of panels. It is one way they keep the price so low since they are fast to install. If you have a lot of different south, east, west roof planes that require putting a few panels here and a few panels there, they will opt for putting more on a north facing plane instead. Also there are clearance issues to edges and peaks required by various codes.
Last edited:
Much like other posters have stated, nope. I am visual, so this helped me. How the gateway is wired will determine how much is backed up. Do you have more than one breaker panel on your home? If so, both would have to be behind the gateway for backup.
The thing I find interesting about those diagrams (which does not contract your point regarding backup loads in any way) is the way they show the inverter and PW feeding directly into the panel. The way our system is diagrammed, both the PW and Solar are routed into the gateway, along with grid power (but the PW and solar are on the panel side of the service disconnect) and then the gateway feeds to the main panel. So, in the first diagram, I would expect to see the PW and inverter lines drawn to the gateway, with the main panel sitting below the gateway with a single line from the gateway.
Electrically the powerwalls and the solar and the critical loads panel are on the same circuit. There are two sets of lugs in the gateway on the same circuit, so there can be a generation panel and a critical loads panel, but it’s really just one big circuit.
Right - just pointing out that it actually happens within the gateway, which to me causes a bit of confusion with those diagrams, as they make it look like I should expect 3 sets of cables running into my breaker box, for solar, PWs, and grid. When I had first seen that (or a similar) diagram prior to ordering, it seemed not to make sense compared to what they were describing for the layout, until I saw the three line diagram from Tesla, which made everything much more clear.
The solar and Powerwalls can only be fed directly to the Gateway if it's the newer Gateway 2 box that has an internal breaker sub-panel inside. The diagrams a more accurate for the original Tesla Backup Gateway that must use a separate breaker panel.
And it may be case-by-case how they do it, but with the Gateway 1 box, the flow for us is from inverter and PW to a dedicated breaker box (40A for the solar and 30A x2 for the PWs) and then outside to the fireman's disconnect box, then back into the gateway 1 box (on the load side of the disconnect) and then into the main panel/load center.
If the gateway has to be between the meter and main panel for whole home backup, how do they do that if you service panel and meter are combined??
Or does GW2 solve this? I was really hoping to do my solar and two powerwalls through a 100 amp feeder on my main power and still have whole home backup. It shouldn't matter where the GW is as long as it can generate the 60Hz sync to keep the inverter online while the sun is shining, right?
Or does GW2 solve this? I was really hoping to do my solar and two powerwalls through a 100 amp feeder on my main power and still have whole home backup. It shouldn't matter where the GW is as long as it can generate the 60Hz sync to keep the inverter online while the sun is shining, right?
The Gateway absolutely needs to be between the meter and all backed up loads, because one of the functions of the gateway is to isolate your house from the utility in the event of a utility power failure. That way you won’t backfeed power to the utility lines while they are working on the lines trying to restore power.
If your meter and main panel are one unit then all of the backed up circuits will need to be moved to a new panel. Then they will feed the gateway from your existing main panel. If you are backing up everything, then the gateway would be the only thing in the old main panel, or if you are only backing up some loads then the non backed up loads would remain in the old panel. Alternately, depending on whether they can feed 200A from your existing main panel they may just wind up replacing it entirely.
But this is a common situation and tesla will plan for it when they see the photos of your panel from your home survey.
Similar threads
- Question
