Power usage of the new gateway

[CWhite]

Hello all, went on vacation and noticed a change in how the house consumes power. Recently added more panels and another Powerwall. They replaced the old gateway, I do notice the new gateway has a fan noise during the day the old one(circa 2017) never did. Use to be when we left the house the power draw was flat, small spikes of the refrigerator cycling. Now the power usage starts going up at sunrise peaking at Solar noon. They only thing I can think of is the gateway draws more power as it is handling more input. It is consuming 2 kw a day more, not much really but is is over 20%.

 

[jgleigh]

Most likely a misconfigured CT.

 

[BGbreeder]

@CWhite I can assure you that the V2 gateway doesn't draw 2kW. I suspect @jgleigh is right and you have a misconfigured CT.

 

[CWhite]

Thanks, I will ask. Since I now hear the unit running during the day the thought of it pulling 150 watts didn’t seem to far fetched. As we found swapping out light bulbs it doesn't take much to add up to 2 kWh a day.

 

[yblaser]

My system behaves similarly. In my case I assumed the solar CT is reading ~5-7% high. Since the home usage is calculated based on the PW, grid, and solar power if one of them is off the home usage will be off. It's small enough that I haven't worried about it.

 

[jgleigh]

Anytime the house load starts tracking the solar generation it's a classic sign of CT issues.

 

[jhn_]

@CWhite I can assure you that the V2 gateway doesn't draw 2kW. I suspect @jgleigh is right and you have a misconfigured CT.

I think the OP meant to say 2kwh (over the course of a day), not 2kw (instantaneous).

Looking at OPs graph, I think the increased draw of 100w or slightly more is the new equipment and most likely the Powerwalls. I see this with our Powerwalls especially on warm sunny days when the ambient temp is high and they are being heavily charged they cool themselves and draw more power.

 

[jjrandorin]

I am not nearly as technical on this stuff as many of our regular posters in this subforum. With that as the backdrop for my following statement....

I am still not quite understanding why the OP is focused on this draw being "the new tesla gateway" when, in effect, the OP added an entire new system to their home (new panels, an additional powerwall, and replaced the gateway).

 

[CWhite]

I was thinking it could be the gateway since it is new and I can literally hear it running durning the day unlike our previous gateway. I know the new gate was includes an inverter so it is quite different. I never noticed any increase in power usage during the day with the previous Powerwall so did not expect a second one to make a difference. Same with adding panels. The gateway is the only truly new part and not just an addition to something we already had. It could be the Powerwall since it is a newer version of what we have and I suspect it behaves differently.

 

[cali8484]

How many PW's total? 2kWH per day seems high for one PW.

 

[CWhite]

I had a Powerwall from the initial install in 2017, never saw any change in consumption during the day with that. Just added a Powerwall + for a total of 2 battery units. The only other new components are the gateway and of course new/additional solar panels

 

[BGbreeder]

I think the OP meant to say 2kwh (over the course of a day), not 2kw (instantaneous).

Looking at OPs graph, I think the increased draw of 100w or slightly more is the new equipment and most likely the Powerwalls. I see this with our Powerwalls especially on warm sunny days when the ambient temp is high and they are being heavily charged they cool themselves and draw more power.

I think that you are undoubtedly correct. I saw the "2kW" and answered that.

@CWhite FWIW: I have 1 Gateway and three powerwalls, and they collectively added about 0.1-0.2kW to the household base load, so 2.4-2.8kWh/day of load. (Units matter) I almost never hear the Gateway fan running at more than a whisper.

All the best,

BG

 

[CWhite]

Sorry for leaving the h off of the kW, forgot also to mention the Powerwalls do not charge during the day, I have them set for 100% backup. A steady draw of 100-200 watts would not surprise me, it is the ramp where the increase draw matches the solar input during the day. It is like the gateway is working harder to cool itself at 1pm even though I only have 4.8kW of panels going thru it and it can handle a lot more.

 

[yblaser]

Sorry for leaving the h off of the kW, forgot also to mention the Powerwalls do not charge during the day, I have them set for 100% backup. A steady draw of 100-200 watts would not surprise me, it is the ramp where the increase draw matches the solar input during the day. It is like the gateway is working harder to cool itself at 1pm even though I only have 4.8kW of panels going thru it and it can handle a lot more.

As mentioned earlier it is likely the system not measuring the solar production correctly (overestimating it by some small amount), nothing to do with the gateway using power.

Usually the effect in my system is swamped out by other things running during the day, but when we are on vacation it looks like this if the pool pump is not running:

and here is a day earlier in that week when we had very little solar production:

 

[CWhite]

Have to wait for a day without much sun. The system seems to be measuring solar output and home usage correctly, matches exactly to what the utility company is crediting me via their net metering readout. The 2 kWh daily increase seems real compared to our vacation last year before the new equipment.

 

[yblaser]

Have to wait for a day without much sun. The system seems to be measuring solar output and home usage correctly, matches exactly to what the utility company is crediting me via their net metering readout. The 2 kWh daily increase seems real compared to our vacation last year before the new equipment.

For mine the grid reading is dead on with what the utility meter reads as well. The home usage is not actually being measured instead being calculated form the sum of the grid, solar, and powerwall power flows. The grid and powerwall power measurements can be completely accurate but if the solar is off it will affect the calculated home load while the solar is producing.

When they added the additional solar and PW+ there is an integrated CT in the PW+ to measure the solar production for the new panels and integrated inverter. They also may have changed out the CT that was measuring your solar production before when they installed the new gateway. If either CT is off in calibration it's going to make your home usage look higher/lower than it did before when solar is producing.

You can also turn off your solar inverters midday and see if your home usage drops back to the baseline.

 

[jhn_]

Sorry for leaving the h off of the kW, forgot also to mention the Powerwalls do not charge during the day, I have them set for 100% backup. A steady draw of 100-200 watts would not surprise me, it is the ramp where the increase draw matches the solar input during the day. It is like the gateway is working harder to cool itself at 1pm even though I only have 4.8kW of panels going thru it and it can handle a lot more.

Is any of the new equipment installed in a location in direct sunlight? This could cause it to be cooling itself more and drawing more.

 

[cali8484]

I had a Powerwall from the initial install in 2017, never saw any change in consumption during the day with that. Just added a Powerwall + for a total of 2 battery units. The only other new components are the gateway and of course new/additional solar panels

2kWh per day for 2 PW's and gateway seems plausible.

 

[CWhite]

Is any of the new equipment installed in a location in direct sunlight? This could cause it to be cooling itself more and drawing more.

The gateway and Powerwall is in the same location as before. They get in full sun around 2-3pm, an hour or two after the new power consumption peaks.

 

[jgleigh]

Looking at OPs graph, I think the increased draw of 100w or slightly more is the new equipment and most likely the Powerwalls.

Totally missed the scale on the original picture. A few hundred watts is nothing. The Powerwalls will cool themselves to keep in their optimal temperature range.