I'm not in CA. I'm in land of dumbass politicians (AL). Our laws are what prevent companies like Tesla/SolarCity from operating here. A few good apples have tried to resolve the issue but every time Alabama Powers tosses money at lobbyists and the opposition. If you ask Alabama Power what's up with them preventing solar becoming a reality in this area and they say something like "Oh we love solar! In fact, you can opt to purchase some of your electricity from our solar plants for only 1.5x what you're paying now!".
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Powerwall 2: Installation
- Thread starter JeffreyY
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- Powerwall Tesla Energy
wang5150
Member
Signed docs in mid April and got a call from Tesla Concierge today that it's awaiting permits. Sounds like the install could happen before end of May.
Today I got a call from the concierge and shortly after, an email. She told me that they are waiting on the permits from the utility to proceed and that a utility inspector would arrive in a few days to do it. After that site visit then they would be able to proceed with an installation date.
Just last week I talked to a Tesla sales person wanting to do a site visit, but deferred until I decide if I am going to need greater solar capacity. The Tesla sales person I talked to was confusing. Can I use the inverter in the battery pack in place of another inverter I would need to buy if I added solar capacity to my array?
The interesting thing is I am Green Mountain Power customer, so just yesterday I decided to get on the list to get powerwall for $1500 for 10 years giving me backup power and the electric company access for peak power optimization. Seems like a really smart win win situation. I would have had to easily pay $150 year to have a company maintain and be on call to fix a conventional propane backup generator anyway, so this is a much better solution.
The interesting thing is I am Green Mountain Power customer, so just yesterday I decided to get on the list to get powerwall for $1500 for 10 years giving me backup power and the electric company access for peak power optimization. Seems like a really smart win win situation. I would have had to easily pay $150 year to have a company maintain and be on call to fix a conventional propane backup generator anyway, so this is a much better solution.
SSonnentag
埃隆•馬斯克
Solar City came out for a site survey over a month ago and I haven't heard anything from them since. I wonder what the holdup is???
wang5150
Member
I got a call last week from Tesla Concierge that my installation was waiting for permits. It was from area code 209 number so maybe you might not have answered it. Not sure why they wouldn't just email with the same info since they have my email info as well.
My guess is that you're install is awaiting permitting also.
Brovane
Member
Horizon Solar is coming out tomorrow to do the site survey. Swell Energy has sub-contracted some of the PowerWall installs out to Horizon Solar.
Frustrated with Solar City
When Powerwall 1 was first announced, I signed up to be on the waiting list and never heard another word. In the interim, I had a solar system installed by a local company and paid extra to get the SolarEdge 7600AUS that was specified as the only inverter that would work with the Powerwall. I also had the company leave room in the closet with the inverters for the Powerwall.
When the Powerwall 2 was announced, I again signed up and put down the $500 deposit. I was finally contacted by Solar City to do their site survey. The guy who came out to do the survey knew absolutely nothing about the Powerwall and couldn't answer any questions and said all he knew how to do was measure and take pictures, which took him a couple of hours.
I then received the purchase agreement, which said the Powerwall could not be installed where I had asked them to, even though I know there is plenty of room for it next to the inverters. They said it would have to be installed next to the electrical panel and could not be wired into the inverter. They also said I need a Main Panel Upgrade for $1,900. When I called the number given on the agreement to question their proposal, I reached a "Legacy Energy Specialist" who said they were my contact and any questions I had would be relayed to engineering and they would answer within 5 or 6 days. So I asked my questions about the placement and need for the panel upgrade and the possibility of the Powerwall doing a whole-house backup if I handle the loads in the case of an outage. About a week later got an email stating that the only inverter that could be used with the Powerwall 2 was the Delta 7.6 inverter, which I had never heard of and is not listed on the Tesla Energy website, and that if I wanted to stay with my existing 200 Amp panel, in order to do whole house backup, I'd need three Powerwalls. They said only loads of 30 Amps or less can be backed up so that's why I needed the panel upgrade so they could install a load center and gateway to handle all of my 30 Amp and lower loads. I said I have a subpanel in the garage that is connected to the main panel through a 100 Amp breaker and all of its loads power everything in an addition that was added to the main house, so I asked if those loads would be included in the backup through the load center, and they couldn't answer the question. I again asked if I could speak to the engineer and was denied and told it would be another 5 or 6 days before I could get an answer.
I then asked about the possibility of going to another installer and was told that I could cancel my order with Tesla and start all over with someone else who would order the Powerwall from Tesla directly. That doesn't sound right, either. Has anyone else experienced this kind of response from Solar City? Any suggestions on how I should proceed? Thanks, and sorry this is so long.
When Powerwall 1 was first announced, I signed up to be on the waiting list and never heard another word. In the interim, I had a solar system installed by a local company and paid extra to get the SolarEdge 7600AUS that was specified as the only inverter that would work with the Powerwall. I also had the company leave room in the closet with the inverters for the Powerwall.
When the Powerwall 2 was announced, I again signed up and put down the $500 deposit. I was finally contacted by Solar City to do their site survey. The guy who came out to do the survey knew absolutely nothing about the Powerwall and couldn't answer any questions and said all he knew how to do was measure and take pictures, which took him a couple of hours.
I then received the purchase agreement, which said the Powerwall could not be installed where I had asked them to, even though I know there is plenty of room for it next to the inverters. They said it would have to be installed next to the electrical panel and could not be wired into the inverter. They also said I need a Main Panel Upgrade for $1,900. When I called the number given on the agreement to question their proposal, I reached a "Legacy Energy Specialist" who said they were my contact and any questions I had would be relayed to engineering and they would answer within 5 or 6 days. So I asked my questions about the placement and need for the panel upgrade and the possibility of the Powerwall doing a whole-house backup if I handle the loads in the case of an outage. About a week later got an email stating that the only inverter that could be used with the Powerwall 2 was the Delta 7.6 inverter, which I had never heard of and is not listed on the Tesla Energy website, and that if I wanted to stay with my existing 200 Amp panel, in order to do whole house backup, I'd need three Powerwalls. They said only loads of 30 Amps or less can be backed up so that's why I needed the panel upgrade so they could install a load center and gateway to handle all of my 30 Amp and lower loads. I said I have a subpanel in the garage that is connected to the main panel through a 100 Amp breaker and all of its loads power everything in an addition that was added to the main house, so I asked if those loads would be included in the backup through the load center, and they couldn't answer the question. I again asked if I could speak to the engineer and was denied and told it would be another 5 or 6 days before I could get an answer.
I then asked about the possibility of going to another installer and was told that I could cancel my order with Tesla and start all over with someone else who would order the Powerwall from Tesla directly. That doesn't sound right, either. Has anyone else experienced this kind of response from Solar City? Any suggestions on how I should proceed? Thanks, and sorry this is so long.
^like buying a car at a dealership. You don't like the service go to a new dealer, but you will of course have to start over. Several others have done so, read the whole thread and the others on the topic. I am not in a SS area so I have no personal experience, just that others have. Besides which I think you have a better chance at some sort of California incentive program if you are not with SS.
Ulmo
Active Member
This is all very exciting. The current slowdown hopefully is for everyone to digest their respective positions for the betterment of the marketplace and our outcomes (not some nefarious thing I hope). Knowing what's involved, it's most likely just fitting all the pieces together. I look forward to pictures of new installs. I would be one of them if my balls were rolling sooner, but apparently not.
I think there are obviously two things going on here:
1) Musk announces products way ahead of availability. Tesla benefits from the PR and having many deposits is highly desirable.
2) The success of the PR brings many looky-loos to make inquires which the sales force must qualify.
Now we have the solar roof available worldwide with a prototype production line. And the model 3 beginning "production" in July with the robots just being installed now. Sell the dream.
Did you sign a purchase contract? I've found that the total of the contract is in the sgip tracker sheet under total eligibility so you could try to determine if you are in there. Also my utility sent me an email that I am currently enrolled in step 1. Not sure if all utilities do that or perhaps it went to your installer.
That project is likely using powerpacks instead of powerwalls.
Tesla is installing powerpacks about 25 miles from my house yet they can't guarantee I'll have my powerwalls installed by the end of the year. It's two totally different departments.
Tesla is installing powerpacks about 25 miles from my house yet they can't guarantee I'll have my powerwalls installed by the end of the year. It's two totally different departments.
Based on my installation, I'd say it may be a good thing to have Solar City (bay area) work out the kinks before doing mass installations. Just for reference, my home was built in 2005 (planned community), with a main panel and one sub panel. Pretty vanilla in terms of set up. The guys came and installed the unit in about 8 hours....then they spent the next 6 hours chasing down a wiring problem and an Tesla user account issue. They came back the next day and wrapped up the wiring issues in about 2-3 hours. It took another 2 days before I could see the powerwall on my Tesla app and about a week before the "communication error" went away on the app. I couldn't see what the battery was doing. The backup gateway that they used on my install was the newest version and the dev folks at Tesla needed to fix the code in order to get it to communicate properly with the app.
All in all, I expected delays since this is such a new program. The Solar city guys were very polite and though they made some mistakes, they got it all fixed. I'm probably more overly patient than most.
It is also worth noting that at this time, the PW2 is serving me as purely back up power. It only supplies power to my house if I switch off the power from the grid. At some point in the hopefully near future, the Tesla app is suppose to enable me to have more control over how/when the battery sends power out. Not sure if that is the case with other folks, but that is what I was told.
Lastly, PG&E sent me that email about missing signatures also. I called Tesla Concierge and they said they were on it already. Apparently PG&E doesn't like eSignatures (via DocuSign) so they needed confirmation that these signatures are legit. Again...that's what they told me.
Good luck out there.
ap
All in all, I expected delays since this is such a new program. The Solar city guys were very polite and though they made some mistakes, they got it all fixed. I'm probably more overly patient than most.
It is also worth noting that at this time, the PW2 is serving me as purely back up power. It only supplies power to my house if I switch off the power from the grid. At some point in the hopefully near future, the Tesla app is suppose to enable me to have more control over how/when the battery sends power out. Not sure if that is the case with other folks, but that is what I was told.
Lastly, PG&E sent me that email about missing signatures also. I called Tesla Concierge and they said they were on it already. Apparently PG&E doesn't like eSignatures (via DocuSign) so they needed confirmation that these signatures are legit. Again...that's what they told me.
Good luck out there.
ap
