Powerwall 2: Installation

[Ackattack2293]

I'm not sure what to say, i order my powerwall 2 back in Jan. 2017 and I'm still waiting. I live in Charleston, SC, my rep called back to find out how to order it and was told he was the first rep to call, but now it's June and it keeps getting kicked back by the power company for things. Latest kick back 6/14
-AC Disconnect Switch labeled (C) should be relocated between the Distribution Panel (B) and the Automatic Relay (G) in order to qualify.

 

[MP3Mike]

Just a heads up that someone has reported that they had two Powerwall 2s installed: Actual shipment and installation of Powerwall 2

That is the first I have heard of a multi-Powerwall 2 install...

 

[stevemcsheen]

MS85, I just got a call from Powerwall support about my email to them. It was a little difficult to parse the VM they left - I couldn't take the call - but it sounds like either new firmware is being pushed automatically to the gateway over the next 24-48 hours or there's an app update coming in the next 24-48 that will push this update to the gateway on its own. They're going to call me back on Thursday to follow up. I'll try to update you then. Unless someone else has had a similar call or experience?

The PW2 does indeed power the house if I manually shut off main home power, but this app update and the PW2 page mention being able to automatically charge from solar during the day and use it at night. There's no finer grain control over it than that, though - at least not yet.

 

[zedkyuu]

Just a heads up that someone has reported that they had two Powerwall 2s installed: Actual shipment and installation of Powerwall 2

That is the first I have heard of a multi-Powerwall 2 install...

Wasn't me, but my two-Powerwall setup is up and running.

It actually took three business days. The crew showed up on Friday and started work, but had enough work to do that they needed a second day. So they came back yesterday and completed the physical install by mid-evening. Today, they dropped by, ran Ethernet to the backup gateway (they insisted on it, and frankly, I would've done it at some point anyway, though I will probably move the cable a little), commissioned the system, and now my Tesla app shows my setup, with two Powerwalls.

It looks like the Powerwall charge rate maxed out at 3.3 kW. My panels generally produce up to around 5. It's a hot day today, so maybe the charge rate is throttled for it (otherwise, I should be able to charge at 10 kW continuously according to the datasheet).

Also, when I looked at the system, it was set for full backup operation, and it had gotten late enough in the day that the solar generation net of house use was less than 3.3 kW, so it was actually charging partially from the grid as well. I set it to self-powered mode and it stopped charging from the grid shortly afterward.

(edit) Some install notes: this was through SolarCity, and they wound up installing a subpanel between the main breaker and the original subpanel in the house. This subpanel holds the breakers for the Powerwalls and my solar inverter. Looks like it's wired directly into the backup gateway, as is the subpanel in the house. They insisted on moving the solar circuit into the Powerwall subpanel for their CTs... I guess it was easier for them to do that than to run a wire for the CT into the house subpanel.

 

[K-MTG]

Wasn't me, but my two-Powerwall setup is up and running.

It actually took three business days. The crew showed up on Friday and started work, but had enough work to do that they needed a second day. So they came back yesterday and completed the physical install by mid-evening. Today, they dropped by, ran Ethernet to the backup gateway (they insisted on it, and frankly, I would've done it at some point anyway, though I will probably move the cable a little), commissioned the system, and now my Tesla app shows my setup, with two Powerwalls.

It looks like the Powerwall charge rate maxed out at 3.3 kW. My panels generally produce up to around 5. It's a hot day today, so maybe the charge rate is throttled for it (otherwise, I should be able to charge at 10 kW continuously according to the datasheet).

Also, when I looked at the system, it was set for full backup operation, and it had gotten late enough in the day that the solar generation net of house use was less than 3.3 kW, so it was actually charging partially from the grid as well. I set it to self-powered mode and it stopped charging from the grid shortly afterward.

(edit) Some install notes: this was through SolarCity, and they wound up installing a subpanel between the main breaker and the original subpanel in the house. This subpanel holds the breakers for the Powerwalls and my solar inverter. Looks like it's wired directly into the backup gateway, as is the subpanel in the house. They insisted on moving the solar circuit into the Powerwall subpanel for their CTs... I guess it was easier for them to do that than to run a wire for the CT into the house subpanel.

Pics please? If you don't mind what was the total cost before/after incentives?

 

[zedkyuu]

Pics please? If you don't mind what was the total cost before/after incentives?

No pics yet, but I'll get some later on. The nuts and bolts are that I have a main 200A breaker on the side of my house and a single subpanel in a closet inside the house (it's old enough to be grandfathered in, I guess), and they installed the backup gateway next to the breaker, a new subpanel next to the breaker, and then the two Powerwall units on my back deck with a fairly long conduit run. They put 30A breakers for the units in the new subpanel and relocated my existing 30A solar circuit to the new subpanel as well so that it'd be easier for them to stick a CT on it. The installers also insisted on running a hardwired Ethernet line back to my router instead of going by wifi.

Total cost was $13.3k before incentives. I made SGIP tier 1 so if that comes through (it's in "RRF Technical Review" in the latest SGIP spreadsheet), that'll be $9.7k back. I am planning on collecting ITC as well, though I am trying to figure out how best to collect the data for that. (Doing the math there shows the $9.7k to be a bit more than 70% of the system price, so I'm not sure how that's going to work out, since if I claim the full 30% on ITC, I'll actually come out ahead once everything shows up, and that doesn't sound right.)

Observations from playing around with the system:
- The app lets you set backup only or self-powered mode. Self-powered mode has you set a minimum battery level that the system maintains unless there's an outage. If you're above the minimum level, it charges off solar only, but if you're below, it charges off the grid as well. Backup only seems to be like self-powered mode set to 100%, so that it charges off everything and then never depletes it.
- Self-powered mode has only charged my batteries to 90% max. No idea if this is a new system break-in thing.
- On the first day, my batteries were only charged at 3.3 kW. This wasn't that hot a day, and I saw higher rates yesterday when it was really hot, so I suspect that's another break-in thing.
- The app gives you nice graphs showing instantaneous and historical power distribution between house, solar, battery, and grid. It also reports outages, which is how I know that yesterday, I had two outages of 7 and 10 seconds. I guess the graphs and associated data are intended for SGIP/ITC proof later.
- The backup gateway provides a small web server on the network it's connected to. Right now, it just shows the same instantaneous power distribution picture that the app does; nothing more from my point of view. It provides an installer wizard, but fortunately, it demands an installer e-mail and password in some kind of manual, so you can't go messing with it. If you're technically minded, you can sniff the traffic when the power distribution page is up, and you'll see that the unit provides a surprising amount of info via JSON, so you could probably grab that and do fun things with it.

(edit) I see I misread and that I can only collect ITC on the net cost after SGIP rebate. That makes more sense. However, as you can see, the proposed rebate value on my system is still over 70%. I do kind of wish I'd opted out of ITC this time around, but I haven't done enough of an analysis to have a full opinion.

 

[zedkyuu]

My system charged to max 90% again. I'm now feeding 2 kW back into the grid. I'm getting about 90 cents an hour for it, so yay, but why doesn't this thing go to 100%? I feel like this is a limitation that needs to be made more clear. (I can live with it being something like "well, maintaining a 100% charge for an extended period is fine, but charging repeatedly to 100% is bad".)

 

[astrothad]

Does anyone in the Los Angeles area have a 2 PW installation scheduled or completed yet? The last I heard, SolarCity/Tesla is waiting to source some of the installation material before scheduling the installation.

On a recent day when we didn't need to run the A/C, we sent over 27 kWh back to the grid. It would be good if that was being used by others at peak hours rather than the usual mid-day/off-peak loading of the grid.

 

[ohmman]

Does anyone in the Los Angeles area have a 2 PW installation scheduled or completed yet? The last I heard, SolarCity/Tesla is waiting to source some of the installation material before scheduling the installation.

On a recent day when we didn't need to run the A/C, we sent over 27 kWh back to the grid. It would be good if that was being used by others at peak hours rather than the usual mid-day/off-peak loading of the grid.

I'm not in LA but my 2 PW install in the North Bay is scheduled for July 5.

 

[mr blue sky]

SolarCity just finished my 2x powerwall install. They initially thought it was going to take two days after first showing up, but some more people showed up and they had a team of five people working and completed it by 4:30 pm, after they showed up at 9 am. I was a little surprised they didn't show up earlier in the window to give themselves more time. But I am thoroughly impressed by their speed.

They did the install one in front of another with a bracket in between. In order to do this the units had to sit on the ground. However the patio area was sloped for drainage which meant they spent quite a bit of time trying to shim and align the two units. It seems the connector brackets have very low tolerance for out of alignment units. Also they wanted to mount into a stud behind the stucco wall despite sitting on the ground.

Unfortunately they had some problems provisioning it so someone will be back to do that on another day. So now it's sitting there doing... something. Making green light from its side, I guess.

Total cost was $11k for 2x powerwalls, $700 hardware, $150 permit, $900 installation, $1k taxes coming out to $13744.50. Counting on a step 2 SGIP of $9280 and ITC. I am in an EV rate plan so any way to avoid peak/partial peak will be a win.

 

[detlefo]

Two Powerwalls installed June 17-18. Same problem you had, they were unable to "commission" the system it would not sustain a connection. Tried both WiFi and Ethernet connections. Both seemed solid. They've opened a ticket with engineering. All I get now is two blinking green lights which apparently means that the Powerwalls are trying to connect.

 

[bkp_duke]

Typical Tesla . . . we are all glorified Alpha / Beta testers.

 

[mr blue sky]

I forgot to mention that when I asked the installers, if I remember correctly they said there were 200-300 total installed currently. The team that installed mine said this was their 15th powerwall install, but their first dual powerwall install.

 

[ohmman]

Dual Powerwall installed; stacked.

 

[electracity]

Total cost was $11k for 2x powerwalls, $700 hardware, $150 permit, $900 installation, $1k taxes coming out to $13744.50. Counting on a step 2 SGIP of $9280 and ITC. I am in an EV rate plan so any way to avoid peak/partial peak will be a win.

Nice. It is good to see specific numbers. The install price isn't bad at all.

I have got to think that batteries will become standard, at least in better new houses.

 

[ashileedo]

MS85, I just got a call from Powerwall support about my email to them. It was a little difficult to parse the VM they left - I couldn't take the call - but it sounds like either new firmware is being pushed automatically to the gateway over the next 24-48 hours or there's an app update coming in the next 24-48 that will push this update to the gateway on its own. They're going to call me back on Thursday to follow up. I'll try to update you then. Unless someone else has had a similar call or experience?

The PW2 does indeed power the house if I manually shut off main home power, but this app update and the PW2 page mention being able to automatically charge from solar during the day and use it at night. There's no finer grain control over it than that, though - at least not yet.

hey we just had 2 powerwalls installed and we're seeing same issue. Sun goes down and, even though we've set Self Powered on (30%), PW never kick in, we keep taking power off grid overnight.

also my pw stop charging at 90%, too. never go above.

curious if there was any update on the, errr, update?

 

[ohmman]

Nice. It is good to see specific numbers. The install price isn't bad at all.

I have got to think that batteries will become standard, at least in better new houses.

My install was the same, $900. It originally included $700 for trenching but they didn't need to do it so that was removed. I had three electricians at the house for 7.5 hours on my install.

 

[abasile]

My install was the same, $900. It originally included $700 for trenching but they didn't need to do it so that was removed. I had three electricians at the house for 7.5 hours on my install.

Wow - $900 for three electricians for 7.5 hours is not a lot of money. It seems that Tesla is subsidizing many of their Powerwall 2 installations.

In retrospect, it would have been better if I had signed an installation contract with Tesla/SolarCity instead of a third party installer, as I'm still waiting and will have to pay more in the end. However, a couple of months ago, it wasn't clear to me that I'd be able to benefit from SGIP with Tesla, and that has been proven to not be an issue.

 

[ohmman]

Wow - $900 for three electricians for 7.5 hours is not a lot of money. It seems that Tesla is subsidizing many of their Powerwall 2 installations.

Definitely. That includes a nontrivial amount of 2/0 copper and conduit as well. I wasn't charged for materials (aside from the bundled Powerwall price).

 

[mr blue sky]

On my install three electricians showed up but then two more electricians showed up later (possibly after they realized it was going to take over a day if they didn't have more people.

They sent someone by later and so my system is now commissioned. However someone still need to come by as the solar monitoring is not working. It seems they use some units from neur.io that require a wifi network from the main unit, but the distance is too far and they can't get a connection. The main unit has a wifi antenna inside of the electrical box which doesn't help. I'm surprised they don't use ethernet over power line. But I guess that is what they have off the shelf.