Installed today! First, background:
Anybody who follows my posts will know that I am (usually) quick to criticize and/or praise. I have to say that I am very pleasantly surprised with how smoothly everything went, with the number of things that worked right, had the right answer, and just happened. I didn't really have to worry about much of anything. This is proving that these batteries are going to be a breeze to install (once they smooth out any other bumps leading up to install day). The engineering specifications in my case were right, and seemed to work out well. And finally, the product is nice and does what it's supposed to.
- The concrete slab used to be for a shed. Then it was used for garbage cans. Now, it's getting dual use.
- The exterior conduit was my unlucky choice, for expedience, due to unusual site parameters; most installations would have more options to hide all the conduit; routing it through the interior of the wall was possible for me, for a no-conduit installation, but it would have required extensive interior work, including moving storage that was set aside in a finished space in the garage; that whole project to hide 15 feet of pipe would take about a week. I may do it within a few years, but I'm not in a huge hurry. Note that only one conduit goes to the PowerWall. (Also pictured is the conduit sticking out for the HPWC; that was against my wishes, and I would also like to put the labor in someday necessary to route that via the interior. The main limitation is that little circuit breaker box; I'd have to make a new hole in it, or replace it with another with such a hole.)
- They also installed the exterior switch box that connects to the main service panel with the PG&E meter (no backup).
- He rerouted my existing solar installation away from the main panel and into the secondary (backed up) panel. Note that my existing solar installation was installed by a local installer and has a SolarEdge on it, so no issues there connecting that AC to the AC PowerWalls; it does mean loss DC->AC->DC, though. (And if charging an electric car at night via HPWC, then DC->AC->DC->AC->DC, then finally ->AC to the car motors to use them. Quite a journey of conversions!)
- I specified backup as a secondary objective, with primary objective being load shift from solar to evening use.
- After the below pictures, I chose 30% reserved. I'll have to read the manual and watch the flows to figure out better settings.
- Working with the installation person (electrician) was enjoyable; he's been 10 years in the trade and 4 years with Solar City. He worked alone (except for cleanup when someone came in I presume from another nearby job to help). He arrived at 9AM, talked with me on the phone basically confirming everything Engineering said (I was at work all day until 5:30PM and left notes everywhere), and I labeled everything so it was easy for him. He finished by around 6:15PM. I found SolarCity to be quite straightforward and easy to work with once I understood their basic foo; of course, I had a few years to learn that foo.
- Providing network for it was easy, since I bought a Netgear 8 port switch for $60 on Amazon, and installed it a few nights before SolarCity installation to an existing Ethernet outlet I put in the garage back in 2003.
- Everything was completely installed from beginning to finish in one day by one installer as described above (except 20 minutes of cleanup with a second installer). I was already configuring it in my app before they were finished cleaning up. Everything went smoothly as far as that's concerned.
- After testing, they said that labeling and inspection will come at a later date. I don't know if that's another scheduled event. I'll try to stay on top of any aspect of it that I need to handle.
- He mimicked power outage twice; both times, the whole house and all of its various electronics (including computers, networks, etc.) stayed on 100%; the switchover is very fast. I don't know how fast.
After all, it's a battery.
Now, they need to find a way to get a good installation experience into the hands of more people.
And, I need to work on emptying out that storage area of the garage and getting that conduit run rerouted inside (my hassle).
Now, pictures:
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Thanks so much for the pics! Is the big grey box the gateway? If so, is there a chance you can take a pic with something else for scale / reference? Hard to tell how big it is with it occupying the whole pic. Thanks again!
Solar City / Tesla came over and did the survey at my house today btw.
Jeff