Powerwall backup question

[Instaurare]

Just two questions please..........

During a power outage, does your grid tied solar system continue to recharge the Powerwall?

During a power outage, if the Internet is also out of service, does the Powerwall still continue to be recharged by the solar system and provide power to the House? And if it does, how do you know the battery state of charge, since there is no display panel on the Powerwall itself, but only on a smartphone or computer?

My thanks to anyone who can answer this.

 

[Tam]

During a power outage, does your grid tied solar system continue to recharge the Powerwall?

Yes.

With solar system only, your home power would be down when the outside grid is down.

With a battery system, and in this case, it also pairs with solar system, your home power is still on when the outside grid is down.

In home function is not affected such as charging your battery.

...if the Internet is also out of service...

Some phone/internet companies would have backup power so even when the grid is down, their landline phones and internet still work.

If your internet is down, your internet related activities will be down too. That means it cannot transmit its status via internet to your computer or smartphone.

Your solar system and battery system should function normally because they don't need internet to work. They only need internet to broadcast its status and give you remote controls over the internet.

 

[miimura]

The PowerWall installation has to be done in a specific way to allow it to provide backup power. However, I think most installations will be done this way. The backup power installation requires an automatic transfer switch. This cuts off a portion of your house wiring from the utility. Once the switch has isolated the house, the PowerWall can continue powering some or all of your house and the solar will still generate and possibly recharge the PowerWall if it's generating more than the house needs at that moment.

Of course, you should put your internet modem and router on the part of the house that is backed up so your internet can stay up during the power outage and you can monitor the PowerWall through the Tesla app. Funny story - the last time the power went out at my house, the first truck to show up was Comcast. It turns out that they have a powered node on their network on the same pole as my utility transformer. The Comcast guy came to hook up a little Honda generator so that their stuff would stay up while this localized power outage was happening.

 

[WannabeOwner]

In the UK regular solar panels do not provide power during a power-outage - because the power flowing back into the grid could electrocute a linesman working on the repair. I have the ability to isolate the grid from the house, and run the house off a generator instead (also cannot feed generator into house without isolating grid, for same reason) and when I do that my solar panels also work

So seems reason (and indeed as @miimura has said) a Powerwall could do the same thing as my generator - once isolated from the grid.

 

[Instaurare]

Yes.

With solar system only, your home power would be down when the outside grid is down.

With a battery system, and in this case, it also pairs with solar system, your home power is still on when the outside grid is down.

In home function is not affected such as charging your battery.




Some phone/internet companies would have backup power so even when the grid is down, their landline phones and internet still work.

If your internet is down, your internet related activities will be down too. That means it cannot transmit its status via internet to your computer or smartphone.

Your solar system and battery system should function normally because they don't need internet to work. They only need internet to broadcast its status and give you remote controls over the internet.

Thanks to everyone for your replies. But please clarify about how to monitor battery state of charge when the Internet is down. Is there a battery monitor that could attach to the system in the case of an Internet outage?

 

[Tam]

But please clarify about how to monitor battery state of charge when the Internet is down. Is there a battery monitor that could attach to the system in the case of an Internet outage?

You can monitor your solar and battery storage during a grid outage if:

1) Your internet service has a reliable back up power system that works during a utility grid outage.
2) Your solar/battery storage setup can handle your home's load without tripping a circuit breaker.

In that case, your home electrical system would work normally (including your monitoring system) whether there's a current from the grid or not.

 

[Instaurare]

You can monitor your solar and battery storage during a grid outage if:

1) Your internet service has a reliable back up power system that works during a utility grid outage.
2) Your solar/battery storage setup can handle your home's load without tripping a circuit breaker.

In that case, your home electrical system would work normally (including your monitoring system) whether there's a current from the grid or not.

Tam, if your internet service does not have a reliable backup power system, then is it correct to say that the Powerwall will function during a power outage, but you will not be able to monitor your battery state of charge, since the monitoring will be inoperative? If this is the case, can any external monitors be attached? Thanks!

 

[Tam]

Tam, if your internet service does not have a reliable backup power system, then is it correct to say that the Powerwall will function during a power outage, but you will not be able to monitor your battery state of charge, since the monitoring will be inoperative? If this is the case, can any external monitors be attached? Thanks!

Correct. Your solar/battery storage works flawlessly with or without any current from the utility grid.

Its monitoring system also works fine too but how it can transmit that information if there is no internet service is the issue.

In that case, you can have your solar/battery system to pair with a wireless internet provider such as cell phone service or satellite dish internet service.

 

[nativewolf]

tmobile unlimited data plan is great if you have a good tmobile connection. Just cut the cords, go wireless, internet almost never down at all due to weather (used to be an issue for us). If you hotspotted cell phone is working you are good to go, we bought extra cell phone with dual band radio just to use as a hotspot. Rural solution to bad internet connections, huge upgrade over hughesnet and lack of cable/fiber.

 

[GoTslaGo]

Just two questions please..........

During a power outage, does your grid tied solar system continue to recharge the Powerwall?

During a power outage, if the Internet is also out of service, does the Powerwall still continue to be recharged by the solar system and provide power to the House? And if it does, how do you know the battery state of charge, since there is no display panel on the Powerwall itself, but only on a smartphone or computer?

My thanks to anyone who can answer this.

I think you asked a key question, and possible underlying raison d'etre for Starlink.

How does Tesla ensure internet connectivity for their powerwall/powerpack battery storage for everywhere in the world?

 

[miimura]

Now that I have PowerWalls installed I can answer some of these questions better.

Just two questions please..........

During a power outage, does your grid tied solar system continue to recharge the Powerwall?

During a power outage, if the Internet is also out of service, does the Powerwall still continue to be recharged by the solar system and provide power to the House? And if it does, how do you know the battery state of charge, since there is no display panel on the Powerwall itself, but only on a smartphone or computer?

My thanks to anyone who can answer this.

The PowerWall and the Backup Gateway that is part of the USA installation communicate by RS-485. This allows the gateway to know the SOC and control the power input/output of the PowerWall. It also communicates with the Neurio energy monitor device by RS-485 to get the grid and solar power values. The internet is not necessary for any of that to work properly. The Gateway also has a cellular radio in it. My system is currently provisioned with the cellular active, so the status of my home internet does not matter and I can use the Tesla app to see and change the system parameters. If your system was provisioned to use your internet, but it was down, you could access the WiFi provided from the Gateway to see the SOC directly as long as you were within range.

 

[airborne spoon]

Holy old thread Resurrection Batman.
Anyway, I was having a discussion at the office today and one of the guys was saying that if the powerwall loses internet connection that it will go into standby mode and will not work in anyway. Like it's impossible to build an off grid thing with the powerwall and solar roof because it requires internet at all times. This sounds pretty illogical but I can't find anything saying so either way.
Also is it true that to get a powerwall Tesla has to send out a rep to test and *sugar*? Or can you just buy one and do everything yourself?

 

[miimura]

Holy old thread Resurrection Batman.
Anyway, I was having a discussion at the office today and one of the guys was saying that if the powerwall loses internet connection that it will go into standby mode and will not work in anyway. Like it's impossible to build an off grid thing with the powerwall and solar roof because it requires internet at all times. This sounds pretty illogical but I can't find anything saying so either way.
Also is it true that to get a powerwall Tesla has to send out a rep to test and *sugar*? Or can you just buy one and do everything yourself?

You cannot self-install a Powerwall system. It must be installed by a Tesla certified installer.

The Backup Gateway contains a cellular modem, so if you are normally using your own internet connection, it should fail over to the cellular connection if your internet goes down and a cell signal is available. Also, the internet connection is not required to keep the power on during a grid failure. There may be corner cases where the grid is up and the Powerwalls go into standby for some reason.

 

[cwied]

One other point: "Standby mode" is an on-grid concept, not an off-grid concept. The operation when off-grid is completely different since the system is essentially islanded. I don't know what happens when there's no internet for extended periods, but extrapolating the on-grid behavior to what would happen off-grid is not safe. The only references (youtube videos) that I've seen to this internet requirement did that.

 

[mrgoodell]

"The Gateway also has a cellular radio in it. "

I live in a remote area on the island of Hawaii which is prone to hurricanes. The possibility of losing cable wifi and cell towers is very real.

So my 2 clarification questions are:
1. Are you saying there is a way for my powered cell phone to communicate directly with "Gateway Cellular Radio"?
2. If no, then is there a product that will allow me to monitor my 4 Powerwall's status for extended periods without cable wifi and cell signal?

 

[schettj]

2. If no, then is there a product that will allow me to monitor my 4 Powerwall's status for extended periods without cable wifi and cell signal?

Your powerwall has its own wifi SSID, which you can connect to, and can use to monitor status. Connecting Powerwall to Wi-Fi | Tesla Support

Once configured to be on your local network, you can monitor your powerwall without connecting directly to the TEG wifi, using several open source tools, or by connecting directly to the powerwall web interface. Your home network need not be connected to the internet.

 

[ptdusn]

"The Gateway also has a cellular radio in it. "

I live in a remote area on the island of Hawaii which is prone to hurricanes. The possibility of losing cable wifi and cell towers is very real.

So my 2 clarification questions are:
1. Are you saying there is a way for my powered cell phone to communicate directly with "Gateway Cellular Radio"?
2. If no, then is there a product that will allow me to monitor my 4 Powerwall's status for extended periods without cable wifi and cell signal?

You also can connect a tablet directly to the Gateway.

Connecting to Tesla Gateway and Powerwall+ | Tesla Support

If you lose internet or cellular connection, view instructions on how you can monitor your system’s power flow and charge level via web browser by connecting to your Gateway or Powerwall+.

www.tesla.com

 

[mrgoodell]

Your powerwall has its own wifi SSID, which you can connect to, and can use to monitor status. Connecting Powerwall to Wi-Fi | Tesla Support

Once configured to be on your local network, you can monitor your powerwall without connecting directly to the TEG wifi, using several open source tools, or by connecting directly to the powerwall web interface. Your home network need not be connected to the internet.

Not if both cable wifi and cell towers are down after a hurricane.

 

[mrgoodell]

You also can connect a tablet directly to the Gateway.

Connecting to Tesla Gateway and Powerwall+ | Tesla Support

If you lose internet or cellular connection, view instructions on how you can monitor your system’s power flow and charge level via web browser by connecting to your Gateway or Powerwall+.

www.tesla.com

Not if cable wifi and cell towers are down post hurricane.

 

[ucmndd]

Not if cable wifi and cell towers are down post hurricane.

Yes, even if cable wifi and cell towers are down post hurricane.

If your local home network is powered, and your powerwall gateway is connected to that network, you can connect to the gateway and manage it.

Or, as mentioned above, the powerwall gateway broadcasts its own wireless network that you can connect to directly.

No internet service of any kind required.