PowerWall Cold Start without Grid Power

[mongo]

Yes, 10kW and my normal usage is about 0.7kW. @woferry's post seems to indicate that 5kw while on grid should be normal.

Your PW may have a cooling issue then.

 

[Ulmo]

My theory is that it's following the lead of inverters without batteries -- they use grid power as their frequency reference and won't function without incoming voltage. I'd suggest putting a tiny Honda generator on the upstream side of the PowerWall and see if it would sync to that. The only issue is that it might try to push joules back into the generator if the panels manage to get the battery full.

Does the documentation say anything to confirm or deny this?

Mine were starting without grid power back in 2017 when mine were installed. Did Cottonwood's system finally get fixed?

 

[eml2]

Not sure if this works. See Post #9 of this thread:

Powerwall 2.0 Backup Runtime Extender

 

[Electriccarnut]

I particularly like the idea of an "Emergency Start" button and procedure.

 

[Ulmo]

I particularly like the idea of an "Emergency Start" button and procedure.

While I'm not convinced it's necessary since I maintain that the PowerWalls start up when you ask them to, if it turns out I'm wrong in any way, then I would and do agree.

 

[mikemillar]

[QUOTE="evp, post: 2667184, member: 30429" I'd suggest putting a tiny Honda generator on the upstream side of the PowerWall and see if it would sync to that. [/QUOTE] - don't know why this won't display properly.

I've just picked up this rather long thread and haven't read it all so sorry if this has been mentioned before. I would be very wary about putting a small Honda generator anywhere near a Powerwall. I once blew two central heating controllers using a small Honda type generator during power outages before I realised that it was frequency and voltage wild and the voltage was a function of engine rpm. It was producing major voltage spikes. Make sure your generator has proper voltage control before you try that experiment - otherwise you might destroy a $2000 Gateway.

I should add that my generator was not a proprietary Honda one, it just had a Honda engine, and is now 20 years old so maybe modern ones have proper automatic voltage regulation.