Powerwall In Garage [what are the rules around this?]

[franksayshai]

I wanted to see people's thoughts on installing their Powerwall in the garage? Working on getting a single Powerwall installed in my house and HOA requires it to be placed inside.

Being in Oakland my Tesla Energy Advisor said that I probably need an interconnected heat detector installed in my garage. I assume this is not something that would be installed by Tesla.

• Does anybody else have their Power Wall installed in their garage in the bay area?
• One unit or two units?
• Do you have a heat detector/smoke detector in your garage?
• Any good link on finding the California Fire Code?

 

[jjrandorin]

Welcome to TMC, specifically the TMC energy subforum.

The problem with asking if "anyone has powerwalls in their garage" is the rules are in process of changing, so even though people may have them in there now, whether that will be allowed or not going forward depends on your AHJs stance on the codes.

I will link a thread that might be good reading for you on this topic of powerwall install rules etc, and specifically in Northern Cali, it seems to depend on what your specific AHJ (authority having jurisdiction) is doing.

Happy reading! (lol)

Santa Clara County retroactively Changing ESS Rules

I am dealing with a significant rule change in Santa Clara County Fire jurisdiction, which is effecting our ability to get permits for Powerwall installations. SCC has retroactively applied new rules to our existing permits and is rejecting our other new permits based on their rules. These new...

teslamotorsclub.com

 

[getakey]

yes, rules are different depending on locale. I'm east of Sacramento and have 3 PWs installed in garage. No requirement for heat detector/smoke alarm.

 

[Redhill_qik]

I have two PWs in my garage, in Santa Clara county, but not an unicorporated part that is subject to additional rules. I was not required to install a heat detector, but I would like to get one installed and tied in to my wired fire alarms as a safety measure.

 

[getakey]

At what temp does a heat detector usually trigger?

 

[jboy210]

I have 2 PWs on my garage wall. No heat detector, bollards, or other special work was needed. I am also in Alameda county (Pleasanton). Mine were installed by Tesla in 2020.

Might an Oakland Fire Marshal issue.

 

[miimura]

At what temp does a heat detector usually trigger?

If you read through the ESS rules changing thread linked above, there is reference to UL 521 Heat Detection. The discussion also comes to the general conclusion that these are not available as standalone devices like smoke detectors, but rather must be part of a wired alarm panel.

Reference for UL 521: https://law.resource.org/pub/us/cfr/ibr/006/ul.521.1993.pdf

 

[wwhitney]

Any good link on finding the California Fire Code?

This is a convenient source, although it would be worth verifying that it's up to date:

California Fire Code 2019 based on the International Fire Code 2018 (IFC 2018)

UpCodes offers a consolidated resource of construction and building code grouped by jurisdiction

up.codes

The definitive source:

Codes

www.dgs.ca.gov

(Your want to open the 2019 tab and go down to Part 9)

Cheers, Wayne

 

[holeydonut]

Lol what... your HOA is requiring this to be placed inside? What HOA possibly has a CC&R about ESS placement? Like how could they possibly rationalize enforcing a rule on where a Powerwall could be placed?

I wonder if your HOA would also object to a big azzzz disconnect being placed outside.

Man I can't find my old avatar of the guy pulling the disconnect...

 

[miimura]

Lol what... your HOA is requiring this to be placed inside? What HOA possibly has a CC&R about ESS placement? Like how could they possibly rationalize enforcing a rule on where a Powerwall could be placed?

I wonder if your HOA would also object to a big azzzz disconnect being placed outside.

Man I can't find my old avatar of the guy pulling the disconnect...

It really depends on the building governed by the HOA. There are some townhouses where the outside walls are part of the common area, so you have no choice but to put them inside the areas of your exclusive control, ie. your garage.

 

[aswami]

I wanted to see people's thoughts on installing their Powerwall in the garage? Working on getting a single Powerwall installed in my house and HOA requires it to be placed inside.

Being in Oakland my Tesla Energy Advisor said that I probably need an interconnected heat detector installed in my garage. I assume this is not something that would be installed by Tesla.

• Does anybody else have their Power Wall installed in their garage in the bay area?
• One unit or two units?
• Do you have a heat detector/smoke detector in your garage?
• Any good link on finding the California Fire Code?

Not Bay Area, but my city code requires interconnected heat detector if PW is installed indoors. Tesla included it in the design. The installer missed installing it and my inspection failed. They came by the same day and installed it. I did not have to pay anything.

 

[Vines]

I wanted to see people's thoughts on installing their Powerwall in the garage? Working on getting a single Powerwall installed in my house and HOA requires it to be placed inside.

Being in Oakland my Tesla Energy Advisor said that I probably need an interconnected heat detector installed in my garage. I assume this is not something that would be installed by Tesla.

• Does anybody else have their Power Wall installed in their garage in the bay area?
• One unit or two units?
• Do you have a heat detector/smoke detector in your garage?
• Any good link on finding the California Fire Code?

You live in one of the most difficult jurisdictions to have an ESS installed, and I recommend you install them outside. I understand the HOA is a PITA about that.

Oakland regularly takes 2-3 months to review plans, so errors can make a huge wait.

The single station wire in 120V heat detectors are available just not listed for the typical garage environment. Some jurisdictions are saying that they are better than nothing and allowing them, others are being hardline and making compliance difficult, only allowing fire sprinklers, or a central type monitored system to comply with an indoor installation.

OSFM has released a guidance that hopefully will make jurisdictions flexible on heat detectors in the meantime since the exact right thing simply doesn't exist. I attached it.

This is a convenient source, although it would be worth verifying that it's up to date:

California Fire Code 2019 based on the International Fire Code 2018 (IFC 2018)

UpCodes offers a consolidated resource of construction and building code grouped by jurisdiction

up.codes

The definitive source:

Codes

www.dgs.ca.gov

(Your want to open the 2019 tab and go down to Part 9)

Cheers, Wayne

I just checked and Upcodes has the accurate version including the Interim Blue Supplement.

I did not easily find the most recent language on the DGS site.

 

[franksayshai]

Thanks for the heads up. Read through the thread by jjrandorin before making this thread.

Definitely will try and push to try and get it outside and see if the HOA can live with it being behind my fence which is about 10ft away from my meter. Other people that have solar in my neighborhood have solar with disconnects outside. I figure I am probably the first asking for ESS so it might be hard.

I figure having 7.5KVA of UPS for a Server Rack and my Tesla in the garage probably help.

Hoping if they do need to have it interconnect that Tesla will cover the install for the Heat Detector in the garage.

 

[Vines]

Thanks for the heads up. Read through the thread by jjrandorin before making this thread.

Definitely will try and push to try and get it outside and see if the HOA can live with it being behind my fence which is about 10ft away from my meter. Other people that have solar in my neighborhood have solar with disconnects outside. I figure I am probably the first asking for ESS so it might be hard.

I figure having 7.5KVA of UPS for a Server Rack and my Tesla in the garage probably help.

Hoping if they do need to have it interconnect that Tesla will cover the install for the Heat Detector in the garage.

The hard part will be the fire suppression system if one is not already installed. A Heat detector is pretty easy by that point.

 

[franksayshai]

Yeah definitely have no fire suppression system in my garage so would be a big hurdle.

 

[Vines]

Yeah definitely have no fire suppression system in my garage so would be a big hurdle.

You might be able to use a portable fire sprinkler system, if all else fails.

Looking at our last approved set of plans Oakland has relaxed somewhat compared to 3 months ago.

 

[BGbreeder]

You might be able to use a portable fire sprinkler system, if all else fails.

Looking at our last approved set of plans Oakland has relaxed somewhat compared to 3 months ago.

Just curious: What does a portable fire sprinkler system consist of? A Rainbird(tm) and a garden hose?

All the best,

BG

 

[Vines]

Just curious: What does a portable fire sprinkler system consist of? A Rainbird(tm) and a garden hose?

All the best,

BG

They come in several flavors, from a self contained pressurized bottle that you hang just above the dangerous equipment, to a small pump and a couple fire sprinkler heads that gets installed on the wall surface.

Likely this would be a difficult process and might require Alternate Means and Material Request (AMMR). We just install them outside in Oakland, or convince the customer it's likely not worth the extra expense to put them inside the garage.

 

[franksayshai]

Just to update. Got approval from the HOA to install it outside behind my fence. Will be going with that and the install being this Friday.

 

[kairojya]

Congrats OP on the win with your HOA.

I think this is on topic for this thread: what is the consensus for what owners with Powerwalls indoors (garage, basement, etc) should do regarding heat/smoke detection or fire suppression? I figured a smoke detector would be sufficient, since we have an EV also parked in the garage most of the time and didn’t think about adding any special monitoring or suppression devices due to that. Granted there isn’t much draw on its battery overnight like our Powerwalls have while in Self Powered mode (i.e. the EV is largely inactive), but many people schedule charging of EVs overnight and the packs are much larger than most Powerwall setups.