so happy with my power wall1 but OMG what purchase and install experience!
installed on the 14th - 2 powerwalls watsonville, ca - roads were closed - power was out for 7 hours - install went ahead despite the circumstances - online by end of day - 1 hour PV solar charging - units arrived with 16% charge
installers were 2 hours late - they told me they didn’t know how far away my house was from their site - I’m not sure how you couldn’t know that given that the install was schedule 1st week of january , and the product ordered last may - you can’t check google maps to see how far you have to drive tomorrow
when they arrived they assessed the job as 2-3 day job, not a one day job, and since they had arrived late they would have to end early for the long commute back - I suggested why don’ they get started and see how far we can get - I didn’t think there was that much to do that couldn’t fit in a day’s work…
design called for install on non existent wall - well the wall isn’t non existent - but it’s shared wall with another townhome unit -and the design called for the units to be installed on the “outside” of my wall - which is the inside of my neighbor’s garage - that wasn’t going to work - this almost torpedoed the whole thing - i problem solved on site - Tesla installers were not that creative - apparently design changes aren’t allowed on site even when the design is wrong and the solution obvious!
they didn’t have necessary marterials to complete install - mentioned a 2nd visit to finish the install - called scheduling and they said 60 days from the 14th was first available appointment! sheesh - i’ve already been waiting a year!
visit to home depot with a shopping list and i brought back supplies and lunch for installers - this seemed to help
powerwalls would not boot up - no green lights! installers spent hour trying various things - i noticed the can-bus connectors were mis-wired - installer A had done one connector - installer b had done the other 2 - the order of wires was agreed upon by both of them - but not left to right or right to left - one connector was correct order but wrong orientation! fix the connector and voila powerwalls boot up! they wanted to leave and come back - thought the batteries might be bad - said 6 month wait for replacements
installers placed existing solar circuits in new sub panel away from breaker for solar monitor - i have enphase micro inverters and the enphase envoy monitor to see production and consumption - the monitor uses the X10 power line protocol to communicate with the microinverts - i was concerned about them being it two different sub panels on sepate sides of the gateway relay - they said it would be fine - guess what it wasn’t! i spent yesterday moving the envoy solar monitor breaker into same panel as solar breakers and everything immediately started working again!
commissioning the units did not go well - installers didn’t know how to use a wifi picker to find the gateway - and i watched them mistype the password 12 times despite me pointing out passwords are case sensitive - they had a different opinion - we completed the commissioning on my tablet with me running the setup wizard since they didn’t know how - seems pretty strait forward when i saw it for the 1st time - taught them a few things on my first run through
units were making some noise - asked installers they didn’t know - i learned later it was initial preconditioning
installers told me units would not provide power until PG&E remotely enables them via PG&E’s remote control - they could not override - this is 100% false and not true - i challenged them on this - we enabled them and after an hour the system started working!
initially all the power metrics in app were wonky - not making any sense -since I have other power sensors in my system, solar monitor and smart meter read out I was able to see everything was “working” fine, but the numbers in the Tesla app were just wrong, I re oriented and moved some of the power taps the installers had installed, and the numbers now make more sense and are mostly correct, only time they are wrong is when I’m charging the car.
i’m running 1.32 gateway firmware - not listed on website yet - no release notes!
been running in self powered mode for 2.5 days - it’s awesome!
still having some minor issues with power reporting in app - when i run the EV chargers on the non backup circuit it reports eEV current draw as solar power exported to the grid! it’s not -
purchase, design, wait, install, fix wrong design, correct installers on nearly everything, buy my own supplies, provide blind tech support to clues less installers, correct misinformation and ultimately set the system up myself and it works great! But Tesla is really really incompetent - great product - terrible purchase and acquisition process!
I love the product, but Tesla really has to send out people with a clue to install these things - my installers were 100% clueless, and in most cases wrong and didn’t understand what they were doing - if I hadn’t been there I’m sure it would not be installed or functional for at least 2 more visits each 60 days apart.
Tesla phone support has been fantastic and the people on the phone line are very knowledgeable and useful information - but Tesla’s installers were just awful - truly awful - it it wasn’t such a great product I would’ve returned it just based on the level of incompetence demonstrated by the crew Tesla sent to my site.
installed on the 14th - 2 powerwalls watsonville, ca - roads were closed - power was out for 7 hours - install went ahead despite the circumstances - online by end of day - 1 hour PV solar charging - units arrived with 16% charge
installers were 2 hours late - they told me they didn’t know how far away my house was from their site - I’m not sure how you couldn’t know that given that the install was schedule 1st week of january , and the product ordered last may - you can’t check google maps to see how far you have to drive tomorrow
when they arrived they assessed the job as 2-3 day job, not a one day job, and since they had arrived late they would have to end early for the long commute back - I suggested why don’ they get started and see how far we can get - I didn’t think there was that much to do that couldn’t fit in a day’s work…
design called for install on non existent wall - well the wall isn’t non existent - but it’s shared wall with another townhome unit -and the design called for the units to be installed on the “outside” of my wall - which is the inside of my neighbor’s garage - that wasn’t going to work - this almost torpedoed the whole thing - i problem solved on site - Tesla installers were not that creative - apparently design changes aren’t allowed on site even when the design is wrong and the solution obvious!
they didn’t have necessary marterials to complete install - mentioned a 2nd visit to finish the install - called scheduling and they said 60 days from the 14th was first available appointment! sheesh - i’ve already been waiting a year!
visit to home depot with a shopping list and i brought back supplies and lunch for installers - this seemed to help
powerwalls would not boot up - no green lights! installers spent hour trying various things - i noticed the can-bus connectors were mis-wired - installer A had done one connector - installer b had done the other 2 - the order of wires was agreed upon by both of them - but not left to right or right to left - one connector was correct order but wrong orientation! fix the connector and voila powerwalls boot up! they wanted to leave and come back - thought the batteries might be bad - said 6 month wait for replacements
installers placed existing solar circuits in new sub panel away from breaker for solar monitor - i have enphase micro inverters and the enphase envoy monitor to see production and consumption - the monitor uses the X10 power line protocol to communicate with the microinverts - i was concerned about them being it two different sub panels on sepate sides of the gateway relay - they said it would be fine - guess what it wasn’t! i spent yesterday moving the envoy solar monitor breaker into same panel as solar breakers and everything immediately started working again!
commissioning the units did not go well - installers didn’t know how to use a wifi picker to find the gateway - and i watched them mistype the password 12 times despite me pointing out passwords are case sensitive - they had a different opinion - we completed the commissioning on my tablet with me running the setup wizard since they didn’t know how - seems pretty strait forward when i saw it for the 1st time - taught them a few things on my first run through
units were making some noise - asked installers they didn’t know - i learned later it was initial preconditioning
installers told me units would not provide power until PG&E remotely enables them via PG&E’s remote control - they could not override - this is 100% false and not true - i challenged them on this - we enabled them and after an hour the system started working!
initially all the power metrics in app were wonky - not making any sense -since I have other power sensors in my system, solar monitor and smart meter read out I was able to see everything was “working” fine, but the numbers in the Tesla app were just wrong, I re oriented and moved some of the power taps the installers had installed, and the numbers now make more sense and are mostly correct, only time they are wrong is when I’m charging the car.
i’m running 1.32 gateway firmware - not listed on website yet - no release notes!
been running in self powered mode for 2.5 days - it’s awesome!
still having some minor issues with power reporting in app - when i run the EV chargers on the non backup circuit it reports eEV current draw as solar power exported to the grid! it’s not -
purchase, design, wait, install, fix wrong design, correct installers on nearly everything, buy my own supplies, provide blind tech support to clues less installers, correct misinformation and ultimately set the system up myself and it works great! But Tesla is really really incompetent - great product - terrible purchase and acquisition process!
I love the product, but Tesla really has to send out people with a clue to install these things - my installers were 100% clueless, and in most cases wrong and didn’t understand what they were doing - if I hadn’t been there I’m sure it would not be installed or functional for at least 2 more visits each 60 days apart.
Tesla phone support has been fantastic and the people on the phone line are very knowledgeable and useful information - but Tesla’s installers were just awful - truly awful - it it wasn’t such a great product I would’ve returned it just based on the level of incompetence demonstrated by the crew Tesla sent to my site.
