Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

Powerwall Software 1.46

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.
F86FE2AE-AAA9-4585-B61E-2F00C11BD9CE.png
2380EC61-FCD3-4858-964E-75FC229BAB1C.png
 
Vehicle Charging During Power Outage | Tesla Powerwall

Powerwall now coordinates with Tesla vehicles during a power outage to charge your car without exceeding the energy and power capabilities of your Powerwall. The Powerwall reacts to the power needs of your home and will slow or stop your vehicle's charging, keeping your home loads powered.

During a power outage, your Tesla vehicle will charge from the Powerwall whenever it is above the threshold set in the Tesla app. You can change this threshold to balance your home and transportation energy needs.

Keep your vehicle plugged in while the sun is shining and surplus solar will charge your vehicle. Charging stops when Powerwall’s stored energy drops below your set threshold.

I had my WC put in the non backed up load panel to avoid the car discharging the PW's in a power event. If I knew this was coming, I would have left it in the back up load panel.

Also would be nice if they could expand the vehicle charging threshold to also function during normal operation so charging the car overnight won't drain the PW's but instead pull from the grid below a set threshold.
 
Last edited:
Here is an article.

Tesla releases new feature to charge your car with Powerwall during power outages - Electrek

Next feature needed: allow a Tesla car to directly charge from excess solar without touching grid power. Currently one would have to manually adjust the car charge rate to closely match production or turn off the main breaker to the grid (wearing down the Powerwalls).

A great way to be green by minimizing energy import of "dirty" electricity. This is a way to also minimize the in-and-out penalty/cost of non-by-passable chargers (NBC) related to a net energy metering (NEM) 2.0 time of use (TOU) rate schedule.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jaed and abasile
I'm confused. I could already charge my car from my PW2s if the power was out. How does this change anything?
It is not about charging your car from the PW it is about NOT charging your car from the PW when your PW is in the path of charging your car, now you can configure thresholds and control how much of the PW charge will go to your car. (during a power outage)
 
Wow, this is great! Hopefully this is just the start of things to come regarding vehicle + powerwall + solar integration!


I agree, I think this feature is awesome. I remember having a discussion on one of the "I want to use my car as a battery and not buy powerwalls!" threads that pop up from time to time. It was my opinion (and still is) that, eventually, at some point, Tesla powerwall owners who also own tesla cars may see that level of integration.

If you have a powerwall, you (theoretically) have already gotten permits to get it installed, and it already has all the shut off equipment necessary to protect both your home and linemen working on a downed line in an outage. Since such a person would have the gateway, all permits, etc... seems like it would be mostly software related provided the existing charging ports are two way (have no idea) or, a swap of charging ports if they are not (along with software).

I really feel that tesla could sell the echosystem of powerwall, car, solar even more by integrating their products so that the car could charge the powerwall (or be charged by the powerwall) etc.

They could really drive business to the powerwall and car as an integrated battery solution that way, and I am SURE they have thought of it. They likely couldnt even handle the business it would generate

I feel like this is coming at "some" point.. .further integration for tesla powerwall and car owners between the two products, and this is just the opening "MVP" (minimum viable product) from that agile team working on that feature.

Im excited like you for what this might evolve into.
 
  • Like
Reactions: abasile
Yeah, it really means the car can be aware of the outage to not suck the PW battery dry.

It would be nice if they had a similar feature for air conditioners, to keep the a/c from sucking the batteries dry in an outage. I can manually control the a/c units during an outage, but if power goes out at night in the summertime, I won't know until I wake up to a dead PW the next day.
 
  • Like
Reactions: aesculus
It would be nice if they had a similar feature for air conditioners, to keep the a/c from sucking the batteries dry in an outage. I can manually control the a/c units during an outage, but if power goes out at night in the summertime, I won't know until I wake up to a dead PW the next day.
I still have this on my todo list. Sense when the grid is down and turn off my heat pumps automatically.