I've observed three times over the past year that my location in upstate New York has been under a National Weather Service tornado watch yet Powerwall's Stormwatch feature did not activate. Have you observed the Stormwatch feature activating while you're under a NWS tornado watch? In what location? And were there other NWS alerts as well at the time?
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Powerwall Stormwatch on NWS tornado watch
- Thread starter twocoasts
- Start date
I have been under tornado watches here (not any warnings since I got solar/PW.) I have not seen it activate storm watch. I believe storm watch does not activate for watches - only warnings. Typically the watches are accompanied by severe thunderstorm watches and/or warnings.
Further, I have seen it not activate for thunderstorm warnings or for flash flood warnings. So, my assumption is it only activates for a subset of warnings. It is possible Tesla feels these warnings either don't get enough notice before the event to do much good, are less likely to create an issue (flash flood may be an example,) or maybe even are too common to use for storm watch (since I am not certain there is anything that would officially authorize its use, particularly for those claiming the ITC, so over-use could conceivably put somebody on the wrong side of the thresholds for claiming it.) It is also possible that I just didn't notice it (though I know I have not gotten notifications of any storm watch events.)
It would be helpful for Tesla to list the rules for storm watch - exactly what NWS events trigger them and if there are any other caveats (like not triggering if the warning is for an hour or less, as an example.)
Further, I have seen it not activate for thunderstorm warnings or for flash flood warnings. So, my assumption is it only activates for a subset of warnings. It is possible Tesla feels these warnings either don't get enough notice before the event to do much good, are less likely to create an issue (flash flood may be an example,) or maybe even are too common to use for storm watch (since I am not certain there is anything that would officially authorize its use, particularly for those claiming the ITC, so over-use could conceivably put somebody on the wrong side of the thresholds for claiming it.) It is also possible that I just didn't notice it (though I know I have not gotten notifications of any storm watch events.)
It would be helpful for Tesla to list the rules for storm watch - exactly what NWS events trigger them and if there are any other caveats (like not triggering if the warning is for an hour or less, as an example.)
Stormwatch has not lived up to my expectations. I've had three thunderstorm warnings for my location since commissioning. On the first, it was activated after the storm went through. Warnings two and three simultaneously overlapped my specific location. Nothing. I can see where they might not pay attention to my particular site. My city inspector said this was the first battery installation he had to look at.
A problem with automated criteria during thunderstorm season is advance notice. A human watching the radar can see the severe weather approaching a location well ahead. I know I can hit backup only mode (which I do), but that doesn't make the sun shine enough on my tiny system to pack much energy into the Powerwall.
A problem with automated criteria during thunderstorm season is advance notice. A human watching the radar can see the severe weather approaching a location well ahead. I know I can hit backup only mode (which I do), but that doesn't make the sun shine enough on my tiny system to pack much energy into the Powerwall.
Thanks for the responses. To add to the data pool, I'll observe that I did notice Stormwatch was triggered during a NWS winter storm warning in my area this past winter, but not during a NWS severe thunderstorm warning this summer.
I wonder about the geographic influence on the relationship between Stormwatch and NWS watches or warnings. I gather the algorithm for triggering Stormwatch is written by Tesla (in California) but most of the possible triggers--NWS watches and warning--are issued by the NWS offices distributed across the country. My impression from comments on this forum and elsewhere is that users in California generally find the instances when Stormwatch is triggered (or not) to be reasonably predictable and logical--and they have included emergencies that were not NWS warnings per se. Users elsewhere in the US, not so much.
I wonder about the geographic influence on the relationship between Stormwatch and NWS watches or warnings. I gather the algorithm for triggering Stormwatch is written by Tesla (in California) but most of the possible triggers--NWS watches and warning--are issued by the NWS offices distributed across the country. My impression from comments on this forum and elsewhere is that users in California generally find the instances when Stormwatch is triggered (or not) to be reasonably predictable and logical--and they have included emergencies that were not NWS warnings per se. Users elsewhere in the US, not so much.
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Sitting here with a severe thunderstorm warning and a tornado watch, it occurred to me to re-read the "Learn More" section under the Storm Watch setting. One item of note - it says "As your Powerwall learns more about the type of storms that typically cause outages, events that trigger Storm Watch will be adjusted."
This begs the question - is it individualized to the PW (and I assume, really, the TEG) such that one person could get it triggered for thunderstorm warnings because that causes frequent outages for them or their area where somebody else doesn't because power hasn't gone out in the past? Or is it really an overall thing where Tesla decides that a particular type of warning is tied to enough outages that it gets enabled nationally?
If it really is based on history, would tripping the main breaker during each storm train the TEG to call for Storm Watch?
This begs the question - is it individualized to the PW (and I assume, really, the TEG) such that one person could get it triggered for thunderstorm warnings because that causes frequent outages for them or their area where somebody else doesn't because power hasn't gone out in the past? Or is it really an overall thing where Tesla decides that a particular type of warning is tied to enough outages that it gets enabled nationally?
If it really is based on history, would tripping the main breaker during each storm train the TEG to call for Storm Watch?
And I just had a 12-minute outage reported by the app (I think it was actually a brief flicker and maybe some more flickers keeping the gateway from re-connecting since neighbors appeared to have power) so maybe next time it will go into storm watch for me.
We had a few flickers up here, but no outage.
But, obviously there was a tornado watch and warning issued. No Storm Watch mode activated.
