powerwall time based control working?

[PITA]

I’ve not had a power cut since installing my PWs. Damn it.

You can see why we had ours...

We've had loads this year... Sept 10th was a piss-take... they told me they had a faulty cable, their Substation kept resetting the auto-breaker until the cable finally burned through so they could dig it up...

I've also got a local UPS in my Home Office to 100% ensure no supply drop on our Wifi routers and firewalls in case the Tesla Gateway isn't quick enough.

Plus a Surge Protection device on our Consumer Board to protect our smart home devices...

 

[ACarneiro]

Out of interest, how seamless was the switching by the Gateway?

 

[Dilly]

Mine are Powerwall 2’s the first was capped at 3KWh discharge. they were uncapped when the second went in and now handle 10kwh.
at first, just putting a kettle on drew from the grid.
sometimes the gateway is completely seamless and a couple times not.
I’d have a gateway. It’s the icing on the cake.

our tickover house draw is 400w. We have 2 washing machines 2 tumble dryers, dishwasher, all electric kitchen 2 EV’s etc. On an ordinary day, when solar has ended, overnight draw is about 6 kWh with nothing heavy running.
in summer I draw 1Kwh from the grid per week and that is just the PW balancing against the grid. That just a benefit of solar. In winter I only draw from the grid at night to charge the cars and PW’s. Solar is poor.
if you can target all your large draw at night, you should be OK. Adding a second PW was substantially cheaper.
There is a downside. I think that constantly charging a PW to the max from the grid has an effect on warranty. Charging from solar doesn’t. No idea why. That may have changed though. It makes no sense.

 

[kuruma]

PITA is aptly named if he likes gloating about his neighbours (elderly maybe?) struggling around in the dark.

Anyway, be aware @ACarneiro that YMMV for backup switching. All was fine for the first six months or so, but then things started to go awry. We've had engineers out not once, not twice, but three times to deal with the fact that we were getting powercuts when there was plenty of juice in the PW. On one of those occasions I lost four hours of sound engineering work when the blackout corrupted the file on my desktop. Not a happy man.

Despite all those engineers coming out, no one ever found a problem with the wiring, the gateway or the powerwall. Tesla blamed the installer. The installer simply laughed and said that everything he does has to be signed off by them anyway so no one was willing to take the blame.

Until it proves itself to us as being stable and preventing outages on a regular basis, we don't trust it. If we get another year like the last, I'll be looking for some kind of compensation because it is not a cheap add on.

 

[Dilly]

PITA is aptly named if he likes gloating about his neighbours (elderly maybe?) struggling around in the dark.

Anyway, be aware @ACarneiro that YMMV for backup switching. All was fine for the first six months or so, but then things started to go awry. We've had engineers out not once, not twice, but three times to deal with the fact that we were getting powercuts when there was plenty of juice in the PW. On one of those occasions I lost four hours of sound engineering work when the blackout corrupted the file on my desktop. Not a happy man.

Despite all those engineers coming out, no one ever found a problem with the wiring, the gateway or the powerwall. Tesla blamed the installer. The installer simply laughed and said that everything he does has to be signed off by them anyway so no one was willing to take the blame.

Until it proves itself to us as being stable and preventing outages on a regular basis, we don't trust it. If we get another year like the last, I'll be looking for some kind of compensation because it is not a cheap add on.

Wow. That’s terrible! I’ve had a couple that were so micro that the gateway may not have had time to react. The longer one’s seconds, minutes and hours all get dealt with OK.

 

[ACarneiro]

Anyway, be aware @ACarneiro that YMMV for backup switching. All was fine for the first six months or so, but then things started to go awry. We've had engineers out not once, not twice, but three times to deal with the fact that we were getting powercuts when there was plenty of juice in the PW. On one of those occasions I lost four hours of sound engineering work when the blackout corrupted the file on my desktop. Not a happy man.

Despite all those engineers coming out, no one ever found a problem with the wiring, the gateway or the powerwall. Tesla blamed the installer. The installer simply laughed and said that everything he does has to be signed off by them anyway so no one was willing to take the blame.

Until it proves itself to us as being stable and preventing outages on a regular basis, we don't trust it. If we get another year like the last, I'll be looking for some kind of compensation because it is not a cheap add on.

Well, I still have UPSes on my servers, now I feel that it’s justified. Thank you for your thoughts

 

[PITA]

PITA is aptly named if he likes gloating about his neighbours (elderly maybe?) struggling around in the dark.

Anyway, be aware @ACarneiro that YMMV for backup switching. All was fine for the first six months or so, but then things started to go awry. We've had engineers out not once, not twice, but three times to deal with the fact that we were getting powercuts when there was plenty of juice in the PW. On one of those occasions I lost four hours of sound engineering work when the blackout corrupted the file on my desktop. Not a happy man.

Despite all those engineers coming out, no one ever found a problem with the wiring, the gateway or the powerwall. Tesla blamed the installer. The installer simply laughed and said that everything he does has to be signed off by them anyway so no one was willing to take the blame.

Until it proves itself to us as being stable and preventing outages on a regular basis, we don't trust it. If we get another year like the last, I'll be looking for some kind of compensation because it is not a cheap add on.

Haha... well we have 6 outdoor 13 amp sockets scattered around and I've told our neighbour next door (elderly) that we can run an extension cable to her house in an Emergency. .... everybody else can FRO

If our Powerwalls are fully charged, I'll whack all our perimeter house and garden lights on ... can get some good photographs against the pitch black background

Who needs ROI when you have LMAO

 

[PITA]

Wow. That’s terrible! I’ve had a couple that were so micro that the gateway may not have had time to react. The longer one’s seconds, minutes and hours all get dealt with OK.

Yep, same here.

BUT... I've also had the Gateway 2 trip over too late and our Wifi plays a restart. Which is a problem because we always have about 60 connected devices, up to 100 devices at times so it can cause chaos...

We also have UPS in our Office to prevent this now.

Everything else isn't an issue.

 

[PITA]

Mine are Powerwall 2’s the first was capped at 3KWh discharge. they were uncapped when the second went in and now handle 10kwh.
at first, just putting a kettle on drew from the grid.
sometimes the gateway is completely seamless and a couple times not.
I’d have a gateway. It’s the icing on the cake.

our tickover house draw is 400w. We have 2 washing machines 2 tumble dryers, dishwasher, all electric kitchen 2 EV’s etc. On an ordinary day, when solar has ended, overnight draw is about 6 kWh with nothing heavy running.
in summer I draw 1Kwh from the grid per week and that is just the PW balancing against the grid. That just a benefit of solar. In winter I only draw from the grid at night to charge the cars and PW’s. Solar is poor.
if you can target all your large draw at night, you should be OK. Adding a second PW was substantially cheaper.
There is a downside. I think that constantly charging a PW to the max from the grid has an effect on warranty. Charging from solar doesn’t. No idea why. That may have changed though. It makes no sense.

Our house is very similar to yours...

About 600w baseline, with two freezers, two fridges, washing machine, tumble dryer, induction hob, cooker, air conditioning, 60 connected smart devices, two dehumidifiers, two showers, etc...

Overnight we charge at around 18kW (80 amps) from the Grid. With about 110kWh storage. (27kWh in Powerwalls, 82kWh in EV M3P).

Then we're good to go.

In Summer, we flick over to a 7.2kWp Solar Array which pretty much keeps us topped up.

 

[kuruma]

interesting that others had issues with micro cuts (is that a term?). The first time it happend to us, lights all dimmed and buzzed for a couple of seconds before it all went off. Other times, we've had the lights flicker and wifi die but even the PC stay on. There seems no predictability to it. Tesla told us that our incoming power supply fluctuated too much and sent us graphs to prove it. Northern Powergrid guy came and showed me how stable it was live on his little meter thingy. No idea who to believe but last on the list is a bunch of guys monitoring my backup gateway from somewhere on the continent

 

[PITA]

interesting that others had issues with micro cuts (is that a term?). The first time it happend to us, lights all dimmed and buzzed for a couple of seconds before it all went off. Other times, we've had the lights flicker and wifi die but even the PC stay on. There seems no predictability to it. Tesla told us that our incoming power supply fluctuated too much and sent us graphs to prove it. Northern Powergrid guy came and showed me how stable it was live on his little meter thingy. No idea who to believe but last on the list is a bunch of guys monitoring my backup gateway from somewhere on the continent

I've had everything from 'totally seamless' to 'death chair light flickering'

So I think it depends how 'awake' the Gateway 2 is at the time

If the Grid is completely shut off... I think the switch is seemless.

If the Grid is fluctuating, like a fuse going, or a cable failing... it can be dragged out as the power surges back and forth...

... maybe?

 

[PITA]

... I am sneakily thinking of a 3rd Powerwall... but keeping my powder dry for V3

 

[Dilly]

... I am sneakily thinking of a 3rd Powerwall... but keeping my powder dry for V3

I’ve thought about that too. Hard to justify though. Most mornings from March to October I start the day with 70%. Following Sunday roast & washing days perhaps as low as 50%. Day like today - not much happening. Had 72% this morning, put 1KWh in the Tesla, 2KWh in the Outlander, filled the Powerwalls and heated the hot water. Solar has produced 25kWh and 5 of that was exported :-(
it extra backup and more cheap rate but the 4 hour cheap rate window can only provide so much…

 

[PITA]

I’ve thought about that too. Hard to justify though. Most mornings from March to October I start the day with 70%. Following Sunday roast & washing days perhaps as low as 50%. Day like today - not much happening. Had 72% this morning, put 1KWh in the Tesla, 2KWh in the Outlander, filled the Powerwalls and heated the hot water. Solar has produced 25kWh and 5 of that was exported :-(
it extra backup and more cheap rate but the 4 hour cheap rate window can only provide so much…

Our 4 hour download window can be 'unlimited' with 3 phase... but I'm reluctant to go that route yet in case I attract the wrong attention.

Anything over 1 MWh could move me out of 'domestic' 5% tax territory...

 

[Dilly]

Our 4 hour download window can be 'unlimited' with 3 phase... but I'm reluctant to go that route yet in case I attract the wrong attention.

Anything over 1 MWh could move me out of 'domestic' 5% tax territory...

Yes. Keep your head down!

 

[scdoubleu]

You guys are not helping my temptation to go down the 3-phase route at some point. The end of the DNO's cable's already on my property, FFS!

Not sure SWMBO would sanction (puts wet finger in air) the 6K for 8m of trench/cable, DNO inspection, and a new CU. Oh, and 2nd PW on top!

Steve

 

[PITA]

You guys are not helping my temptation to go down the 3-phase route at some point. The end of the DNO's cable's already on my property, FFS!

Not sure SWMBO would sanction (puts wet finger in air) the 6K for 8m of trench/cable, DNO inspection, and a new CU. Oh, and 2nd PW on top!

Steve

+ Two 23kW Car Chargers with load balancing

 

[PITA]

Yes. Keep your head down!

At the moment we qualify under 'de minimas' domestic 5% tax rules.

But during winter I'll be using my free Supercharger miles to charge the car... and keep our Domestic downloads below 1MWh per month.

It's Rule 5.2 that concerns me

Fuel and power (VAT Notice 701/19)

Find out what VAT should be charged on supplies of fuel and power if you're a supplier or a user.

www.gov.uk

5.2 Supplies of small (de minimis) quantities
Supplies of not more than an average rate of 33 kilowatt hours per day, 1,000 kilowatt hours per month, of electricity to one customer at any one of the customer’s premises are subject to VAT at the reduced rate. This applies whether the bill is based on a meter reading by either you or your customer or on an estimate.

 

[mnobleuk]

Ok... something very important here to factor in...

Discharge Capability

A single Powerwall 2 can only discharge continously at 5kW

Many thanks for this - while we don't have electric showers, oven + kettle can probably get close to that. I was under the impression the powerwall was 7kw (or is that >1) ?

Also if you dont mind could you tell me how much it cost including install ? I haven't been able to find a definitive answer - its almost like its secret. (Maybe it is and you are all under NDAs lol)

 

[PITA]

So... I'm not sure if they average it out over a whole year... in which case I'm good.

But if they average it out over a Month... I'll be stuffed in Winter...