PW drainage and ability to charge from the Grid questions - new install

[SMAlset]

Still in stages of finishing up install (PWs operational, solar installed but Solar inverter not commissioned, and no PTO) and Tesla Energy won't be back for maintenance issues until week of 14th. Our PWs on the 2nd were at 27% SOC and verified working by the PW team by turning off power briefly and seeing them kick on and house lights came on. Today the 3 PWs are now at 15% just sitting there. First question, does this drainage sound normal?

Bigger question given our current install state is "will our PWs even charge off the grid?" to be able to be useful should we get impacted by the projected SF Bay area PSPS. Would be nice to use the PWs (even if not able to recharge yet from Solar) to keep our refrig operating if needed for 2 days. My husband remembers our installer saying that if the system didn't see any solar charging after 3 days it would charge from the grid. That hasn't happened. The app had been showing we were in Stormwatch Standby mode (with 100% setting) and this morning my husband even set it to BackUp mode thinking it might trigger it to charge from the grid but still no resulting battery charging. I was looking through some of the threads here and wondering is this simply is because we have said we will be applying for the 26% Investment Tax Credit for our system this year and as such our system was set to not allow any charging of batteries from the Grid (someone mentioned 5-year agreement). Hard to believe that would apply if you go into Stormwatch mode.

Our installer was kind enough to reply to a text my husband sent about the charge level in our PWs and he recommended turning off the PWs for now, which we have done. Not sure if we will be affected by the looming PSPS in our area but if there's something we could do to increase the remaining battery level it would be nice.

Apart from the above two questions, I'm wondering based on our circumstances and what you guys know about using your system how we should have our PWs set right now? Being a weekend now no one at Energy to contact and given it's a holiday weekend suspect they won't be back until Tuesday. Thanks.

 

[Vines]

Still in stages of finishing up install (PWs operational, solar installed but Solar inverter not commissioned, and no PTO) and Tesla Energy won't be back for maintenance issues until week of 14th. Our PWs on the 2nd were at 27% SOC and verified working by the PW team by turning off power briefly and seeing them kick on and house lights came on. Today the 3 PWs are now at 15% just sitting there. First question, does this drainage sound normal?

Bigger question given our current install state is "will our PWs even charge off the grid?" to be able to be useful should we get impacted by the projected SF Bay area PSPS. Would be nice to use the PWs (even if not able to recharge yet from Solar) to keep our refrig operating if needed for 2 days. My husband remembers our installer saying that if the system didn't see any solar charging after 3 days it would charge from the grid. That hasn't happened. The app had been showing we were in Stormwatch Standby mode (with 100% setting) and this morning my husband even set it to BackUp mode thinking it might trigger it to charge from the grid but still no resulting battery charging. I was looking through some of the threads here and wondering is this simply is because we have said we will be applying for the 26% Investment Tax Credit for our system this year and as such our system was set to not allow any charging of batteries from the Grid (someone mentioned 5-year agreement). Hard to believe that would apply if you go into Stormwatch mode.

Our installer was kind enough to reply to a text my husband sent about the charge level in our PWs and he recommended turning off the PWs for now, which we have done. Not sure if we will be affected by the looming PSPS in our area but if there's something we could do to increase the remaining battery level it would be nice.

Apart from the above two questions, I'm wondering based on our circumstances and what you guys know about using your system how we should have our PWs set right now? Being a weekend now no one at Energy to contact and given it's a holiday weekend suspect they won't be back until Tuesday. Thanks.

Seems like your 3 PW consumed 4kW over 4 days, so about 300w each per day. I don't have more information but seems pretty low for the size of the unit and what it is doing.

Really unfortunate you cant just commission your PV system and run 100% off grid. Even if you commissioned your system, but left the solar breakers off, you'd be compliant with the requirement to not backfeed power. If the power was shutdown, you could just turn on your PV and get those PW charged.
You could also commission the PV, turn off the main and then turn on the PV and get some charge in them now while its sunny. What inverters do you have again? Might be a youtube video on how to commission. Hardest part is probably setting the proper grid code, once you have access.

Stormwatch mode to my understanding should trigger charging from the grid. There aren't any storms however to trigger this feature. You appear to be ready to take that charge if it happens.

You are correct that if applying for the ITC, then you need to charge from the PV only, but I believe stormwatch mode is the exception to this.

Basically you just need to turn on the PV long enough to wake it up, then throw the main breaker to get the PV to charge the Powerwalls.

This all assumes that everything is otherwise operational, and all CT are correctly in place. I cannot speak to that.

 

[getakey]

Going from 27% down to 15% doing nothing seems pretty odd to me. They were no powering anyting - correct?

 

[Vines]

Turning off the enable switch on the individual PW units will reduce their vampire draw. However they will not respond to a storm watch command if this does happen.

I no not think a PSPS counts as storm watch, but someone else might have actual experience as to this answer.

See edits to my post #2 clarifying the correct order.

 

[getakey]

Storm Watch is activated in advance of PSPS

 

[tmc42]

Seems like your 3 PW consumed 4kW over 4 days, so about 300w each per day. I don't have more information but seems pretty low for the size of the unit and what it is doing.

That was vampire drain. The app showed no energy usage from the PWs. The grid so far has always been supplying energy, except for a couple of minutes testing by the installer.

Might be a youtube video on how to commission.

The inverter is a SolarEdge 7600H. Are customers allowed to commission on our own? Haven’t even thought of that.

 

[DrSmile]

You can switch off the Powerwall for longer durations. I just turned mine on after a month because I had low voltage on the line coming from the grid and it would cause problems with the Powerwalls. It was charged to 98% a month ago and when I turned it on today it was at...98%

 

[getakey]

12% over 4 days is 3%/day. Seems like a large amount for vampire drain

 

[Vines]

That was vampire drain. The app showed no energy usage from the PWs. The grid so far has always been supplying energy, except for a couple of minutes testing by the installer.



The inverter is a SolarEdge 7600H. Are customers allowed to commission on our own? Haven’t even thought of that.

Its your equipment, but also your responsibility. They can always recommission it if they hate what you have done. Most of the time we leave them commissioned, but with the ac breaker turned off. This way when PTO happens it doesn't require a truck roll, the customer or sales person can just turn on the breaker.

To be cautious, It's totally possible there is additional work they have not completed, which also needs to be done in addition to commissioning the inverter itself, and they just didn't tell you. I'd personally be fine with playing with mine but you may not be. Sounds like the GW2 is comissioned, but the PV is not. The GW2 does need CT meters on the AC feed from your PV. If those CT(s) are properly installed, you are probably good to go since you have whole home backup. Checking your app for accuracy of each power flow would verify this pretty well.

EDIT: However if PSPS would trigger a storm watch, why isn't it already charging? I guess the warning isn't enough just yet?

 

[tmc42]

The GW2 does need CT meters on the ac feed from your PV.

The only flow we have seen in the app is Grid to Home (no solar yet). The installer did say they needed to come back to install Neurio CTs in the generation panel (scheduled for 9/15) to monitor solar, and left the 40A Solar breaker off. Does the missing CTs mean we can't self-commission and use the solar to charge the PWs?

If we can self-commission (still haven't looked up YouTube videos), would the order be:
1) commission solar
2) turn inverter from off to on
3) turn off 200A breaker in main panel, to let PW (at 15%) + PV power house, and PV also charge PW. [I would suffer w/o A/C to get the PW SOC up to prepare for PSPS. Home draw typically <= 1.1kW without A/C and EV charging.]

 

[wjgjr]

12% over 4 days is 3%/day. Seems like a large amount for vampire drain

It does seem a bit high, though looking at my data, the daily drain for August, with 2 PWs set to backup only and in a basement (so hopefully not too much heating/cooling needed) was almost exactly 2% (550 W). So, potentially, some combination of the short installer test, heating/cooling of the PWs, rounding, and the fact that the app scale is only 95% of the true scale could explain that 12% number.

 

[Vines]

The only flow we have seen in the app is Grid to Home (no solar yet). The installer did say they needed to come back to install Neurio CTs in the generation panel (scheduled for 9/15) to monitor solar, and left the 40A Solar breaker off. Does the missing CTs mean we can't self-commission and use the solar to charge the PWs?

If we can self-commission (still haven't looked up YouTube videos), would the order be:
1) commission solar
2) turn inverter from off to on
3) turn off 200A breaker in main panel, to let PW (at 15%) + PV power house, and PV also charge PW. [I would suffer w/o A/C to get the PW SOC up to prepare for PSPS. Home draw typically <= 1.1kW without A/C and EV charging.]

If your GW cannot monitor the PV, you cannot charge PW from it. There is no reason for you to turn on the PV, as far as the Powerwalls are concerned.

The Powerwalls have no idea how large the allowed PV generation source is to charge at that amount.

 

[SMAlset]

Storm Watch is activated in advance of PSPS

We had Stormwatch activated in the app and saw Standby before turning/switching off the PWs. Assume that means our system was then just waiting for Tesla to send the “charge from grid” command. Guess we’ll watch the app to see if the app state changes from Standby to something else and then turn back on the PWs and in meantime conserving what energy they currently have stored. Appreciate everyone’s feedback.

 

[BrettS]

I would not suggest trying to self commission. While it might be possible (assuming that all of the electrical work is done) I think at best it will just annoy your installers and at worst slow down your install when they come back to commission and set things up.

 

[BrettS]

12% over 4 days is 3%/day. Seems like a large amount for vampire drain

It sounds like they did test the system and run on the powerwalls for at least a little while. I suspect that is some of the drain and it’s not just vampire drain.

 

[getakey]

I'm kind of confused who is the OP. Seems like 2 different people posting about the same system

 

[SMAlset]

I'm kind of confused who is the OP. Seems like 2 different people posting about the same system

husband and wife LOL. Finally got him to come on and post .

 

[BrettS]

At this point I think your best bet is just waiting for a storm watch to be declared in your area. Maybe turn the Powerwalls off until it seems that a storm watch is likely to conserve the power that you do have.

But that said, I think that’s going above and beyond. The Powerwalls will work to keep their batteries safe and happy and they will shut themselves down if the battery level gets too low. Even if you just leave them on the don’t think anything will be damaged.

 

[BrettS]

We had Stormwatch activated in the app and saw Standby before turning/switching off the PWs. Assume that means our system was then just waiting for Tesla to send the “charge from grid” command. Guess we’ll watch the app to see if the app state changes from Standby to something else and then turn back on the PWs and in meantime conserving what energy they currently have stored. Appreciate everyone’s feedback.

That’s right. You can turn stormwatch on and it will go into standby mode until Tesla issues a stormwatch for your area. You can’t actually tell it to charge from the grid. You are only telling it that if a stormwatch is issued that you want it to charge from the grid.

If you had the setting off then even if Tesla issued a stormwatch your Powerwalls would ignore it and not charge from the grid.

 

[SMAlset]

Thanks was getting that impression from comments here. We just reset app setting so that we are no longer on Backup and verified Stormwatch setting was on.