Regular Powerwall Related Failures?

[BlueMoon23]

I have had a Powerwall 2 installed for around 10 months and have had several significant failures. The first incident occurred within around six months when the Powerwall switched to battery, the whole house tripped and I could not restore power for around 14 hours; in the end I switched back to the grid manually following a discussion with the installer and got the house powered; when switched to battery, the power appeared to be oscillating. I isolated all the individual circuits, but the MCB kept tripping. This was at the weekend and there was no support from Tesla. I got my installer around the following day and he observed unexpected/unexplained voltages in the Gateway.

It took a further two months for tesla and the Installer to organise and take another look, and during the testing the system failed again. The installer took the view that the house was the problem and not the Powerwall, although he had no evidence for this.

The Powerwall is clearly sending events to Tesla that align with the failures, but I have no idea what these include and Tesla won't share the information.

I have subsequently had two further trips in the last week both tripping the MCB and not individual circuits. Prior to the Powerwall being fitted, my household electrics were stable and I had no spurious trips.

Has anyone else experienced this, and does anyone know what is contained in the events that are sent to Tesla?

 

[zƬesla]

When I had major issues with the whole house losing power, it was caused by there being too much solar being generated for the number of PowerWalls installed. Once the installer put in an additional PW, those issues resolved.

 

[yorokobi]

We had a PowerWall installed to protect us from rolling blackouts in California. It's running with a dual Tesla (Solar City) solar panel system. We do not own a Tesla vehicle.

Because it wasn't installed with the solar system, we had to use an approved 3rd party installation company. Before the PowerWall was installed, our kitchen refrigerator had been working fine. It was in the house when we moved in - a Frigidaire.

After the PowerWall was installed, the refridgerator worked ok and the temperature got back down to operating temperatures. However, after a month had passed, the freezer and fridge started warming up slowly. First, it stopped keeping ice cream cold, then the icemaker stopped working. So we purchased a new fridge, a Whirlpool, thinking it just failed.

And it worked fine, but the freezer only went down to 0˚. And after about a month, this new refridgerator started warming up the same way. We had a tech from the company who installed the PowerWall come out and test the system - he said it was working fine. An appliance repairman come out and look at it. He replaced the compressor and the inverter.

Now it's warming up again. I've set the PowerWall to only be used as backup, hoping that will help.

 

[BGbreeder]

I have had a Powerwall 2 installed for around 10 months and have had several significant failures. The first incident occurred within around six months when the Powerwall switched to battery, the whole house tripped and I could not restore power for around 14 hours; in the end I switched back to the grid manually following a discussion with the installer and got the house powered; when switched to battery, the power appeared to be oscillating. I isolated all the individual circuits, but the MCB kept tripping. This was at the weekend and there was no support from Tesla. I got my installer around the following day and he observed unexpected/unexplained voltages in the Gateway.

It took a further two months for tesla and the Installer to organise and take another look, and during the testing the system failed again. The installer took the view that the house was the problem and not the Powerwall, although he had no evidence for this.

The Powerwall is clearly sending events to Tesla that align with the failures, but I have no idea what these include and Tesla won't share the information.

I have subsequently had two further trips in the last week both tripping the MCB and not individual circuits. Prior to the Powerwall being fitted, my household electrics were stable and I had no spurious trips.

Has anyone else experienced this, and does anyone know what is contained in the events that are sent to Tesla?

Can you elaborate on the sentence

I isolated all the individual circuits, but the MCB kept tripping.

Did you have all of your branch circuits off and the mains kept tripping?
Are you solar or grid, or both, charging your Powerwall(s)?
What is the ratio of the solar (if you have it) to your Powerwall(s)?
Have you checked the Gateway for the settings on allowed charging/discharging settings?

How is your Powerwall configured in your app with respect to charge/usage settings?

All the best,

BG

 

[yorokobi]

In my case, nothing tripped.
Solar charges, not the grid.
I was leaving the percentage backup/self powered at around 40%.
The fridge wasn't running in the evening with 'self-powered', when I set it to 100% backup I saw later the fridge was running and it's getting cooler.

 

[yorokobi]

And it seems to be stuck at 20 degrees F

 

[ucmndd]

I don’t see any particularly obvious way a malfunctioning powerwall could make your fridge warmer than expected. I don’t think there’s causation here.

 

[aesculus]

In my case, nothing tripped.
Solar charges, not the grid.
I was leaving the percentage backup/self powered at around 40%.
The fridge wasn't running in the evening with 'self-powered', when I set it to 100% backup I saw later the fridge was running and it's getting cooler.

Get yourself something to measure your frequency (Kill A Watt). You don't need to plug your fridge in, just have it measure something in your house.

These modern fridges could be frequency sensitive and the default settings for PWs for frequency adjustment is off the wall. Could possibly be related.

 

[ucmndd]

Get yourself something to measure your frequency (Kill A Watt). You don't need to plug your fridge in, just have it measure something in your house.

These modern fridges could be frequency sensitive and the default settings for PWs for frequency adjustment is off the wall. Could possibly be related.

That might be something to chase down if your fridge warmed up when off grid, but when you’re grid connected the grid is controlling frequency, not the powerwall.

 

[aesculus]

That might be something to chase down if your fridge warmed up when off grid, but when you’re grid connected the grid is controlling frequency, not the powerwall.

Sorry. Wasn't quite obvious what the powerwall state was when they experienced the issue. I would still get the Kill A Watt so you know what the utility voltage and frequency are. A bad utility transformer can also cause power quality issues.