requirements for wall mounting a powerwall

[cyr0nk0r]

Based on others experiences, what have the installers told you are the general rules/guidelines they follow when wall mounting powerwalls?
Obviously they need to go into studs, but are there any other requirements? How high is the maximum height they will mounting them off the ground? What if the studs aren't perfectly lines up for where you want the powerwall mounted? Do they have ways to slide them over a few inches either way or what?
Just looking for general feedback based on others experiences?

 

[BrettS]

Here’s the installation manual:

https://www.tesla.com/sites/default...werwall_2_AC_BU_NA-EN_Installation_Manual.pdf

It talks about anchoring requirements as well as maximum height in there.

 

[jjrandorin]

OP if I remember correctly, when I looked at the bracket that was used by the install team to mount the powerwalls on my garage wall, it looked similar to the process you would use to wall mount a TV.

The bracket is long enough to cover a couple of studs, with several mounting holes in the top (again, from memory). I havent wall mounted a powerwall, but have wall mounted several TVs from 40inch ones up to my 150 lb 85 inch Main TV, so am fairly familiar with that process and it looked similar.

Mounting height I am sure is in the manual that was linked, but there are also code requirements that may be local to you. Where I am, the power switch needs to be "no higher than X" off the ground so that it can be reached by someone, for example. You will not be mounting powerwalls one above the other on a wall, for example, but more than one can go on the same wall, in general.

 

[CrazyRabbit]

installers in texas don't care about the height limits of the switch, and from what i've see inspectors will not care about switch height.

 

[SoundDaTrumpet]

Tesla uses a portable lift. Anything higher than thirty some inches above the floor will go unassisted. Here is a photo of the bracket.

Generally only one load per stud unless the home was engineered to support the load.

The wall in the photo is fire-rated as there is living space on the other side. When installing garage storage, I discovered that behind the drywall there is a layer of plywood over the studs; hence, the fire rating. I elected against the extra $1,000 hidden conduit because Tesla did not want to hide that section before traversing through soffits to Gateway on the other side of the garage. The exposed conduit looks good matched with the zinc-coated garage hardware.

The white pad is used to support the Powerwall when floor mounting. Tesla pulls the pad so the Powerwall slip into the notches. Precise handling which is why the lift is so needful for wall mounting. While he prayed that he’d hit the stud, I also prayed he wouldn’t injure himself as well. Enough green energy was harnessed from above to make things go without a hitch.

 

[wwhitney]

I discovered that behind the drywall there is a layer of plywood over the studs; hence, the fire rating.

The drywall provides the fire rating; the plywood is likely because it's a shear wall to provide lateral force resistance (earthquake). Or it could just be that someone was planning ahead to allow for each cabinet mounting.

Cheers, Wayne

 

[SoundDaTrumpet]

@wwhitney Absolutely right. Thanks for the correction.

 

[gcsutton]

I wanted to mount 6 PWs to a 40 foot long shear wall with full plywood and dry wall structurally rated at 20,000 lbs load. Tesla said 3 was the max they would put on any wall, no matter what. Never did get a straight answer why other than 'policy'

 

[bob_p]

We considered wall mounting our 4 PW and after consulting with the installer, agreed to go with floor mounting instead.

A huge advantage of floor mounting is that you can stack more than 1 PW in the same location. In our garage, the PowerWalls were installed in two stacks of two PW. While this sticks out from the wall further than 1 PowerWall, it's still not enough to prevent us from parking our Model S on that side of the garage.

We have one more location that outer wall where we have enough room to add a 3rd stack of 2 PowerWalls if we decide to add more capacity in the future.

With a wall mount, they are only supposed to mount a single PowerWall in each location - which will use more wall space if you have multiple PowerWalls.

 

[SSonnentag]

We went with a triple-stack. Our porch is 12 feet deep, so space isn't an issue.

 

[jboy210]

We considered wall mounting our 4 PW and after consulting with the installer, agreed to go with floor mounting instead.

A huge advantage of floor mounting is that you can stack more than 1 PW in the same location. In our garage, the PowerWalls were installed in two stacks of two PW. While this sticks out from the wall further than 1 PowerWall, it's still not enough to prevent us from parking our Model S on that side of the garage.

We have one more location that outer wall where we have enough room to add a 3rd stack of 2 PowerWalls if we decide to add more capacity in the future.

With a wall mount, they are only supposed to mount a single PowerWall in each location - which will use more wall space if you have multiple PowerWalls.
View attachment 605537

Is that a thermostat on the wall between the PW stacks?

 

[SSonnentag]

Is that a thermostat on the wall between the PW stacks?

Looks like a solar production display.

 

[jedmo]

Just got mine installed today. In my area, the Powerwalls must be installed 3 feet from the ground.

 

[Vines]

I wanted to mount 6 PWs to a 40 foot long shear wall with full plywood and dry wall structurally rated at 20,000 lbs load. Tesla said 3 was the max they would put on any wall, no matter what. Never did get a straight answer why other than 'policy'

Likely the reason for the 3 maximum is the cookie cutter approach. They don't want to do hard installs or extras. I recommend a good 3rd party installer.

Once the proper structural engineering and evaluation is done this is not unreasonable to mount more than 3 to a wall. We just had a structural evaluation completed with 6 mounted to a wall in 2 stacks of 3 elevated on an 18" pedestal to adhere to the Woodside Fire Requirements

 

[gcsutton]

Once the proper structural engineering and evaluation is done this is not unreasonable to mount more than 3 to a wall. We just had a structural evaluation completed with 6 mounted to a wall in 2 stacks of 3 elevated on an 18" pedestal to adhere to the Woodside Fire Requirements

Great idea, I had the structural analysis done a few years ago.

 

[cyr0nk0r]

Looks like a solar production display.

yeah, can we get more pics of that panel? What is it? What is it displaying? How is it displaying that data?

 

[BGbreeder]

@SSonnentag Love the porch installation. Wish we could do the stacking here, but not currently allowed due to fire code issues.

...Once the proper structural engineering and evaluation is done this is not unreasonable to mount more than 3 to a wall. We just had a structural evaluation completed with 6 mounted to a wall in 2 stacks of 3 elevated on an 18" pedestal to adhere to the Woodside Fire Requirements

@Vines: we were told no to stacking powerwalls in Santa Clara county. Is this allowed because the city of Woodside is in San Mateo county? Is the 18" pedestal an anti flooding or earthquake requirement? If the powerwalls are on a pedestal is the wall just a restraint, but not load bearing?

Just curious.

All the best,

BG

 

[Vines]

@SSonnentag Love the porch installation. Wish we could do the stacking here, but not currently allowed due to fire code issues.




@Vines: we were told no to stacking powerwalls in Santa Clara county. Is this allowed because the city of Woodside is in San Mateo county? Is the 18" pedestal an anti flooding or earthquake requirement? If the powerwalls are on a pedestal is the wall just a restraint, but not load bearing?

Just curious.

All the best,

BG

Santa Clara County is going overboard, everyone else is being pretty reasonable, even City of Palo Alto doesnt sweat ESS too badly as long as you can get the Plaques correct, lol. CPA is traditionally a quite difficult permit.

The 18" pedestal is a Woodside Fire Protection requirement so the ESS don't get flooded with firefighting water. The wall holds the lateral load, the pedestal takes the weight. Lateral loading is pretty significant when resisting seismic forces, especially as height increases.

 

[CSFTN]

We just had a structural evaluation completed with 6 mounted to a wall in 2 stacks of 3 elevated on an 18" pedestal to adhere to the Woodside Fire Requirements

Picture please

 

[PawelM]

I also prefer to use a TV wall mount for this.