[Resolved on Day 15] New Solar/PW only ran for 5 days - TESLA completely non-responsive

[JayClark]

So a word of caution when purchasing from Tesla just based on my experience so far. I was a happy Tesla Solar and PW customer for about 6 days after my installation. However, for the last 5 days the solar inverter is not generating power and throwing an error, and Tesla is completely non-responsive while I pay high demand charges that require the solar (and solar charging of the PWs) to avoid.

The day solar first stopped producing I reported the issue through Tesla support, and through my installation contact. Everybody is friendly on the phone but completely unhelpful in regard to getting any observable activity toward solving the problem. After 5 days no site visits or call from actual technical support.

So buyers beware of this company. I’ll report when there is progress, but so far no amount of escalation and daily calls and follow-up emails on my end have made any difference. I do not consider this company trustworthy or reliable - and at this point I have a nearly $50k piece of $h!t product from Tesla that is actually costing me money every single day.

 

[Dan123]

Sorry about your experience. What's the error message? And what's the brand of your inverter?

 

[boaterva]

Usually if you call solar support they at least schedule a tech visit even though it may not be as soon as you want. What exactly did they say? I’ve never not had that happen. It may take a day for scheduling to text you the date that they have next available and then you have to call scheduling and escalate saying that you are 100% down and wasting money. Then they sometimes get someone there in a few weeks.

But yeah; what is the precise error message? There have been a few that need a replacement inverter, for example.

 

[JayClark]

Sorry about your experience. What's the error message? And what's the brand of your inverter?

Solar Edge inverter installed by Tesla. photos of errors attached. Error code 18xB7

 

[JayClark]

Usually if you call solar support they at least schedule a tech visit even though it may not be as soon as you want. What exactly did they say? I’ve never not had that happen. It may take a day for scheduling to text you the date that they have next available and then you have to call scheduling and escalate saying that you are 100% down and wasting money. Then they sometimes get someone there in a few weeks.

But yeah; what is the precise error message? There have been a few that need a replacement inverter, for example.

I seemed to get through to a first level tech support person initially, but after various attempts at reboots and such he gave up, and said he had kick it up the chain, and I’d hear from somebody. I’ve had calls, but only from them saying somebody in“Operations” would look at it eventually andGet back to me essentially. I’ve been begging them to send somebody out with no luck and waited 5 days before posting here as a relatively new user.

 

[patrick40363]

Did you shut the power off, wait a minute and re-start? I would do that.

 

[d21mike]

We are not allowed to charge PW’s from the grid when you have solar. Any chance it would work while Solar is not working?

 

[TheTalkingMule]

Shut down and restart?

 

[JayClark]

Did you shut the power off, wait a minute and re-start? I would do that.

yes, multiple times with first level support.

 

[JayClark]

Shut down and restart?

yes, multiple times, in various ways, with first level support.

 

[JayClark]

We are not allowed to charge PW’s from the grid when you have solar. Any chance it would work while Solar is not working?

I had the same thought, but alas, it did not charge from the grid, and I asked about that and if there is solar on the roof, operational or not, it won’t charge from the grid and Tesla won’t reconfigure.

 

[d21mike]

I had the same thought, but alas, it did not charge from the grid, and I asked about that and if there is solar on the roof, operational or not, it won’t charge from the grid and Tesla won’t reconfigure.

This is definitely not good. My install date is Oct. 21, 2019. About the same system as I you based on Price. 39 panel's and 2 power walls.

 

[jakestgermain]

This is definitely not good. My install date is Oct. 21, 2019. About the same system as I you based on Price. 39 panel's and 2 power walls.

I have 2 PW2 and 39 panels and mine is working fine. I had a COMM error when first installed and the techs came twice in 2 days. Since then I haven't had an issue. I think some on it depends on the local Tesla team. I am in the MA/RIN area.

 

[d21mike]

I have 2 PW2 and 39 panels and mine is working fine. I had a COMM error when first installed and the techs came twice in 2 days. Since then I haven't had an issue. I think some on it depends on the local Tesla team. I am in the MA/RIN area.

Thanks, the OP is in Arizona and I am in Torrance, CA. Hopefully this is isolated error and hope OP gets it resolved ASAP.

BTW... By order is showing Delta Inverters in stead of SolarEdge that the OP is using. As long as it works well I am ok but I think SolarEdge is supposed to be better?

 

[JayClark]

I have 2 PW2 and 39 panels and mine is working fine. I had a COMM error when first installed and the techs came twice in 2 days. Since then I haven't had an issue. I think some on it depends on the local Tesla team. I am in the MA/RIN area.

In my humble opinion, 5 days of no progress, or visible effort is completely unacceptable. This system was operational literally one week before breaking down. They could have had somebody out to swap the inverter in one or two hours, while they diagnose the broken inverter on their dime and their time.

$50k (or even a $7k system) should buy 24hr turn around, or better, on a system they sell as capable of allowing me to self power my house from my own solar. Instead, I’m seeing 5 days of no progress, and now not only am I not self powered, I’m running up large demand charges.

If Tesla is installing in an area, and taking in this much money, they must be ready to service these system in reasonable time frames, particularly when they are only one week old systems.

 

[ctslc]

In poking around a bit, it appears that the errors 18xB7 through 18xB9 are reportedly caused by a capacitor failure on the SolarEdge inverter - the number 7-9 apparently identifying something specific in the circuitry. One such place where this is discussed is here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/solar/comments/azxhb0/2_months_old_solaredge_inverter_bites_the_dust/

A caveat: It would seem that depending on the model/firmware that the same error code on SolarEdge inverters can mean different things - but this same issue was noted by others. The "fix" was replacement of the entire inverter. While a few people reported that a complete power cycle (disconnection of DC and AC and allowing internal capacitors to discharge for an hour or so) it seems as though you already tried that.

Taking this at face value, it looks like the failure of the Solar inverter rather than having to do with the Powerwall - but that still doesn't excuse a lack of response.

CT

 

[JayClark]

The "fix" was replacement of the entire inverter. While a few people reported that a complete power cycle (disconnection of DC and AC and allowing internal capacitors to discharge for an hour or so) it seems as though you already tried that.

Taking this at face value, it looks like the failure of the Solar inverter rather than having to do with the Powerwall - but that still doesn't excuse a lack of response.

CT

Thanks, this is good information. I did try a four hour complete power-off cycle after reading your response last night, but no luck this morning as the system is still not producing power from the PVs.

And, now it’s day 6 of the system being non-functional and still no fix, and no communication of any kind from Tesla, and calling through the fairly involved Tesla support phone tree for an update only results in yes, we know, our techs are looking at it, which they clearly are not doing at this point.

 

[JayClark]

This is definitely not good. My install date is Oct. 21, 2019. About the same system as I you based on Price. 39 panel's and 2 power walls.

I definitely hope yours goes smoothly, this has not been a good experience.

 

[miimura]

While you're waiting for Tesla, I would contact SolarEdge and have them confirm that the inverter needs to be replaced. I would also mention to them the trouble you're having with Tesla. They may not care, but it wouldn't hurt. They may also be able to prod Tesla from their end.

 

[Dan123]

While you're waiting for Tesla, I would contact SolarEdge and have them confirm that the inverter needs to be replaced. I would also mention to them the trouble you're having with Tesla. They may not care, but it wouldn't hurt. They may also be able to prod Tesla from their end.

I would second this. At least they can probably troubleshoot the inverter better than Tesla.